This section was last reviewed on March 1st, 2025.

Below you may find some commentaries I have been posting on these pages since September of 2008, which is roughly when I first designed, developed and implemented this website. The format of the commentaries varies from a single collage, often of my own design, to a set of pictures or photos, to full article-like pages, to single one-paragraph postings. The subjects range from cultural observations I gather as I travel across the different countries (thus far I’ve been to 50 countries and have lived in some 18 of them), to opinions and critiques of the different sociopolitical events that unfold across the world. As you may see, I pay dedicated attention to the increasingly alarming political circumstances we presently have in my beloved United States. The commentaries usually include links and references to articles, videos and opinions that appear in reputable news outlets such as The Guardian, The New York Times and Politico.com, which substantiate my position on the subjects contemplated. I also rely occasionally on the information published in other trustworthy news organizations such as CNN, the BBC and MSNBC. In the American political spectrum I wouldn’t qualify as a Democrat but, in no way would I ever qualify as a Republican either. I always vote Democrat for lack of a better choice. In my view, many, or perhaps most, elected Democrats are just “moderate” Republicans in disguise, meaning, many of them are just hypocrites, plain and simple. In the end, I blame the elected Democrats almost as much as I blame the elected Republicans for the dire path my beloved USA is presently embarked upon. However, in spite of my growing disappointment, I still think the United States is a country worthy of plenty of admiration. Thank you for visiting my website and I hope you enjoy reading my commentaries.

To access additional info on most of the commentaries please click on the colored title.

--- There's a new Photo Album in the Photos section of this Website. To view it, please click here. --- (December 31st, 2021)

--- There's a new Photo Album in the Photos section of this Website. To view it, please click here. --- (December 28th, 2021)

Let the Jan. 6 Coup-Plotters Go Scott Free and Expect a 2nd, 3rd, 4th… Coup Attempt. Birmingham, England, December 26th, 2021. It goes without saying. It’s a clear truism. Let a crook get away unpunished for his wrongdoings and you’re just giving him license to commit the same crimes again. Criminals have to be shown they were wrong in committing their crimes. We cannot afford to see innocence where there isn’t any, particularly not when the future of American Democracy is at stake. Only coup-sympathizers want to make believe the January 6 coup attempt wasn’t a coup attempt. Only those who want to put in place an authoritarian autocratic government in America go around denying the Republican Party is today a clear and present danger to our Democratic system. It clearly is. But, if this is so clear to all Democracy-loving Americans like myself, is it still conceivable that the Department of Justice fail to prosecute to the full extent of the law the masterminds behind such clear act of insurrection against the American government? Will the Democrat functionaries at the helm of that department cower under the pretense of “bipartisanship” or “to avoid dividing the country further”, thereby relinquishing their obligation to defend and protect the nation? Thus far, Merrick Garland, the US Attorney General, hasn’t shown much willingness to see that such acts of sedition don’t get legitimate currency in the United States. In my view, Democrats often behave like a bunch of ninnies, spineless, wishy-washy clowns interested only in getting reelected or reappointed. And if in so doing they're required to embrace right-wing policies that run contrary to “liberal” interests, well, so be it, they just go ahead and do it. Some (or many) elected Democrats are simply turncoat unprincipled self-serving puppets of their own ambitions. Not to mention clear semi-disguised Republicans like that imbecile Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia or that opportunistic, political mercenary, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. The thing is, there have to be serious conscious-awakening consequences for all those who masterminded the Jan. 6 attempt to overthrow an incoming duly-elected administration. That was a clear coup d’état attempt against the Government of the United States and the whole world needs to see that those Americans who presently hold the nation’s reins of power in their hands will not tolerate any such acts of sedition ever again. To let the individuals who intentionally concocted and tried to bring to fruition their nefarious, anti-American-Democracy plans walk away scott free would be a highly irresponsible thing to do with incalculable detrimental consequences to the Democratic System of the United States. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

--- There's a new Photo Album in the Photos section of this Website. To view it, please click here. --- (December 23rd, 2021)

Facing the Depth of the Precipice and Pretending Not to See It. Arusha, Tanzania, December 16th, 2021. We all thought the days when the American Republic stood at the brink of irreparable disaster were long gone for good. Think of the 1850s and the way those Unionist Patriots managed to somehow patch it all up together after the early 1860s national hecatomb. The issues that generated that deep sociopolitical fissure were never brought to a definitive resolution, but America managed to push forward and it did so in ways that surpassed the rest of the nations of the world in almost every field of endeavor, except for the question of racial divisions. It turns out that, after festering for well over a century at the very heart of America, that issue has now resurfaced with a vengeance to the point that the forces propelling it are determined to destroy anything in their path that may try to stop them, including destroying our very own Democratic System. America is now a highly diversified country. The dominance of white individuals holding in their hands the most important reins of government has been slowly but steadily disappearing. We recently went through eight years under the presidency of an African-American leader and we have a Latino-American woman sitting for life as Justice of the Supreme Court. And this is the tip of the iceberg. The Latino, Black and Asian communities are now such strong electoral forces that American politicians choose to ignore them only at the peril of their own careers and that’s precisely what the still-majoritarian (but not for long) White communities dread to death, that the supremacy of their sociopolitical power will soon no longer exist. But those white folks also know that their supremacy will keep waning only for as long as we have a Democratic System in place in America. Deprive those “other” communities of their right to vote and their supremacy is guaranteed forever. And what better way to guarantee the survival of such supremacy than to actually get rid of our Democratic System for good? On January 6 the Republicans staged a failed coup d’état that, had it succeeded, would have put a decisive nail in the American Democratic System’s coffin. Yet, all of the masterminds of that plot are still walking around freely. Make no mistake, the Republican Party is up in arms, ready and willing to subvert each and all of the coming elections that don’t bring their candidates to power. That’s the precipice. But, with a Democratic Party counting among its influential members with individuals who don’t really know whether to side with the Republicans or not, what hope can there really be for the country at this critical juncture? The precipice is right up ahead. Can you see it? Do you NOT want to see it? The future of the United States may well depend on how does the majority of Americans answer those questions and what they do about it. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Rumble (©Salaroche) Arusha, Tanzania, December 9th, 2021. If, on a daily basis, you witnessed how a beloved friend or relative of yours was steadily going down the road to ruin, constantly inflicting serious harm on herself, would you just stand aside and become a simple, uncaring, detached witness to her self-destructive behavior? Or, would you try to do something about it? And, if there were really nothing you could do to help her, wouldn’t you at least try to warn her of the perilous road she has taken? I would. And I’m sure many of you would too. A few days ago, I finished producing a song that represents my tiny two cents in warning my beloved USA of the dangerous road the country has taken of late. A road that will not lead America to its demise anytime soon, certainly not tomorrow or the day after. No, the American Apocalypse is not knocking at the door yet. As history shows us, empires don’t usually fall in a matter of days, months, years or, sometimes not even in decades. However, from my international perspective, I can see the serious, steady erosion the American Democratic System is suffering at this point in time. I can see how the Republicans are getting ready to stage other January-6-style efforts to overturn any electoral process that doesn’t bring their candidates to power, be it in 2022, 2024 or in any and all other elections thereafter. The troubling thing in all of this is the apparent absence of concern about it that prevails in the general American population. I have friends in California whose discernment is undeniably much above-average that are still unable or unwilling to see the imminent existential threat the Republican Party presently poses to American Democracy. In case you haven’t realized it yet, the Republicans couldn’t care less about our Democratic system. Keeping America as a Republic is all they really care about. But a Republic is not always supposed to be a Democracy too. Just look at “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea”, which is in no way “Democratic”, but is indeed a Republic, as it is not a Kingdom of any sort (would you like to live in a Republic like North Korea?) Or just check out “The People’s Republic of China”, which is indeed a Republic, although, quite unlike North Korea, doesn’t have any pretentions of being a Democracy. The ideal government the Republicans have in mind for the United States is somewhat similar to the one they have in China, although definitely not exactly the same. What the GOP leadership wants for America is a plutocratic, authoritarian, entirely pro-market, one-party system with marked Darwinist overtones. So please consider yourselves hereby entirely warned. Just let the Republicans get away with their nefarious wishes and that’s where our beloved United States will end: A China-style, authoritarian, cut-throat capitalist, undemocratic country. To listen to my song “Rumble”, please click here. To read the lyrics, please click here.

--- There's a new song of mine in the Music section of this Website. To listen to it, please click here. --- (November 21st, 2021)

Why Are Ignorant Superstitious Republicans Dying in Larger Numbers Than Regular Normal Democrats? Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania, November 9th, 2021. And the answer to that question is, because considerable numbers of Democrats have been getting the Covid vaccine while much fewer Republicans have been doing so. But, how is it that such deadly partisan division exists? How can those two differing ideological bents generate such diverging understanding and acceptance of basic scientific findings such as vaccines? In case you forgot or didn’t know, since 1980-1981, all schools in the 50 states of the union and the district of Columbia have vaccination requirements for all students enrolling in their classes. This includes vaccination against measles, mumps, rubella and others. In consequence, it is by now widely understood that, in accepting such senseful requirements, hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved and will continue to be saved in the future. But the governmental authorities that enacted such directives are the same authorities now trying to mandate Covid vaccine requirements for the different sectors of the population, so the question is, if vaccines have been so widely accepted for well over 40 years now, why is it that there is such a strong pushback against them today? And why is it that such pushback comes primarily from the Republican camp? A partial answer to this question is clearly stated in the question that serves as title for this commentary, ignorance and superstition are the bottom-line driving forces behind such stubborn, arrogant, uninformed and irresponsible stance. But there’s more to this than just that, as the question of vaccines has now become a political football. You see, it so happens that during the four years between 2017 and 2020 inclusive, we had a narcissist, white supremacist, conman Republican demagogue president of the United States whose daily rants had the ultimate goal of discrediting as much as possible the credibility of all governmental institutions who disagreed with him. This he did so that, in his scheme, he would eventually stand as the only credible governmental source of information in the eyes and ears of his idolater followers. In his authoritarian, megalomaniac, despotic dreams, he was bound to become the first dictator in the history of the United States. Then, as time went by and a Democratic administration came to power, the elected leadership of the Republican Party marvelled at the irresistible magnetic pull that guy still exerted on millions of struggling, frustrated Americans who felt abandoned by their government, and decided to use it as a political ploy so that anything the newly-elected Democrat administration proposed or said would appear like part of a sinister "liberal" plot to put in place a “socialist” "totalitarian" government in the United States intent on robbing Americans of their precious personal freedoms. And such dark-fairy-tale-like situation is what initially generated and has kept alive the Republican hordes’ extreme reluctance to any government-mandated requirements for anti-Covid vaccination. But if to this we add the fact that millions of those blind antivaxxer Republicans are of the evangelical persuasion, we have a very strong dose of religious superstition thrown into this lunacy mix. Just recall that large numbers among those evangelicals still think that white-supremacist ex-president is their messiah. But things got worse, as the rampant superstition that deeply plagues Republican minds these days has now acquired serious peudo-scientific overtones in the form of harebrained, farfetched, voodoo-like micro technologies and chemicals that Bill Gates, George Soros and other usual rightwing scapegoats and boogeymen, now including the US Government itself, have supposedly manufactured and have managed to distribute worldwide with the intention of controlling our minds, thereby robbing us of our freedoms and making us forever subservient to their evil, diabolical world-domination designs. Yehp, believe it or not, such is the sad situation we have in our beloved America today. The United States has managed to arrive alive and relatively well to the first quarter of the 21st century, but the 21st century hasn’t yet arrived to the minds of a great number of mostly Republican Americans. 16th century-style superstitions have in no way been eradicated from our sociopolitical environment. They have only metamorphosed into more palatable digital-age dark delusions and fantasies. To read an article that shows some details on this subject, please click here.

The Democrats Lost Virginia and Kept New Jersey by a Hair. Well Deserved, You Stupid Hypocrite So-Called “Liberals”. Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania, November 4th, 2021. The American people desperately need to know in concrete and unequivocal ways that their government stands beside them and really cares for them, otherwise tens of millions of them will continue to fall for the destructive anti-Democracy demagoguery of those white-supremacist Republicans. But the stupid Democrats still refuse to grab the bull by the horns and are mired in a shameful legislative impasse. They still think they can get rid of the White-supremacist anti-Democracy elephant in the room by simply ignoring its presence. Nothing in the American Political environment is normal right now, but the cowardly Democrats just keep pretending everything is just business as usual. Sorry folks, there’s no near-future silver lining in the cloudy American political skies. In fact, those skies are actually getting darker as we move into 2022 and those ominous midterm elections. Talking the other day on the phone to a fellow-American friend who lives in San Diego, California, I asked him how hot was the political temperature in his neighborhood, particularly given that southern California is quite a bastion of American conservatism, to which he rejoined that the voices in his local grapevine were telling him the white-supremacist frenzy that brought about the January 6 attempted coup d’état was waning and was on its way out. I kindly but firmly disagreed with him and told him those voices were quite likely missing the forest for the trees. I told him that things didn’t look rosy at all from my international vantage point (I’ve been travelling over the past 18 years through 49 countries in 4 continents). I told him my fears ran quite deep as to whether US Democracy would ever manage to recoup from the serious damage inflicted on it over the past 4 years or so. My friend was born and raised in Minnesota and I know his love of country is genuine and intense, but I also know he still holds in his mind that post-WWII mythical idea that America is indestructible and invincible and that no dire long-term woes will ever befall her. Such idealism is somewhat “cute” to witness, but at this point in time we all know that blind faith in any lofty myths can easily be a formula for disaster. And my friend from San Diego is not alone in his mistaken idealism, none other than Joe Biden, the President of the United States, is also in the same boat, along with some other complacent elected Democrats in Congress. Meanwhile, right-wing extemist forces keep steadily galloping toward the 2022 midterm elections. Just check out what just happened in Virginia. Glenn Youngkin, a total newcomer in the local political arena, just got elected Governor basically on an anti-Critical Race Theory (CRT) platform. And the reason that Republicans dislike CRT so much is that such studies basically say “let’s stop covering up America’s history of racism and its consequences. Let’s Talk about it. Let’s discuss it. Let’s study it”. That’s all. Trouble is, that’s not all, as studying that subject at the college level may imply bringing down from its fake pedestal our white brethren’s’ idealized, only slightly-blemished racial-divisive performance over the past two centuries. And therein lies the rub, the cloaked seed for today's White Supremacism. But who’s going to fight against those destructive Republican forces? Who has enough fire in the belly to stand up to them? Certainly not Joe Biden, nor any of those other elected Democrats, except most surely for AOC and perhaps some other members of her squad. Otherwise, I can easily picture “Democrat” Senators Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema celebrating the Virginia gubernatorial electoral outcome with champagne in their living rooms in the company of some Republican friends. No easy way out of such predicament. No silver lining in the country’s present cloudy political skies. No one has a crystal ball either, but the omens inscribed in the poor performance of the Democrats are ominous. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

--- There's a new song of mine in the Music section of this Website. To listen to it, please click here. --- (November 1st, 2021)

--- There's a new song if mine in the Music section of this Website. To listen to it, please click here. --- (October 25th, 2021)

The Sad State of the So-Called “American Left” a.k.a. the Democratic Party. Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania, October 19th, 2021. It is indeed a sad state for any supposedly “left-leaning” political party to find themselves with a majority of one in the Senate, a slim majority of 218 to 212 in the House of Representatives and a defeating minority of 3 to 6 in the Supreme Court. Yes, the Democrats have Joe Biden in the White House, but with such meager majority in Congress to support his agenda there’s not much he can actually do to shore up the country from the deep problems plaguing it at the moment. And if to this we add the by-now-traditional absence of any ideological unity among Democrat party members, we have the poor, sad, pitiable predicament the “American left” (what a joke) is mired in. Is it any wonder that the so-called American “leftist” party actually only has a handful of real leftists in its rank, i.e., AOC and her few “Squad” mates? Bernie Sanders could fit well within that group, but he’s not a Democrat, he’s an Independent, sort of like me. But the situation is worse still. Some of the most influential “Democrats” in the Senate could in no way be classified as “leftists”. In fact, a couple of them are blatant fifth columnists, real-life DINOs (Democrats In Name Only). Basically, they’re just Republicans in a very thin disguise. Do I have to mention their names? Not really, but I will: Manchin and Sinema. Some cynical right-wing opinion writers in the New York Times even dare to assert Joe Manchin is to “the left of Barack Hussein Obama”. What a risible, ludicrous, preposterous proposition. That guy Manchin doesn’t have one single hair in his body tilted towards the left side of the political spectrum. Kyrsten Sinema is perhaps more of a corrupt political mercenary, going around raking in hefty donations and bushels of political capital from the Republicans whose interests she so ardently supports. Yet most Americans dare to call the Democratic party “the American left”? What a joke. There’s no real “left” in the United States. And the scattered tinges of it there may be are usually contemplated with derision by the American Media, often even by the so-called “leftwing media”. Yes, Bernie Sanders had a good run in the 2020 presidential elections and AOC and her Squad have, at least, been elected to the House, but in the eyes of a good majority of Americans, their cause is just a quixotic attempt, just an entertaining variety in the greatly conservative, reactionary American political environment. Let any administration propose any pro-masses, pro-common-man-and-woman legislation and just watch as very influential elected Democrats like Joe Manchin immediately say publicly that “that’s socialism”. And then listen as the American masses applaud. And why would they applaud? Mostly because they see that kind of legislations as only benefitting Black, Latino and other minority Americans. And that’s anathema to them. The good ol’ racist America of always. Actually, perhaps since its inception, our beloved country could easily be renamed “The United Coopted States of America”. Four years under a clearly protofascist, white-supremacist Republican administration should have been enough for the American electorate to wake up and send an overwhelming majority of Democrat (so-called “leftist”) Senators and Representatives to Congress in 2020, but that didn’t happen. And such is the sad, pitiable state of the so-called “American Left” a.k.a. the Democratic Party. To read an article that contemplates the subject from some sort of a silver-lining perspective, please click here, but please note that I entirely disagree with the title of that article and some parts of its content.

The Danger Biden’s Archaic “Bipartisanship” May Pose to American Democracy. Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania, October 9th, 2021. One thing is clear, either we condemn, repudiate and prosecute (wherever applicable) the Trump administration’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, or the ex-president and his Republican idolaters will stage another coup attempt as soon as they can. Granting any sort of executive privilege to the withholding of any incriminating documentation or to any of Trump’s seditious acolytes so that they can dismiss Congress’ subpoenas will only ensure that our democratic system keep going down the drain. The January 6 insurrection was a serious rebellion against the government of the United States. This can in no way be investigated with a “business as usual” mentality. If the barely-bipartisan Congressional Select Committee doesn’t approach this matter from a “do or die” perspective, meaning, if they’re not willing to use all the legal and lawful tools in their power to get to the bottom of their investigations, the Republicans will make sure the Democrat-led committee ends up as a national laughing stock. Thus far Biden has turned down Trump team’s request to withhold documentation, thereby refusing to grant them executive privilege, and in so doing he did the right thing. But I sincerely fear he may soon cave-in to his archaic bipartisan instincts and grant executive privilege to Trump or any of his top acolytes when those guys are handed subpoenas and they dismiss them, just as thus far Steve Bannon has done. Were Congress and Biden to allow any or all of those guys to laugh at the subpoenas, where would the powers granted by the Constitution to the Executive and the Legislative Branches stand? If that came to happen, the whole Republic would be left standing on very shaky, unstable grounds. But, rejoice. For the moment, things seem to be moving ahead in the right direction. Let’s just keep hoping Biden won’t one of these days come up with any stupid, sentimental reason for letting those seditious guys off the hook. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Our Next Presidential Election Could Be Our Last as a Leading Democratic Country. Stone Town, Zanzibar (Unguja), Tanzania, September 29th, 2021. In paraphrasing Tom Friedman, I’m again warning my fellow Americans that these are NOT times for complacency. Giving in to any demand from the Republicans that would cover up their party’s failed coup d’état on January 6th, acquiescing to their blatant anti-Democracy moves at the States’ level, pretending politics in America are just normal in the face of the continuing refusal to accept defeat in the 2020 elections from the part of influential Republican functionaries, disregarding any or all of that as unimportant, can only lead to a national catastrophe of proportions comparable only to the Civil War. Sure, you could always justify your apathy and carelessness about these matters by calling me an alarmist, and I wouldn’t have any problem with that if the issue at hand pertained only to you, but this is a national issue that seriously affects all Americans, including myself, and for that reason none of us who love our country should simply standby as unconcerned spectators and do nothing about it. Tom Friedman, among others, has said it perfectly right: American Democracy is in serious, dire straits. Depending on what we do about it, we could actually be living the last few years of our Democracy as we have thus far known it, imperfect, yes, and quite so, but a Democracy nonetheless. But my fears for the future of our democratic system don’t rest on whatever the Republicans may or may not try to do to destroy it and put in place an authoritarian system, or even ultimately a dictatorial one. No. I no longer expect any pro-Democracy stance from the Republicans. My objective fears rest on the wishy-washiness, hypocrisy and duplicity of some elected Democrat functionaries in Congress who can only be characterized as DINOs: Democrats in name only, meaning, Republicans in disguise. Ultimately, my deepest fears rest on Joe Biden’s shoulders who, in the end, and in the name of that misguided, archaic, “bipartisan” nonsense of his, may simply grant executive privilege to Donald Trump when it comes to Trump’s Jan. 6th records being subpoenaed by the ongoing Congressional Hearings or even if and when it comes to having that amoral, seditious ex-president testify in Congress. One thing we can all be very certain of, either we nail Trump down for good, thereby drowning forever all of his future presidential ambitions, or the country is doomed. And even if we nailed him down, Trumpism is here to stay among us for the foreseeable future so that, even if there unltimately were a happy ending to this sad story, for the moment, such ending isn't anywhere in sight. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

It Was 200 Years Ago Today. Uroa, Unguja (Zanzibar) Island, Tanzania, September 17th, 2021. “You’ve come a long way, baby”, I say today to the Republic of the United States of America, “and you’ve still got a long way to go”. Yes, it was 200 years ago today that the US Constitution was finally ratified after some 600 failed separate previous attempts to do it. No doubt that document is some sort of masterpiece in political philosophy but, have you ever taken a closer look at what was really meant by the words “We the People” as engraved on the preamble of it? The meaning they ascribed to those words back then doesn’t resemble much the meaning we ascribe to them today. The human condition has indeed evolved over the past 2 centuries since the final approval of that document, thereby relegating some well-accepted concepts of that time to the bin or archaic ones according to the standards of today. But the principles contained in that document had, from the beginning, enough universality in them to allow for the human mind to elaborate on them and interpret them according to the level of intellectual evolution of the day. Hence, it’s already been some decades since we have universal suffrage in America, while we still keep debating how to grant equal rights to all Americans regardless of ethnicity or walk of life. Obviously, things are not today the way they were 200 years ago, but not all Americans have evolved according to our times. Millions of us would still like to grant our white majorities (soon to be just the largest minority) some exclusive privileges and rights, thereby basically nullifying our Democratic system. Yes, America, you’ve come a long way. But you’ve still got a long way to go. So, don’t let you guard down even for a minute, for there are powerful domestic forces in your midst seriously bent on taking your outstanding sociopolitical achievements over one hundred and fifty years back to the past. To read a detailed article on the subject, please click here.

--- There's a new Photo Album in the photos section of this Website. To see it, please click here. --- (September 16th, 2021)

--- There's a new Photo Album in the photos section of this Website. To see it, please click here. --- (September 9th, 2021)

--- There's a new Photo Album in the Photos section of this Website. To see it, please click here. --- (September 7th, 2021)

America is Indeed a Sleeping Giant That Doesn’t Want to Wake Up. Diani Beach, Kwale County, Kenya, September 5th, 2021. “They have woken up a sleeping giant”, one of my ex-professors at UCSB told me a couple of days after 9/11, “and now they will regret what they have done”. 20 years later, the Taliban took over by force the country of Afghanistan in just a matter of days, thereby transforming into a total failure the costly nation-building work that the “Sleeping Giant” had so hard labored to complete. But the crude fact is the Sleeping Giant didn’t wake up at that point in time and hasn’t really woken up to anything yet. While America just flipped sides on its own bed and kept on dreaming of its glories, an ultra-lethal virus crept into its bloodstream and it’s now chewing on its brain at a pace faster than most Americans perceive. And I’m not talking about Covid. I’m talking about Trumpism and its ongoing, relentless anti-Democracy thrust. It would be one thing to have just a bunch of lunatics believing the 2020 election was stolen from their god-Trump, it’s a totally different, much more serious and dangerous thing to have Republican Governors, lawmakers and senators fervently believing the big lie and passing laws and legislations designed, not only to undermine the legitimacy of the American electoral system, but also to restrict as much as possible the electorate’s access to the voting booth. All of it in the name of white supremacy. And what is the majority of Americans doing while this is happening? They’re just worrying about Covid, the deadly floods on the east coast and the deadly fires in the west. The American pro-Democracy forces are sleeping. And how can we expect the masses to wake up when the official leaders of the nation, President Joe Biden and his wishy-washy fellow Democrats in Congress, just keep pretending that everything is OK, that American politics remains the same ol’ “business as usual”? From my perspective, such massive slumbers are just appalling. I guess we’ll never learn. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

--- There's a new Photo Album in the Photos section of this Website. To see it, please click here. --- (August 31st, 2021)

--- There's a new Music Video in the Music section of this Website. To watch it, please click here. --- (August 29th, 2021)

--- There's a New Song of Mine in The Music Section of this Website. To listen to it, please click here. --- (August 26th, 2021)

--- There's a New Photo Album in the Photos Section of this Website. To view it, please click here. --- (August 9th, 2021)

Sorry, Joe Biden, but if Trump Gains the Presidency in 2024, I will be One to Put a Heavy Partial Blame on Your Shoulders. Diani Beach, Kwale County, Kenya, August 8th, 2021. Imagine that Abraham Lincoln had been as lenient with the Confederates back in 1861 as Joe Biden is with the Republican Trumpers today. Try to picture what would have become of the United States had Lincoln not retaliated against Jefferson Davis’ armies after the latter ordered the attack and surrender of Fort Sumter, Charleston, South Carolina, in April of that year. Imagine where would the country be today if Lincoln had “compromised” with the Confederates at that crucial point in time. Had Lincoln not stood firmly in defense of the Declaration of Independence's core statement that “all men are created equal”, Slavery would still run rampant in all those southern states and the country would have probably split in two many decades ago. You think such critical event in our history is not comparable to our present predicament? You think my comparison is farfetched? You think I’m being alarmist? If you did, I would have to put the same heavy partial blame on your shoulders too, for you would also be eventually allowing our country to go as deep down the drain as the Republicans would like. The ongoing sociopolitical situation in the US has never been a joke, nor will it ever be, but millions of Americans still think this is just a temporary kink, an irrelevant little blip in the whole scheme of things. Joe Biden’s approach of “minimize the importance of this critical moment and it will eventually disappear” is, as a minimum, sheer wishful thinking and at its worst, a perfectly negligent, irresponsible and heavily consequential approach. The more his administration fails to shout out loud to the world that the Republican Party continues to route our Democracy down a seriously dire path, the more those guys will feel empowered and the more they will continue to pursue their nefarious agenda. Your intentions for the country are obviously good, Joe Biden, but the Republicans won’t ever give a single damn about them. You cannot continue to be timorous about this situation, trying to validate your excessive restraint thinking that in so doing you’re avoiding a more serious partisan confrontation. We ARE already facing a serious confrontation between the Republican pro-authoritarian, anti-Democracy forces and the rest of the country’s Democracy-loving, egalitarian-seeking population. Joe Biden, don’t make the disastrous mistake of not grabbing the bull by the horns. Encourage the DOJ to prosecute, in strict accordance to the law, anyone who in any way participated in the Jan. 6 insurrection and hold anyone responsible for that attempt against the American State accountable for their treasonous behavior, be it the ex-president of the United States or any of his acolytes. Enough of that “[is] not good for democracy to be talking about prosecuting former presidents”. One wonders whether that attitude of yours is just a simple case of cowardice hiding behind the skirts of “higher principles” or what. Thus far you’ve been doing more good than harm to the country, Joe. Don’t let any fake principles and timid pseudo moralities keep you from grasping and reacting to the present situation with the required, utterly-needed, genuine love for the United States of America. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

*Some Kenyan Music Played with Some Kenyan Instruments. Diani Beach, Kwale County, Kenya, August 4th, 2021. For the past few days, I’ve been working on a music project inspired in the daily life at the Soul Breeze, a seaside Bar-Restaurant located just a couple of minutes’ walk from my place at Diani Beach Resort. The idea is to have the vocalists sing in English and in Swahili and to have both male and female singers too. I can take care of the male-English vocalist part and thus far I’ve met a couple of Kenyan women singers, Brenda and Thelma, who I think can do the Swahili part. I got together with Brenda yesterday and she started writing the Swahili lyrics. Today I got together with Thelma and she continued developing the song-theme in Swahili. Meanwhile, this morning Brenda sent me some links to some pictures of Kenyan musical instruments and to some Kenyan music videos too. One of the videos shows a music group called the “Nyrere Konda Music Group”, and the particular feature of that group is that they are from the town of Kilifi, which happens to be Brenda’s Mother’s place of origin. The second video shows Oganda Joginda, a one-man band from the town of Siaya, the capital of Siaya County, in Southeast Kenya, just north of Victoria Lake. In that video Oganda is playing the Nyatiti, a stringed instrument. The rest of the sounds he produces using his legs and feet. The third video shows the "Aloka Ojangla Group". The music those guys make is sort of akin to South African music and could even be considered similar to some Caribbean music, such as that of Martinique and Guadeloupe. The main instrument those guys play is the Orotu, a one-stringed instrument whose closest relative in the West would be the violin. Interestingly so, there are very similar versions of the Orotu in countries like China, where we find the Erhu, Japan, where we find the Kokyū, and Vietnam, where they have the Đàn Bầu. My question is, were all those instruments first invented independently of any influence from one another, or were they first just copied from one single source and later adapted to each culture? It would be easier and more credible to speculate that the Erhu, the Kokyū and the Đàn Bầu have a common origin, most likely in China, but it would be more difficult and less credible to propose that the Kenyan Orotu has a common origin with the other three. Whatever the case, the music the Aloka Ojangla Group produces with their Orotu sounds very African and very original to me. By the way, both the Nyatiti and the Orotu stringed instruments are two of the most important instruments in Luo culture and Luo is the name of the tribe that Barack Obama’s father came from. Obama, therefore, is a Luo guy. So, you could very rightly picture him dancing to the music played in videos two and three of this posting. 1) To watch the music group from my friend Brenda’s mother’s hometown, please click here: https://youtu.be/-MU13FLg_io. 2) To watch the video of the one-man band Oganda Joginda, please click here: https://youtu.be/BQYtWOBQyBQ. 3) To watch the video of the group playing the Orotu violin-like instrument, please click here: https://youtu.be/kWbhAfwJkkw

A Walk on the Grounds of Diani Star Resort (Photo Album) Diani Beach, Kwale County, Kenya, July 29th, 2021. I found the Diani Star Resort on AirBnB, but I managed to sidestep that company’s reservation process and dealt directly with the resort’s management, which saved me a few bucks because of my intention to stay here for up to three months, maybe longer. There’s a good number of resorts in this area, some of them right on the beach and some others, like mine, just a couple of minutes’ walk from the ocean. The first 11 photos in this album show the local beach just as I see it almost on a daily basis as I go to the Soul Breeze bar-restaurant for a beer, a glass of wine or even for some breakfast or lunch. A couple of times I’ve tried Chef Salim’s pizza, which is baked in a clay oven just as it should be. I have to admit his pizzas are almost as good as those I used to relish on a few decades ago at “Frankie & Luigi’s” in the Mountain View/Palo Alto area, in the San Francisco Peninsula, back in California. The dough Salim makes the thin crust with is definitely a good foundation for the good taste and the good texture of it all. The remaining photos show the Diani Star Resort just as it presently is, meaning that some of the garden sections are clearly unkept. And the reason for that partial neglect is the general lack of visitors plaguing the whole area because of Covid-induced travel restrictions. Covid has indeed affected the Tourism industry seriously on a global scale. But, for guys like me, moving around Kenya’s tropical landscapes is a reward in itself, regardless of whether everything I see is properly taken care of or not. To see some photos of the Diani Star Resort, please click here.

I Stand 100% with Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger. Diani Beach, Kwale County, Kenya, July 27th, 2021. During my studies for a Master’s Degree in Political Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara, I learnt one precious lesson: You don’t take anything of crucial importance for a fact until you’ve investigated, studied and researched it exhaustibly. They don’t give a diploma for nothing at the University of California campuses. You’ve got to earn it. For the same reason, I would never, ever in my life take the opinion of any one single source of information as the indisputable truth, be it that of a former president of the United States, the UN Secretary General, any outstanding university professor or anybody else, before looking seriously at the causes, reasons, precedents and factors involved in the issue at hand. That’s why I stand 100% with Representative Kinzinger in his rationale for participating in the January 6th Select Committee formed to investigate the attack on the Capitol on that day. America needs to elucidate some very crucial questions about that incident if we hope to keep any similar insurrections from happening again. To quote Kinzinger, we need to find out, “How did this happen? Why? Who spurred this effort? Was it organized? When did our government leaders know of the impending attacks and what were their responses? What level of preparation or warnings did our law enforcement have? Was there coordination between the rioters and any members of Congress, or with staff?” Those and other relevant questions need to be answered for the sake of our Democracy. The Republican Party’s reluctance, actually their aggressive unwillingness, to participate in such investigation is exceedingly telling: They know a good majority of them were participants in that insurrection, be it actively, passively, or even just in secretly wanting that revolt to succeed. The Republicans will use whatever political power they still hold in their hands to discredit whatever the results of that investigation may be, but the committee has an imperative obligation to go ahead with an exhaustive, objective, well-documented investigation. To read Rep. Adam Kinzinger’s (R) opinion, please click here.

Another Short Peek at Diani Beach (Photo Album) Diani Beach, Kwale County, Kenya, July 16th, 2021. In Kenya there are usually two rainy seasons, one from March to May and another from October to December, which means that at the moment we’re somewhere in between. These days, sunlight comes and goes intermittently around here and the rain falls in random patterns. Sometimes you wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of rain falling copiously on the rooftops and treetops which, to me, is a very pleasant experience, particularly because the temperature remains the same in spite of the rain. Down here, even the rain water is rather warm. Diani beach looks like a very nice place for Kitesurfing. There is a Kitesurfing school beside the Soul Breeze restaurant where I often go have a beer and/or lunch, just like I did today. Sometimes it’s a real pleasure to watch some of those guys and girls who teach that sport go surfing around, back and forth between the reef in the distance and the beach close to me. Those guys really know what they’re doing and they seem to enjoy doing it very much too. The cuisine at the Soul Breeze restaurant is not very sophisticated, but you can be sure that whatever Salim, the Chef, cooks for you is going to taste good. As you will see in the last two pictures of this album, this time I had for lunch some beans in coconut sauce, sprinkled with chopped green hot chili peppers. The peppers I requested myself, as Salim doesn’t usually add them to that dish. On the side, Salim serves some plain rice and a small salad. It was all tasty and abundant. To take another short peek at Diani Beach, please click here.

This Morning I was the Object of a Blatant, Cunning, Shameless Robbery. Diani Beach, Kwale County, Kenya, July 13th, 2021. Around 10:00 AM this morning I came out onto my balcony to enjoy the green scenery under the sunny day and saw there were a couple of big monkeys jumping around in the trees close to the property walls, some 50 meters away from the balcony. It was an entertaining scene for me to see, so I watched them and whistled at them for some ten minutes or so. But when I turned around to go back into my room, I saw two smaller monkeys calmly walking out of my room, one of them carrying a small box of mints I had inside my bag, which was hanging from the back of a chair inside my room. So, I just shooed them away. The empty-handed monkey jumped back onto the trees, but the mints-thief little SOB just sat on a concrete beam looking at me straight in the eye as he (she?) just kept chewing on the mints in an absolutely shameless, guiltless way. I guess these little scoundrels are just natural born thieves. But no problem. No harm was done to anyone or anything during this episode. Such is life in Kenya. To see some pictures of the kind of monkeys I’m talking about, please click here.

Diani Beach Album II (Photo Album) Diani Beach, Kwale County, Kenya, July 9th, 2021. Today I discovered two good things here in Diani Beach, a) an outstanding beach resort and b) an exotic local African dish. I also noticed a very unique feature of the resort in question. As you will see, the resort’s settings are very well designed, so there’s not much to add to that. The exotic dish I tried for the first time ever is called “Samaki Nguru”. It’s made with Tilapia fish cooked in coconut curry and served with white rice, boiled spinach and sliced cucumbers and tomatoes. The flavor of that dish reminded me a bit of the “Tika” dishes they cook in India. It’s delicious. The unique feature I noticed in the resort was the marked presence of a Black African majority among the guests. Usually, in most similar resorts in other tropical countries where I’ve been, the majority of the guests are white and the people catering to them are the locals. Not in this resort. I had already noticed the same particular characteristic in the place pictured in the previous photo album, but not as marked as in this one. On that count, hooray for the Kenyans. To see a series of views of the Lantana Galu Resort in Diani Beach, please click here.

A Short Peek at My New Whereabouts (Photo Album). Diani Beach, Kwale County, Kenya, July 8th, 2021. And the ship sails on as the river continues to flow. Covid stranded millions of people in different countries, but a few windows of opportunity to travel have been opening for some of us. In my case, the moment came for me to come down to Africa again, this time to Kenya’s southern coast in the Indian Ocean. As it happened, I’ve ended up in Diani Beach, a community located along a 17-kms stretch of coast near Kenya’s border with Tanzania. I’ve always been interested in things related to the Bantu family of tribes and here in Kenya in general and in Diani Beach in particular, there are plenty of Bantu people. Unfortunately, thus far I haven’t encountered anyone well versed in the history of Bantu tribes, but I arrived just a couple of days ago and I still have time to meet many more locals, so I’ll just keep my ears open. Another African curiosity I’ve been able to satisfy is to stand in front of a Baobab tree. There are a few of those giants in my neighborhood and there’s even one of them right beside my balcony, which I can look at any time I step out into it. The visa I obtained is also of a particular kind I’d never gotten before. It’s called an “East Africa Tourist Visa” and it’s a multiple-entry visa to Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, which means I can travel in and out of those three countries as many times as I wish within a period of three months. The visa is also renewable, but I would need to go Nairobi, the Capital of Kenya, to do it. No problem. For the moment everything is fine and my immediate plans are to just hang out around Diani Beach for a while and then we’ll see what happens. To take a short peek at my new whereabouts, please click here.

Reality? Who Cares About Reality? Certainly Not the Republicans. They Just Want to Adore Their Delusional Orange “God”. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, June 30th, 2021. There’s really no longer much to say about this subject. It’s all way too absurd to even try to understand how can such massive number of Americans lose their grasp on reality in such a collective way. It’s like in the movie “The Body Snatchers”. Those Maga people and their acolytes may look basically the same way they did 10 or 15 years ago, but their minds have been taken over by some sort of reality-numbing delusional entity that immunizes them against reality. And there’s not much the rest of us, common US citizens, can do about it, except to vote Democrat in the coming 2022 elections and beyond. It’s unbelievable. What kind of politics can we expect from a Party that doesn’t want to know the facts? Pure politics of deception. Politics based on lies and delusions. Amazing. There’s not much I can add to such sad but dangerous predicament of American politics, so I’ll just let the Economist Paul Krugman tell you about it. To read Krugman’s opinion piece on this subject, please click here.

Rise Again. Tulsa and the Red Summer (Documentary). Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, June 22nd, 2021. The Germans and the Japanese inflicted a deep wound on their national identities during WWII. But after the war the Germans recognized their error and have since atoned to a very large extent to the atrocities they committed. The Japanese, on the other hand, not so much. To this day, they continue to censor some of their schools’ history textbooks in an effort to cover up the dehumanizing behavior they adopted against their neighbors during the first half of the 20th century. But, what about the United States? Have white Americans atoned to, or openly repented for, their repugnant, even criminal behavior toward African-Americans across more than two centuries? Well, lately we’ve been witnessing a bit of that, most recently in Joe Biden’s declaring Juneteenth a national, federal holyday. Shortly before that we also learned of the conviction of ex-police officer Derek Chauvin for his videotaped murder of George Floyd, a Black man. Those two events, along with some other recent ones, are of significant importance, as they signal that the country may be finally heading in the right direction in terms of someday fulfilling the promise inscribed in the Declaration of Independence that all men [and women] are created equal. But I’m not an idealist dreamer. I know the nation has a long way to go, particularly because of the heavy backlash the Republicans and other white-supremacist groups are already busy trying to enact across the country with the help of some of those elected backward-looking government officials better known as “Conservatives”. With that in mind, I really don’t think the United States will anytime soon get rid of that scourge of racism that permeates all strata of American society, at least not in my lifetime. Meanwhile, my question to you is: While you were in school, did you hear, read or discuss anything about the Tulsa massacre of June 1921? Was that particular subject, or any other similar event, ever mentioned in the history books you studied? And, if it did, was it at least a full chapter, or just a short paragraph or footnote? I ask you these questions because, during my studies in Political Science and Psychology in college and later during my Graduate studies, I never heard the subject mentioned, not even in passing. My question is, has America as a nation been censoring its own history textbooks in a concerted effort to hide that shameful, racist past, just as much as the Japanese may still be cooking their history books trying to hide their abhorrent behavior during WWII? It would appear so, but it's worse than that. As we speak, the Republicans are working hard to see that such shameful history is kept away from the American classrooms. For one, many of them are quite active demonizing the generalization of Critical Race Theory (CRT) studies in our schools. In case you didn’t know, CRT is an effort to elucidate how racism is (or may be) entrenched in our nation’s legal system to the point of largely guaranteeing that the great majority of non-white Americans are always kept in a subordinate position, financially, socially and politically (to read a clear, detailed definition of CRT, please click here) In my view, such studies are, at least, worth contemplating. However, after watching the documentary this commentary refers to, I cannot conceive how anyone can claim to really know what America is all about without acknowledging this fundamental, essential part of the nation's history. This subject should be taught, analyzed and discussed in all the classrooms of America, starting in middle school. Anyone standing against exposing our own students and the rest of the world to this aspect of our nation's history has to be, either seriously delusional, or an outright white-supremacist bent on perpetuating the systemic racism that has plagued our nation since its inception. And the latter refers specifically to those “Conservative” white-supremacist, Republicans presently endeavoring to keep the subject as much in the dark as possible. By now, it seems that most things that the Republicans detest, are very likely very beneficial for the majority of Americans. To watch the documentary “Rise Again. Tulsa and the Red Summer”, please click here.

The Unthinkable Hypothesis is Already Real: We’re at the Beginning of a Century that May See American Democracy Finally Fail. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, June 16th, 2021. In this Commentaries page, across the past 5 years, I have repeatedly talked about the perils US Democracy has been facing since that well-known incarnation of American proto-fascist, white-supremacist forces entered the national political landscape back in 2015. The January 6th insurrection turned out to be just the culmination of all those events that I, along with hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans had been warning about as loudly as we could. Yet, that deeply ingrained, instinctual complacency residing at the heart of the American people, which is born out of an archaic, misplaced belief that the United States is a perfectly indestructible nation, keeps blinding the great majority of us to the glaring, ominous reality of our present days. With that in mind, I’m not going to comment much on this subject as, in so doing, I would only be repeating once again the same things I’ve already said many times before. There comes a time when you just resign yourself to let reality follow the natural course of events so that, in spite of whatever the outcome may be, your sanity, your reasonable grasp on reality and your good spirits, may remain intact. Good luck, America. To watch a YouTube video that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Is Democrat Senator Joe Manchin a Shameless Anti-Democracy 5th Columnist or Just a Stupid, Naïve, Old-Fashion Fool? Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, June 10th, 2021. There are no two ways about this. There are no “in between” points of view. And there’s no possible compromising either. Either you admit American Democracy is facing an imminent catastrophic failure or you don’t. And if you don’t, there are only two possible reasons for your denial: Either you are an ultra-uninformed, ultra-naïve person, blinded by an archaic belief in the mythical indestructibility of the American system of government, or you no longer want to have a Democratic system in the United States. Period. The question is, which of those two reasons is why Joe Manchin opposes the For the People Act of 2021, also known as H.R.1? He says he likes some of the clauses included there, but not all, which is the reason he has sworn to oppose it. In case you didn't know, in a nutshell, H.R.1 would “…expand Americans' access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics, strengthen ethics rules for public servants, and implement other anti-corruption measures for the purpose of fortifying our democracy, and for other purposes” (to read the full H.R.1 text, see here) Among those “other purposes” is getting rid of gerrymandering, that ultra-corrupt system we have in the United States whereby electoral districts are shaped according to the partisan affiliation of the residents. That the Republicans are against passing H.R.1 is obviously understandable, as 1) the highly undemocratic campaign-finance system we have in America is what gets many of them reelected time and again. 2) Limiting as much as possible the American people’s access to the ballot box is essential for their political survival, as the GOP is no longer the party of the majority. So, the GOP’s shameless opposition to H.R.1 is perfectly expected. We all know the Republican Party no longer stands in any way for Democracy in America. But Joe Manchin? Why would he oppose strengthening our Democracy? Did he already forget how many Republicans continued to oppose validating the Electoral College results after the January 6 insurrection? Isn’t he aware of the moves many Republican Governors and State Legislatures continue to do to limit the people’s access to the ballot box? Doesn’t he know that many Republicans continue to promote the big lie that Joe Biden didn’t win the election? I doubt Joe Manchin isn’t aware of the serious danger American Democracy is facing right now. There’s no way he cannot be aware of it. And I’m sure he also knows the Republicans won’t be interested in any bipartisanship when it comes to furthering Joe Biden’s agenda. So, the only alternative left when trying to explain his anti-Democracy stance is that he’s morally corrupt. He’s a Senator for West Virginia, and that’s a red state. So, in glaringly siding with the Republicans in the Senate, he’s just catering to his Republican constituencies back home. In other words, Joe Manchin is a 5th Columnist, meaning, he’s an individual who on the surface appears to be part of the Democratic Party, but at the bottom he’s working to implement the Republicans’ agenda. There’s always the chance that he might just be one of those stupid, old-fashion Americans who still believe our national ideological fissures are only superficial and that, with a little bit of tolerance and goodwill from the part of the Democrats, the Republicans will soon come back into the fold (Ha) Yes, Joe Manchin could be that stupid but, whether he knows it or not, he’s working to further the Republicans’ nefarious agenda. No doubt about it. Willingly or unwillingly, Joe Manchin is a 5th Columnist and there's nothing we can do about it. For if the Democrat's leadership were to chastize him, he could just easily go nuclear and simply switch parties. And he coud even bring that other 5th columnist, Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), along with him, thereby handing the Senate Majority Leadership to Moscow Mitch once again. Let's face it, Joe Manchin is not really a Democrat. He's mostly a "moderate" Republican and the Democrats, along with the rest of the country, have no choice but to put up with that fact. Is American Democracy finally doomed to fail? Let's just hope it's not. To watch a YouTube video that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

It Looks Like This May Only Get Much Worse Before It Gets Any Better. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, June 5th, 2021. You remember when you used to believe in Santa Claus? A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then, no? For one, we have matured, that is, we have learned to tell fantasies from reality. Or did we? Well, maybe some of us did, but not all. What if somebody told you that none other than the previous president of the United States believes he didn’t lose the November elections and that the results of a vote recount presently underway in a few key states will serve as proof that he’s still the rightful president and that, therefore, he will be reinstated to power this coming August? Would you believe it? Or would you think that such ex-president has lost his grip on reality? And what about the people who are actually engaged in such vote recount? Should we also think those guys have also stepped into some kind of fantasyland? All this sounds like perfect nonsense, right? It sounds like some sort of farfetched, bad joke, right? Yes, it does. But the saddest thing of it all is that none of this is a joke. It’s actually happening. This is part of the “reality” presently unfolding in the United States. And, NO, this isn’t a sad story either. It’s a very dangerous one, because ± 3/4 of Republicans and almost their entire leadership stands beside their deluded, anti-Democracy, white-supremacist messiah. The Republican Party seems to be in its last throes and it has become a very dangerous dying beast willing to take the whole nation down with it as it sinks. Republicans know for sure that the electorate majorities are slipping away from them, if they haven’t already done it, and they know that the only alternative to an all-out civil war is to dismantle the mechanisms of American Democracy. Their strategy: Shout out loud to the four winds that the November election was stolen, so that, using such fallacy as an excuse, they may restrict the voting rights of the American majorities and ultimately refuse to accept any electoral results that don’t conform to their nefarious wishes. In other words, they’re now ready to claim that any election whose results don’t put a Republican in power has to be rigged and, therefore, is not valid. This is the situation where the United States of America stands today. It’s something totally surreal. Where can the country go from here when one of the two most influential political parties no longer wants to have a democratic system in place? It’s unbelievable, it’s totally stupid even, and it’s sad, but true. But it’s much more than that, it is very dangerous. You think the open insurrection of January 6th will remain an isolated incident forever? This is no longer a laughable matter, if it ever was. America can and will fall into chaos if the Republican leadership keeps shepherding their blind followers toward the abyss of insurrection. Wake up America. You’re facing a serious existential threat and it’s not coming from Russia, or China, or from outer space. It’s a deadly homegrown sickness already entrenched at the highest echelons of power. It’s a maddening virus and it's alive and festering at the very heart of our own American government and its name is the Republican Party. To watch a sober, realistic, exposé of the foreseeable routes the Republicans may take, as presented by the highly no-nonsense Rachel Maddow, please click here. To read an article that elaborates on the subject that appeared recently in a "conservative" magazine, please click here.

A Few Views of a Small Historical Harbor (Photo Album) Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, June 1st, 2021. Counting my present stay, I’ve been to Greece four times. This time around, I’ve been here for 16 months, of which the last seven I have stayed put here on the Northwestern tip of the island of Crete. I spent the first two of those seven in the small seaside town of Almyrida and I’ve been here in Kalives for the past five. What I mean is I haven’t moved around much. In one of my previous visits, I stayed for a few days in the Northeastern tip of the island, but thus far I haven’t visited the rest of it. And the main culprit for that is Covid. What fun would it have been to go around the island when all or most bars, restaurants, and places of interest would have been closed because of pandemic lockdowns or other restrictive government measures? But now things are beginning to change for the better. For starters, after a two-month waiting period, this past Wednesday, May 26th, I finally got my first AstraZeneca vaccine shot, which makes me feel like I’m now a bit closer to the Greek borders. Meaning I hope there will soon be enough vaccinated people in the world, so that most Southeast Asian and other tropical countries may start thinking it’s safe to allow foreign visitors in. Meanwhile, by way of celebration, right after getting my vaccine, I went for lunch to Chania, the city-port that is the capital of this region of Crete. Turns out the Chania harbor dates from the times the Venetians were a dominant force in the Adriatic and in the Mediterranean Seas. While living for a few months in the city-port of Bar, in Montenegro (see here), and visiting the ports of Dubrovnik in Croatia (see here) and Durres in Albania (see here), I became somewhat familiar with the Venetians’ exploits in the Adriatic. Those guys commanded full respect along these Aegean shores too, until the Ottomans came around in 1669. The venetians were here in Crete for a few centuries and many more traces of their architecture would probably be still standing today had the Ottomans not demolished some of them for their own military purposes. I don’t think the series of photos you’re about to see does justice to the beauty of the Chania harbor, so I would suggest you take this album as an introductory set of pictures, as now that things may really be going back to normal, I intend to go take a second set of views sometime soon. Meanwhile, to see a few views of a small historical harbor, please click here.

Hey Joe Biden, Forget Your Bipartisan Nonsense. Don’t Be a Ninny. Right now You Have a Majority in Congress, Rule with It !! Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, May 30th, 2021. Remember the Obama Administration’s last months in office, when Judge Merrick Garland was to be nominated to the Supreme Court at the passing of Republican Justice Antonin Scalia and the Republican Senate majority leader cynically refused to hold any confirmation hearings? Remember the bogus argument he presented? He said the presidential elections were just around the corner and the American people should have a say in filling that Supreme Court vacancy. Fast forward to four years later, during the previous Republican administration’s last days in office, when Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to the Supreme Court at the passing of Democrat Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Did the same Republican Senate Majority Leader argue to wait till after the presidential elections to hold the confirmation hearings? Did he claim the American people should have a say in filling that Supreme Court vacancy? Ha! A modern-day Republican leader inclined to present even a resemblance of bipartisan spirit on such an important matter? Again, HA! These days you have to be either ultra-naïve or ultra-uniformed to expect any such fair-minded attitude from any Republican leader. Or you could be Joe Biden, meaning, you could be an old-guard-style idealist politician who, willingly or unwillingly, doesn’t yet seem to have grasped the depth of the ideological fissures dividing the country. You think every American you meet believes Democracy is good for the Country? You think every American around you believes Jim Crow-style laws are just a thing of the past? You think Ku-Klux-Klan-style organizations exist in books and movies but not in today’s real-life America? If you think any of that, please think again. And if you think those 70+ million Americans who voted Republican in the 2020 elections have the same idea of America that you do, you would need to seriously reconsider that too. 9/11 caused a deep crack in America’s sense of invincibility, mainly because, unlike our military defeat over there in Vietnam, 9/11 was a strike at the heart of the nation, right on our very own soil. But then came the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency, and not only for one term, but for two consecutive ones. And that was the proverbial straw that broke the white camel’s back. That’s where the idea of making America great again comes from. At the International level, it means showing the world America still stands tall way above any other country and at the domestic level it means white Americans are in no way willing to let their racial supremacy slip through their fingers like precious water. From this perspective, Joe, most Republicans probably even see you as a traitor to your own whiteness. Just think that over half of them don’t even believe you’re the legitimate President of the United States. How can you expect the leadership of such contrarian hordes to seek any common grounds with you? Don’t be a ninny, Joe. You know the American middle and lower classes feel abandoned by their government, which is the reason millions of them are willing to accept the fallacies uttered by highflying Republican conmen and other copycat GOP demagogues. Forget bipartisanship, Joe. Right now, you have enough of a majority in Congress to pass most of your badly needed reconstruction plans. Don’t be a ninny. Maybe at some point in the future bipartisanship will again be worth pursuing, but not now. Forget bipartisanship. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Republicans' Immoral Blocking of the Jan. 6 Inquiry Only Ensures Such Violent Acts of Sedition Will Happen Again. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, May 29th, 2021. The Republican leadership doesn’t want the world to know who was responsible for the January 6 violent attempt at a preemptive coup d’état on a new president-elect. They don’t want the world to know who among them was actively involved or complicit or acquiescent to that violent act of sedition against the Republic. But their refusal to create an independent bipartisan commission to investigate such act of insurrection only betrays an unequivocal sense of mea-culpa. There’s not a single doubt in their minds as to the culpable involvement of their leadership in that rebellious affair and they know most of us know it too. But they don’t care. There’s no longer any trace of shame in them. For the Republicans, this is an “all or nothing” game. It’s an “either we consolidate political power in our hands or we set the country on fire”. Their intent to keep their proto-fascist white-supremacist god on a pedestal, or even restore him to power, is so strong it is blinding and it has dug itself so deep within their hearts that the future of the country no longer means anything to them. Either they can shape America in the image of their god, meaning, a country increasingly steep in racism, white supremacism, Darwinism and authoritarianism, or they’re willing to blow the whole thing up. Mark my words, the January 6 violent attempt to nullify a legitimate outcome of our Democratic system will not remain an isolated incident for long. For the moment, other minor, but not less serious, measures to undermine our Democracy, are already underway in a good number of Republican-led states, all of it under the pretext that the 2020 elections were not legitimate. There isn’t one single trace of evidence to support that claim, but no lie is too big for the Republicans anymore. And why should they care? A very recent Ipsos poll shows 56% of Republicans believe the 2020 elections were illegitimate and 53% think the previous president won. In consequence, 87% of them support placing limits on voting. With such numbers of Americans behind them, why should Republicans want to get to the bottom of the Jan. 6 insurrection? Why should they go along with the creation of a commission seeking to allocate responsibilities for such blatant act of sedition when they know the results of any such inquiry would only place the blame squarely on their party’s shoulders? A scorched earth. That’s the only alternative the Republicans have in mind to their desperate, rabid thirst for power. All or nothing. Their way, or national disaster. So, to Joe Biden I say, dear Joe, you could easily end up making a total fool of yourself if you keep trying to compromise with those guys. They’re ready and willing to run you over as many times as possible in their relentless quest to make an authoritarian, white-supremacist state out of the United States of America. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Coming Back to Life (Photo Album) Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, May 25th, 2021. It seems like long overdue, but it’s finally happening. Life is coming back to Crete. The Greek government has recently announced the end of most Covid restrictions nationwide, thereby launching an open, but still cautious, tourist season. People from 53 countries are now approved to come to Greece, provided the day before travelling they fill up a “Passenger Locator Form” (PLF) specifying where they will be staying once they get here. Life is a bit easier for us foreign and local residents too, as we no longer need to send an SMS whenever we leave our homes to go shopping or whatever. Brits still seem to have some difficulty coming, but that may partially be a question of reciprocity, as there’s been some reported hostility toward EU people entering the UK. For the moment, it’s good to have an occasional chat with other foreigners. Yesterday I had the opportunity to talk to a few German holiday makers and to some Belgians too. In case you didn’t know, Germany has now closed its borders to UK visitors for Covid reasons. Most of the photos you’re about to see I took this past Monday the 24th during a visit to Elafonisi beach, which is located in the Southwestern tip of Crete. Life is certainly acquiring some hues of normality around here. Let’s just hope it all keeps moving in the right direction. To see the “Coming Back to Life” photo album, please click here.

“We’ll Meet Again” (©Charles-Parker) Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, May 23rd, 2021. This is an English song dating from late September of 1939. It was written by Hughie Charles and Ross Parker and was originally sung by Vera Lynn, a lady who just passed away last June 2020 at the age of 103. It was in September of 1939 that England and France declared war against Germany after Hitler invaded Poland earlier that month, so eventually the song was used as a means to give hope to the soldiers who had to go to the continent to fight the Nazis. “We’ll Meet Again” may be known to many as the end theme for Stanley Kubrick’s movie “Dr. Strangelove”, which was released in the US in January of 1964. The song also served as the introductory theme for the Beatles Anthology, a documentary that was released in the US in October of 2000. "The Byrds" released a version of it in 1965 that got some airplay on the radio and Johnny Cash recorded his own version in 2002 but, as far as I know, it didn't gain much popularity. I remembered the song some 10 days ago as I was saying goodbye to an English lady I was talking to at a café here in Kalives and from that moment I just couldn’t get it out of my mind. At that moment I had already started recording another song of mine, but “We’ll Meet Again” was too much of a distraction, so I decided to record it first. The melody and the chord progression follow the same patterns Vera Lynn’s version follows, but the beat and the instrumentation constitute my own contribution to it. To listen to my version of “We’ll Meet Again” please click here.

A Fair Look on President Biden From a Conservative Opinion Writer. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, May 21st, 2021. Not all American conservatives are blind, pigheaded reactionaries of the Maga kind. Some of them still hold some of the capacity for introspection that their intellectual expansion is supposed to endow them with. And if you’re capable of taking a clear, good look at yourself, that is, if you can contemplate your own thoughts and behaviors from a perspective devoid to a good extent of racial, sexist, ideological, overly-nationalistic or overly-egotistical prejudices, you’re very likely capable of perceiving others in a fairly accurate, realistic way too. This, of course, can be said of anyone with enough clarity of self-perception provided such individuals aren’t morally corrupt to the point of not giving a single hoot about the reality they perceive, which is most likely the case of the previous president of the United States and many of his Republican followers in government and elsewhere. But the conservative opinion writer in question is not of the latter kind. As a good conservative, he holds his biases against sociopolitical progress in America, to the point of sometimes presenting a demonized view on some of the events, movements or characters he writes about, but he’s not an extremist. To begin with, he doesn’t seem to have fallen on his knees at the altar of the church of Mar A Lago, which can be considered a sign that he hasn’t lost his moral compass, at least not totally. Then there’s the obvious fact that he cares enough for factual information, not just enough to have an honest, direct chat with the President, but to go ahead and write about it in a newspaper column that will be read by millions of Americans and other people in the rest of the world. This to me is a small sign that not everything is lost in the conservative world. I’m an optimist. And even as I’ve never been a bookworm, I’ve read enough history to know that resilience is one salient characteristic of the American people. Not for nothing the United States is still the longest surviving Democracy in the world. All the other attempts, even those that are now some of the strongest existing Democracies, failed at different points in time in the past while the American version has just kept going forward since the country's inception some 230 years ago. No doubt Democracy in the United States has never been perfect and probably won’t ever be and, yes, our Democratic system is now facing a serious existential threat mostly from our own domestic anti-democratic forces, but I refuse to lose sight of the silver linings in the present sociopolitical clouds. From that perspective, I welcome the latest David Brooks opinion piece in the New York Times, where he describes with enough detail the foundational personal experiences that have shaped Joe Biden’s character along with his views on the present American condition. The only thing Brooks rather glaringly failed to emphasize in his piece, is the highly damaging effects his conservative fellows’ behavior is having on the American sociopolitical scene, which is a reason of the highest importance as to why Joe Biden’s policies should at this point be considered vital for the survival of the United States as we know it. Brooks characterizes Joe's policies as "whopping big legislative packages", but taking baby steps in trying to solve the present national crisis would be utterly irresponsible. America is in serious trouble. To pretend otherwise would be, either utterly foolish, or intentionally ill-willed. For the moment, it’s good to corroborate once more that the individual sitting behind the Resolute Desk at the Oval Office is a capable, competent American of good will who really loves his country. To read David Brooks’ opinion piece, please click here.

Bipartisanship? Careful Joe, Americans of Good Will Like You Are Usually Taken for Patsies by the Republicans. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, May 19th, 2021. “When will we ever learn?”, sang Pete Seeger back in the mid-1950s, and the answer to his question still seems to be “Blowing in the Wind”, as Bob Dylan told us in the early 1960s. Could anyone blame Joe Biden for trying to reach across the partisan divide in search of a consensus as to what is good for America at this point in time? I cannot. I somehow understand him. Not only because he’s a septuagenarian like me (the human aberration we had at the White House before him was too) and not only because he’s been strolling around at the top of America’s corridors of power for nearly half a century now, but because whatever level of moral corruption holding the levers of government in his hands may have exerted on his “soul”, they haven’t robbed him of a sincere love of country. Joe Biden loves America and that includes the American people. And, for better or worse, that includes the Republicans too. I also love America, for what America has given me no other country in the world could have ever given me (I’ve been to 47 countries and have lived in 16 of them) but I’m highly skeptical of the Republicans. I don’t trust them anymore. I no longer think they have the same idea of the United States that Joe and I share. The Republicans' obvious white supremacism, racism and elitism makes their ideology totally, completely, 100% incompatible with mine, which entitles me to tell them to go fly a kite as loudly as I can. But Joe is the President of the United States. He cannot afford to tell over 70 million of his own compatriots to go jump in the lake. He's not a sociopath, megalomaniac fool like the previous president was. He has to try reaching out to the Republicans. He has to give it a good shot, and the best and only way is to talk to the Republican leadership in Congress, to the Governors and even to the Mayors if necessary. But there’s one crucial factor that Joe should always keep in mind whenever dealing with the Republicans, that they will try to derail any and all of his projects and even try to throw his presidency down the drain if he lets them, even if in so doing they may wreck the whole country irreparably. No American should ever forget what the Republicans tried to do to our Democratic system over the course of the previous administration and January 6th, 2021, should be a day that lives in infamy forever in the sociopolitical annals of the United States. So, to Pete Seeger’s question I respond that the time to learn is here and now and to Bob Dylan I say, NO, Bob, the answer cannot be blowing forever in the wind. The answer is in our hands, and it’s here and now. So, go for it, Joe, pursue your agenda in a wholehearted way, but never forget that when dealing with the Republicans you’re dealing with devious serpents seriously bent on ruining your presidency, regardless of the harm their efforts may inflict on the United States of America. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Hello China Goodbye America. The Shrewd Relentless Nationalist Policies Moving China Toward World Hegemony. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, May 18th, 2021. Guess what country’s companies are most active in infrastructure works across the African continent? Guess what country is financing those works the most? Guess what country has over 10,000 companies operating over there bringing that country’s investments in that continent to more than $2 trillion? Guess what country is now Africa’s biggest trading partner? And the answer to all those questions is, well, China. The Chinese are busy building hospitals, Universities, railroads and stadiums over there and, as we can all see when we visit Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou, or when we take their trains across their country, when it comes to infrastructure, those guys are up to par or even better than most industrialized western nations (I’ve been to 7 different Provinces in China and have lived there for a total of 4 years) The colonial powers left Africa a long time ago, but the natural resources are still there on the ground or in the Continental seas and the Chinese are eager to get their hands on them. Just look at the deal the Chinese just struck with Ghana, whereby the Chinese will invest $2 billion in the country’s infrastructure in exchange for 5% of Ghana’s Bauxite reserves. Or what about the ongoing controversy in Sierra Leone as to whether a $55 million deal with China, whereby the Chinese would build a fishmeal processing plant on the beaches facing one of that country’s richest waters in Barracuda, Grouper and Sardines, is good for the country? The deal is obviously good for the Chinese, as they have to feed the largest population in the world (1.4 billion people) and Sierra Leone’s seafood would come quite handy. But Chinese interests aren’t only focused on Africa. Those guys have their eyes set on the whole world. Guess who’s Germany’s biggest trading partner now? China. In 2020 Mercedes Benz sold 3 times as many vehicles in China as in the US. Actually, guess what country has already taken over the US as the EU’s biggest trading partner? China.  Clearly, China is beating the United States at its most touted game: Capitalism. And one of China’s biggest assets in the capitalist game is the size of its market, with its 1.4 billion potential customers. As we all know, money usually trumps principles and morality, meaning that human rights, freedom of speech or any other such Democratic principles go right out the window the moment trillions of dollars in profit come into play. And if you think I’m joking just ask Tim Cook, the chairman of Apple Inc. about the huge data-processing plant they’re just finishing in Guiyang, the Capital of Guizhou Province, in Southwestern China, where Apple’s Chinese customers’ personal data will be stored. Ask him why is he placing those servers in the hands of Chinese government employees? Ask him why has Apple been banning all kinds of Apps from its App Store in China? Why is Apple censoring all kinds of Websites from its platform in that country? Actually, we don’t need to ask him. We all know what the answer is. Profit trumps principles. Civil Liberties? The hell with them. Unlawful abuses and incarcerations among the Uighur population in Xinjiang Province? Heavily repressing pro-Democracy dissent in Hong Kong? That’s not the business of business. My point being that American-Style Capitalism, meaning pseudo-Democratic Capitalist systems like ours, are now seriously contested by authoritarian forces, be it of the domestic or the International kind. China’s assets on the International stage are powerful and resilient and at the domestic level they have one super asset that we keep losing in America: Unity of purpose. We’re a deeply divided nation and the Chinese aren’t only single-minded in their intent to dominate the world, they’re perfectly capable of getting to the top too. To read an article that contemplates the subject of Apple’s selling out to the Chinese government, please click here.

“Jennifer” (©Salaroche) Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, May 14th, 2021. This little tune I wrote a few decades ago. I categorize it as “Old Time Rock & Roll”, with a style harking back to the early 60s, but with clear touches of Country Rock. Country music actually lies deep in the heart of Rock & Roll. That’s the kind of music none other than Elvis used to play and sing before he developed his own style of music. Remember “Blue Moon of Kentucky”? He recorded that one back in 1954. Yes, that’s a song written by Bill Monroe in a style now known as Blue Grass, but Monroe was basically a Country singer/song-writer who, like Elvis, also gleaned his own style of music from Country. The main difference between Country and Blue Grass is that the latter is (or used to be) performed solely with acoustic instruments, the Mandolin being one of them. Bill Monroe was actually a Mandolin player/singer/song-writer and he and his group are credited with giving that style of music the name of “Blue Grass”. I enjoy playing Blue Grass-style music on my guitar, with a finger-picking technique that comes naturally out of me, but “Jennifer” is not a Blue Grass song. It has much more Country in it than anything else. The solos in it may have a certain Jazzy flavor, but that has to do with the different musical influences I’ve had over the years. “Jennifer” is inspired on a real-life girl I met a few decades ago. One day I decided to enroll in a computer class at a local college and there’s where I met her. She was just a spunky, good-looking, witty girl with a sense of humor I couldn’t help but like. I actually recorded the first verses of the song on a portable cassette player and gave a copy of it to her and she liked it. So we spent a whole semester sort of horsing around up until the Summer of that year, when school recessed and she had to go back home. But when September came along, I didn’t go back to school as I had already learnt the computer language I wanted to learn. Later that year I found out through Jennifer’s good friend Pat, that Jennifer hadn’t gone back to school either, as she had to stay back home for family reasons. The song “Jennifer” presents a vivid reflection of the memory I have of her. To listen to “Jennifer”, please click here.

What if Your Deepest Sense of Personal Pride Rested Largely on the Whiteness of Your Skin and the Privileges You Gain from It? Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, May 12th, 2021. That’s not a rhetorical question. It’s actually quite a valid one and there are some Political Scientists and Economists who have looked into the possible answers to it and have come up with some sound, highly plausible ones. So, if my question describes your own personal case, you have most likely felt devastated over the past few years. Or very angry. Or both. Actually, chances are you’re quite likely a Maga person too. You know… one of those people who followed, or still follow, that proto-fascist, racist, white supremacist demagogue who was president of the United States until January 20th of this year. According to some reliable studies, white people have lately been feeling threatened by the other races around them. Not that the other ethnic groups are going around brandishing automatic rifles and bazookas against them and their families. Nothing of that sort. It’s just that non-white Americans of all walks of life are increasingly standing on a par with whites and that robs our pale-faced brethren of their fabricated sense of god-given superiority (I’m a mixed European-Amerindian) Horror of horrors! A non-white guy was even President of the United States for eight years just a few years ago. And, just to rub it in, he was of African descent! We could easily argue that such presidency was the straw that broke the camel’s back and emboldened the masses of resentful Anglos to send a racist white supremacist demagogue to the White House (actually, it wasn’t the American people who sent him there, it was our highly undemocratic Electoral College which, for the second time this century, has put a totally incompetent individual in the presidency) But such fear at the imminent crumbling of their prefabricated socioeconomic and political status isn’t something that happened overnight. It has been creeping into our white brethren’s conscious for decades. Deaths by suicide, drugs and alcohol abuse among middle-aged (40s-50s) Americans have been rising since the 1970s, particularly among white, uneducated ones. In contrast, the number of similar suicides among the Latino and Black communities has been falling. The same goes for the Europeans as opposed to us Americans. Suicide rates among the corresponding cohorts over there are declining, while back in the US they’re rising. The main cause for such phenomenon has been ascribed to the high level of insecurity about the future that many white, middle-aged uneducated Americans feel, primarily because of falling wages, a lack of job security and the meager safety net our government provides them with. But if all other American ethnic groups have been living under the same troubling, uncertain circumstances, why are whites so disproportionately disheartened, resentful and angry about it? And the answer is that the other ethnic groups keep gaining ground in spite of the general adversities and, in consequence, whites see their sense of racial superiority slipping away like precious water through their fingers. When non-white minorities are increasingly and unstoppably at a par with, or even doing better than, whites, well, what we get is simply the ongoing rise of white-supremacism in America. Anachronic? Sad? Unbelievable? Shocking? Obviously true? All of the above? Take your pick. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

There’s Certainly No Viable Alternative to Capitalism. Our Only Choice is in the Kind of Capitalism We Want. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, May 11th, 2021. Conservatives and Liberals have differing views on the means and purposes of Capitalism. American Conservatives believe a Capitalist political system should be decidedly at the service of those shrewd and ambitious individuals pursuing their own financial success, regardless of whatever detrimental effects such lopsided support may have on the rest of the population. In their view, American Conservatism should always be close to the idea of “Realism” as contemplated in International Relations theory, meaning that, since selfishness is the main drive behind all human endeavor, it should be allowed to run as free as possible in the country’s economic activities. In contrast, Liberalism, at least the kind of Liberalism I have in mind, proposes Capitalist systems should certainly reward ambition and success in any effort to accumulate capital, but NOT at the expense and the detriment of the rest of the population. In that view, not only those who succeed in America should give back to the country in proportion to their success, but the government should also be an active participant in seeing that income disparities don't reach levels that tear at the country's social fabric, so that, as a result, the whole national infrastructure, be it social, political, economic, physical, or even in terms of health and education, may not only be preserved, but may also promote progress according to the needs of the times. Some American conservatives, like the New York Times’ Ross Douthat, claim that Liberalism doesn’t have any solutions to today’s problems. They don’t claim Conservatism has any solutions either, but they cite countries like France and Sweden, which have more moderate, much less Darwinian capitalist systems, as examples that “Liberalism” doesn’t produce happier individuals or more cohesive societies than the ones we have in America. After the events of January 6th, however, such argument is quite debatable, as the American people’s level of discontent is obviously much higher today than that of the Europeans may have been for decades. Just recall that, over the past four or five years, over 70 million Americans gave their unconditional support to a proto-fascist, racist, white-supremacist demagogue leader, which is something Western Europeans haven't done since the 1930s. Racism, white-supremacism and proto-fascism exist in Europe too, but those factors aren’t as mainstream and as politically influential over there as they are in the United States today. No doubt conflict is inherent in human nature. To expect that one day it will miraculously vanish from human relations would perhaps be the most utopian dream of them all. The human condition thrives on conflict. For example, our conception of ourselves as social entities keeps clashing with our own sense of individuality and with our need to reaffirm ourselves as distinct, separate, independent beings. Human creativity, be it of the industrial, artistic, sociopolitical or economic kind, is largely based on our constant, primordial need to express our individuality. But we also know for sure that in allowing our individuality to run rampant we would only be making our lives much more “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”. Influential “Conservatives” like Douthat cite the Gilded Age as an example that unbridled, hyper Capitalism of the kind Republicans would love to bring back to America, doesn’t cause the breakdown of societies, meaning it would be counterproductive to try to tame any excesses American Capitalism may be showing to have today. But such comparison is archaic and inappropriate, as back then we didn’t have the means of communication, nor the variety of perspectives on our own condition that we have today. What prevails these days across the world is what Alvin Toffler predicted back in the 70s we would eventually get: Too much choice. And the more the choices, the higher the possibility that a society may splinter. What choices did Americans have by the end of the 19th century? Not many by today’s standards. Douthat argues for a “reinvention of traditions” in America as means to revive the conservative movement, but how can you reinvent a national tradition that's so seriously grounded on elitism, racism and white-supremacism? If you have cancer in your lungs, meaning, if the oxygen you breath into your whole system is processed through an organ deeply contaminated with a deadly disease, having plastic surgery on your face won’t heal you, nor in any way prolong your life. The whole concept of Capitalism isn't frozen in time, like Douthat seems to pretend. It demands constant innovation. It can, no doubt, be a tough game to play, but it doesn't have to be the dog-eat-dog environment Republicans want to perpetuate. What do conservatives like Douthat propose to do? Put a heavy lid on sociopolitical progress? Spin American racism and white supremacism in ways that would cloak their existence so that Republicans may again pretend we already got rid of them? Ha¡ But it's good to know that guys like Douthat keep questioning the fundamental ideas behind their “Conservative” movement, which, as small a step as it may be, it's at least an inch away from denial. To Read Ross Douthat’s opinion piece, please click here.

If Your Fellow “Conservatives” Will Repudiate You if You Blame Them for Prolonging the Pandemic, Blame the Whole Country Instead. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, May 8th, 2021. Guts are in very short supply within the Republican Party these days. Delusion, on the other hand, willful or not, is found in abundant quantities everywhere within their ranks and leadership. But, among them, there are those who are just playing self-defense and go along with the Party lies for sheer reasons of survival, so that they won’t lose their audiences, constituencies or readers, which might eventually mean losing their jobs. Some reporters and opinion writers may easily fall within the latter category. The New York Times has some known “Conservative” opinion writers among their staff, whose articles I read on a regular basis. I find it necessary to know what some of those guys are thinking, otherwise, how can I know what I'm up against? One of those guys is David Brooks, the Canadian-American commentator who’s been working at the NYT since 2003. I occasionally respond to some of his opinions and yesterday I was again compelled to do so. The subject of the article in question is the difficulty the US will be facing when trying to achieve Herd Immunity against the Covid virus, particularly because of the reluctance to get vaccinated from the part of some 30% of the American population. Brooks ascribes such dangerous reluctance to the different social fractures presently plaguing our country and to the decreasing sense of belonging together that such fractures have generated among us. But, as a typical conservative of this day and age, Brooks opts to omit the blaring political aspects of that phenomenon and he does so because, as It’s perfectly obvious to many of us, the US won’t be able to reach Herd Immunity anytime soon largely because of the deadly, noxious, irresponsible anti-vaccine, anti-mask-wearing, anti-social-distancing stance adopted by the Republican leadership. For example, Liz Cheney is about to be burned at the political stake for openly refusing to go along with her Party’s nonsense and Mitt Romney is, for the same reason, facing an ostracism very seldom imposed on anyone among their ilk. But Brooks wouldn’t dare to even hint at his Party’s responsibility in all of it. He just decided to ignore this very important aspect of his story. So I sent him a little note highlighting his very essential, but no doubt willful, omissions. This is what I wrote to him: “Dear Mr. Brooks: Of course, I wouldn’t expect you to stand on your two feet before your Republican/Conservative tribe to tell the general American herd to please stop their anti-vaccine, anti-mask-wearing, anti-social-distancing nonsense, as doing so might mean losing most of your Republican readers, thereby probably losing your job at the NYT as a result. If Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney are an example of anything is that American “Conservatives” better toe the Party line (excuse me, I meant the PARTY LIES) or they risk being ostracized in shame. Go ahead, Mr. Brooks, blame the whole of the American population for a culpability that falls largely on the leadership of the Republican party. Americans no longer have the capacity to form de Tocqueville’s “Social Body”? Gee, I wonder whether Conservatives have anything to do with that. If the previous four or five years showed us anything is the true, destructive, anti-Democracy, anti-American face of the Republican Party. Thank you for your attention. Salaroche” To read David Brooks opinion piece, please click here. 

How do We Know that What We Know Are Verifiable Facts? Do We All Share the Same Sets of Verifiable Knowledge? Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, May 6th, 2021. Episteme is a term derived from the Greek language that pertains to anything related to knowledge and the means to acquire it. Thus, epistemology is the study of the origins or knowledge. For example, if I ask you whether we are all equally exposed to the same kind of factual information, I'm presenting you with an epistemological question. Are all the sources of information available to us equally reliable? Should we always take what others say as credible information? Along those lines, do you live in an echo chamber, meaning, are you part of a group where all members distrust any “outside” sources of information? Or, do you live in an epistemic bubble, where group members don’t have enough information? Does political epistemology consist of only one source to obtain knowledge from, or several? Is Democracy in general and American Democracy in particular under an epistemic threat? Let me start by answering the last question first, and the answer is YES. 50 years ago, we all had one single reliable source of information across the United States, that which is today still widely known as part of the “mainstream media”. ABC, CBS, NBC were the major TV Networks that we knew were fact-based and reliable enough for us to believe the news they told us. PBS could be counted there too, but with a selective audience. The rest of the news sources were suspect, not accredited enough, not trustworthy. There was a shared trust in our reputable Newspapers and TV news outlets that was part of the idea that we were all under the same umbrella of beliefs. In other words, our epistemic sources, meaning the news organisms that helped us form a clear idea of what was going on around us, were basically one, universally-accepted set of mostly fact-based reportings, analyses and opinions made available to us. But those are the now long-gone days of yore. Now, there’s no longer much of a shared, universally-trusted, nationwide source of information. By the mid-1990s many of us thought the Internet would eventually become a force for the “democratization” of knowledge, but we were considerably wrong. We thought in time the Internet would come to constitute the universal epistemic well whence would spring all kinds of reliable, scientifically-tested information to be diseminated across the world, but we were only partially right. The thing is we weren’t counting on the devious instinct to deceive and dominate others that’s so intrinsic in human nature, nor on the weakness and corruptibility of the human character so constantly bent on searching for and accepting only that which might support our own self-serving interests. Thus, in America, political epistemology has become extremely partisan. Tens of millions of Americans now draw their daily understanding of their own reality from echo chambers that, not only reject any antithetical propositions, but demonize as evil anything that might contradict their shared beliefs. As we speak, Americans keep losing, willingly or not, those shared common standards we used to use when determining what’s fact and what’s fiction. Just picture the state of denial still prevailing in some Republican enclaves as to whether the Covid pandemic is a real national health threat. Anyone standing against wearing protective masks is lionized by the Republican crowds and anyone advising to wear them is demonized. The same goes for the 2020 presidential elections. Those claiming the election was stolen from the previous president have a future within the Republican Party (i.e., Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley) while those asserting that “the steal” is a big lie are struggling hard to stay politically alive (i.e., Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney) The idea of knowledge has no longer the same meaning today that it might have had just three decades ago. The line dividing the sheer fact of knowing, on the one side, and the fictional fact of just “wanting to believe what I want to believe” on the other, has been utterly blurred, often to the extreme of making partisanship a synonym of willful ignorance. The US Democratic system is indeed suffering an epistemological crisis. Whom do we trust? Fox News? MSNBC? Axios? The New York Times? Newsmax? The Washington Post? Where is a nation going when the shared set of fundamental values necessary to hold its democratic fabric together starts to disintegrate right before our eyes? How can we go back to legitimizing in the minds of the American people our own professional sources of information? Our own national sources of knowledge? Can we all learn or re-learn to separate fiction from fact? Those are conundrums that will very likely take years, if not decades, to resolve. But, rejoice. For the moment, not everything is lost. I'm all for free speech, even as the last few years have shown us that there's speech clearly intended to sow hatred and division in American society and even goes as far as inciting violence against our own Democratic system and our own institutions of government. But Facebook's oversight board's decision to extend the ban on that dangerous, deranged, proto-fascist, white-supremacist, demagogue ex-president of the United States from its platform is a very good sign that we may be learning that, sometimes, there have to be limits even to some of our most cherished freedoms. It's telling us there’s a good chance that Americans of the fair-minded, stable, America-loving kind may still prevail. A first good step would be to restore to a good extent the people's faith in their own government, so that we may at least avert a sociopolitical catastrophe of a proportion not seen since the civil war. On that count, godspeed, Joe Biden. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Be My Love (©Salaroche) Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, April 30th, 2021. Are we all supposed to start remembering our 20s and 30s when we reach our 70-somethings? Is such phenomenon as widespread as to happen to everyone my age and older? Don’t know how universal such thing is, but it’s certainly happening to me these days. Could I be experiencing this instead because of the rolling lockdowns I’ve been under and the general restrictions on movement that keep me tied here in Greece? Not that I’m complaining about being literally beached here. This is a beautiful country and the great majority of people here are very friendly to foreigners so, maybe it's all a combination of age and circumstance. But, what me worry? The thing is “Be My Love” is a song I wrote 50 years ago and it’s a song that was never part of my repertoire when I was an on-and-off performer back in the 80s and 90s, but it’s a little piece I’ve never forgotten. So, while I was working on another recording project a couple of weeks ago, all of a sudden I thought of “Be My Love”, but with a totally different rhythm. Actually, the whole song came back to me as if it were a different concept. Given that this song already had some mystical things attached to it, I told myself I should record it again. You see, the lyrics to this song came to me in my sleep, while I was taking a nap one Saturday afternoon back in the spring of 1971. Earlier that day I had been struggling trying to come up with somehing to say that would fit the melody, but at one point I just gave up. I said "well, maybe another day", and went for a nap. But when I woke up some 30 minutes later I had the full lyrics for the song clearly spelled in my mind. So I quickly went back to my living room and picked up my guitar, but there was something different going on. The version of "Be My Love" I heard in my sleep was in a different key. The first version, the original one, was in AM7 (A major 7th) but the version in my dream was in CM7 (C major 7th) and the beat was different too. It was the same song, but it was arranged differently. Something similar happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I remembered the song, but with a totally different rhythm and with a completely different arrangement. In addition, once I started recording it, a couple of new parts sprang up too. The result, therefore, would be a bit surprising to some of those old friends of mine who heard the 70s version. But the whole project turned out good enough to share it here, so, since all is well that ends well, or at least acceptably so, here it is. To listen to "Be My Love" please click here.

Republicans Do Believe American Capitalism Can Only Be Corrupt, Undemocratic, Racially Bigoted and Shamelessly Elitist. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, April 27th, 2021. Sometimes it takes a controversy unfolding in the wide open to have people show their true corrupt colors. Such is the Republican Party’s predicament at the moment. Some of those guys seem desperate enough to be going for broke politically. Should it be taken for a fact, as the Republicans obviously believe, that corporate CEOs shouldn’t give a single damn about Democracy in America? Should it be a requirement, as the Republicans most certainly would like, for all CEOs to be racist and willing to deprive workers of as many constitutional rights as possible? Should all CEOs of the Republican, or any other, persuasion quietly submit to censorship of any kind from the part of their elected leaders? Should we all just keep quiet when top Republicans threaten their moneyed constituencies with legislative retaliation when the latter want to hold State governments accountable for their blatant anti-Democracy efforts? For the Republicans, corruption, dishonesty, elitism, racism, authoritarianism and overall bigotry equals government. A government that may not stand on such corrupt premises is not attainable to them. In their view, institutionalizing mafia tactics is the only way to stay in power and it’s the only way for them to govern. And the rest of us should keep quiet in the face of it all. How easily Republicans forget the 1st Amendment when free speech goes contrary to their corrupt designs. Since when are Americans of any walk of life supposed to refrain from criticizing their own government? Since when do elected Republican officials have the monopoly on political opinions? “Either you let us cheat the American people out of their most fundamental rights, or we will make sure your most precious privileges soon start to disappear”, that’s basically what Mitch McConnell, Marco Rubio, Ron DeSantis, Rick Scott, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and other Republican officials are telling American capital. And they no longer do so behind closed doors. Now they basically shout their threats out loud in the open media. It’s no secret for anyone that in China, Russia, even Turkey, not to mention North Korea, criticizing the government equals political suicide or even worse, it may actually mean imprisonment or eventual death or disappearance. At this point in time, it’s no longer too farfetched to think that’s the road many Republicans would ultimately love to embark the United States in. That’s no longer a secret. We all saw how firmly the Republican Party stood side by side with the previous authoritarian president who not only wanted to silence the mainstream media, but wanted to annul a near-perfect, legitimate election he had clearly lost. We're all aware of it. Many influential Republicans don’t believe Democracy is good for them unless they’re allowed to distort its rules and bend them or break them in any possible way to fit their authoritarian designs. And if the Constitution stands in their way, the hell with it too! The 1st Amendment? Who cares! Free speech is worth standing up for when it comes to voicing racist and white supremacist hatred, it’s even constitutionally protected if it’s a Republican president who is publicly inciting hordes of his supporters to storm the Capitol Building to subvert the results of a legitimate election. But if corporate America dares to publicly disagree with any Republican State Government enacting laws and legislations designed to suppress the American electorate’s right to vote, NO. The hell with the 1st Amendment! That’s “Woke” Capitalism, they say. Shut up American CEOs! They shout. Or else... To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

A Legitimate Question: What Are American Conservatives Trying to Conserve? Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, April 26th, 2021. The New York Times isn’t the “left-wing” newspaper some American “Conservatives” like to paint it as. It actually isn’t even the most “liberal” among the western news outlets right-wingers would like to have us believe it is. I subscribe to the NYT and I read it on a daily basis but, frankly, I often feel the journalists at The Guardian are much more incisive in their opinions and even in their investigative reporting than those at the NYT sometimes are. But I still think the NYT is at the top of the list among the most reliable, fact-based, trust-worthy newspapers in the world, which is the reason that those delusional Maga hordes and other conspiracy theorist groups hate it. Just recall that the proto-fascist previous president of the United States called the New York Times “a true enemy of the people”, which should be considered a badge of honor for that Newspaper. The thing is there are some openly conservative opinion writers at the Times whose articles are often worth checking out, for they often present conservative perspectives that aren’t just immersed in blind, worn-out ideological prejudices. I was particularly attentive to a piece I read there yesterday where a staunch, avowed American conservative named Ross Douthat questioned the validity of the premises American Conservatism is supposed to stand on. It was a somewhat refreshing piece to read. The fundamental question presented there is what does American conservatism really want to conserve? The author didn’t have a clear answer to his own question. He just answered it tangentially by citing some of the things or causes conservatism should no longer, or can no longer stand for. The impression I got from the article is that of a rudderless ship sailing aimlessly upon troubled waters out on the high seas which, in my view, is a fairly accurate representation of the sad predicament American conservatism finds itself mired in today. So, once again, I decided to send my reply to the author, which I’m hereby sharing with you: “Dear Mr. Douthat: Congratulations. Your article is testimony that American conservatives still have some capacity for self-analysis left in them. Your central question hits the nail right on the head, what are American Conservatives trying to conserve? America needs active conservative forces participating in the political game, so that our liberal wing won’t ever take the country to any destructive extremes. But the aim of such conservatism cannot be solely to oppose or destroy any efforts to improve the lot of the American masses. If your conservative movement cannot find any other raison d’être than to stand against any kind of sociopolitical progress in America, you’ll just keep pushing our country down the road to ruin. For the moment, it's good to know influential individuals like yourself are introspective enough to doubt your own ideas when they’re no longer leading you anywhere and to question the foundations of your own ideologies, at least to the extent you show in your article, when they're on their way to total bankruptcy. Thank you for your attention. Salaroche”. To read Ross Douthat’s opinion, please click here.

You Believe America’s Problems Are Over Now that the Proto-Fascist Ex-President is Gone? Sheer Wishful Thinking. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, April 24th, 2021. Talking a couple of days ago over the phone to a friend who lives in Tallahassee, Florida, he was telling me that, had the previous president won a second term, he would have moved to another country (how many times have we heard that before?) like implying that now that that orange creature isn’t president anymore everything is back to “normal” in America. I just thought my friend hadn’t yet grasped the magnitude of the problem afflicting the country today. So, I just replied that the 70+ million Americans who voted to keep that guy in the White House hadn’t gone anywhere. They’re still there. Living their lives in the streets and houses of the United States, going around mulling in their minds and in their conversations with their fellow Maga friends and family what their next pro-racist, pro-white-supremacist, anti-Democracy step will be. If anything, their zeal for their destructive cause has increased and solidified. Their anger and resentment against any further democratization of the country and against the growing multiracialism of our society only keeps growing. And their leader is still there at Mar a Lago, serving as the Godfather for the Republican Party, giving his blessings or his scorn to the different “Conservative” (read: backward-looking reactionary) figures who may contemplate running for office. Back to normal? Yeah, back to that “normal” many Americans had refused, and keep refusing, to see, my friend included, that nearly half the American population has at least some, if not deeply engrained and strong racist instincts; that a corresponding number of them have serious doubts about, if not outright contempt for, our Democratic system; that the American far-right movement is not only quite alive and kicking, but actually gathering strength as we speak. Normal? Yes, but not of the old kind. This is the new normal, where hatred is glorified as patriotism whenever it’s applied against any other Americans who may love Democracy and may want more legal and moral equity for all American ethnic groups. You think I’m just ranting here? Check out the polls and analyses that show the level of resentment festering at the heart of the Republican Party. And check out the way far-right entities are helping each other across borders. Just think of the Brit firebrand Tommy Robinson (see here) and his connections to billionaire Republican donors, the ex-president's family, American Maga leaders, Moscow, and other far-right, anti-Islamic organizations in Denmark and Germany. Some of us may still think, as my friend probably still does, that our own home-grown Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are just a couple of fringe groups with no mass appeal, but we would be quite wrong in thinking that way. Just a few months ago, 70+ million Americans voted to keep a proto-fascist president in power and those voters haven’t gone anywhere. They’re right at home and, as soon as the pandemic allows it, they will be back at work in the offices, shops and factories of our beloved United States. Normal? What normal? Fortunately, there’s a spark of hope that Joe Biden’s overall national projects may assuage the anger boiling at the heart of millions of Americans who now feel abandoned and betrayed by their own government, which is the reason they were and still are vulnerable to the populist lies a demagogue conman told them. But to think that America’s problems are over simply because that proto-fascist ex-president is gone is just wishful thinking. There’s still a lot of serious homework to do before we reach the promised land described in the Declaration of Independence. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.  

Covid Doesn’t Spare People on the Basis of Nationality and All Governments Should Know It. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, April 23rd, 2021. I have dual French-American citizenship so, for all practical, legal purposes, I’m a European. This means my rights as an EU citizen are protected under Chapter 5 of the EU Charter on Fundamental Rights. And this applies to me and all other EU citizens in any of the 27 countries members of the Union. As a European, I can freely travel across those 27 countries basically as if they were my own and I don’t need a visa to go in or out of any of them, just as I’m entitled to apply for jobs or retire there if I wanted to. Greece is a country member of the EU, which means the great majority of fundamental rights the Greeks enjoy, I enjoy too. But all Europeans are encouraged to request a local Social Security number if we intend to stay in Greece for longer than 3 months. All we have to do to get such number is go to the local authorities, present our passport and proof of health insurance and that’s it. I came to Greece last year, on February 6th, 2020, to be exact, but, since I didn’t expect to be here longer than a couple of months, I didn’t think I needed to get a Social Security number. So, I didn’t. Then Covid hit hard across the world in March 2020 and the future started looking very uncertain, as International borders began to close and domestic restrictions of movement were increasingly imposed everywhere. But, just as hundreds of other Europeans, I still didn't go get that number. That Social Security number is known here as AMKA. The thing is that, now that I’m within an age bracket that entitles me to get the vaccine here in Greece, I don’t have the number in question that’s a requirement to get it, so I’m left here in limbo while the Greek government comes up with a system that would grant legal immigrants like me, and hundreds of other Europeans, the right to get a temporary Social Security number with the explicit purpose of getting the vaccine. As the situation stands today, hundreds of us are left here with no way to get the vaccine other than catching a plane and going to any other EU country where we can get it, which would turn out to be a very expensive vaccine (plane tickets, taxis, hotels) I’ve already applied for a temporary AMKA through the official local office, which is known as KEP, but when I double checked on the status of my application last week, they told me getting an AMKA usually takes two months or longer, so, what can I say? I’m stuck here in Greece, quite vulnerable to a deadly virus, with no chance of getting vaccinated against it any time soon. And, as if that weren’t all, Greece is now poised to open their borders to visitors from the rest of the EU, the UK, the US, Australia, Japan, Israel and Turkey, as well as all other Schengen-affiliated countries. Will all those visitors have been properly vetted as to their negative PCR tests or vaccinated status? No one can be sure, but we have all read in the past about the contamination spikes that happen in other places whenever restrictions of movement are lifted. So, I guess all of us Europeans residing here in Greece who don’t have that AMKA number will have to be extra cautious about wearing masks and keeping our distance from others whenever we’re in line anywhere. Am I complaining here? Yes and no. But mostly no. There isn’t much Covid contamination here in Greece. Updated information I just read at the WHO-Johns Hopkins University Website shows that, as of today, April 23rd, there have been 326,395 cases of infection reported in Greece, with 9,788 Covid-related deaths. I wasn’t able to find any reliable data on the island of Crete by itself, but this being an island and one not too close to Athens, I imagine (hope) we’re relatively safe around here. But that’s just an optimistic hope. In the meantime, we've been having some beautiful sunny days around here and the Emerald-Turquoise shining waters of the Aegean Sea are quite a sight to look at from my balcony. From that perspective, very few other places in the world could be better than the Greek islands to weather out a pandemic. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

We All Saw the Video with Our Own Eyes: It Was Murder in Plain Daylight. For Once, Justice for Black Americans Has Been Served. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, April 21st, 2021. How many times have US police officers been let off the hook and walked away scot free after abusing, beating or even killing African Americans? Too many times to recall. This time, the guilty verdict was simply unavoidable. The whole world witnessed the deadly dehumanizing cruelty ex-police officer Chauvin applied to George Floyd that day. Would he have been found guilty if young Darnella Frazier hadn’t taped the moments when Floyd was murdered? Most surely not. Racism runs rampant in the streets of the United States and it’s actively supported or condoned by millions of Americans, many of whom do so subconsciously, as if by knee-jerk reflex. They just learnt to think and be that way at home since they were children and many of them then went to high schools, colleges and Universities where such prejudice was reinforced by the academic environment. Racism in America has never been a secret, except that now it is blatantly clear for everyone to see. The whole world witnessed over the few years of the previous administration as tens of millions of Americans were willing to support and then reelect a president whose racist, white-supremacist instincts he time and again exposed in the clear wide open. No doubt racist instincts are deeply engrained in the American psyche and have been so since before the inception of the country. It’s going to take decades to eradicate such sociopolitical scourge from the American mainstream and there’s no assured certainty that such eradication can ever be achieved in any noticeable relevant degree. Still, small but significant steps like the one the jury at the Chauvin trial just took cannot be ignored. Chauvin’s guilty verdict indeed means something. It means there’s hope that American society can actually change for the better if we all really want it to change. It remains to be seen what kind of sentence will the presiding judge impose on Chauvin eight weeks from now and whether Chauvin’s verdict can be overturned or minimized on appeal weeks or months after that. For the moment, however, the guilty verdict has defused a hot explosive popular reaction and there’s hope that this jury decision will serve as example and encouragement to other witnesses and jurors involved in similar cases in the future. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

I’m All in for Annalena Baerbock. You Don’t Know Who She Is? Very Likely the Next German Chancellor. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, April 20th, 2021. What am I doing getting mixed up in German politics? You might ask. Well, I’m an American, but I’m a French citizen too, which automatically makes me a European, hence my interest in European things, including politics. And I’m writing these words from the island of Crete, in the country of Greece, which is an EU member as well. I have also lived for years in Northeast and Southeast Asia, which makes it that I always keep an eye on what goes on over there too, but, aside from the United States and France, no other country in the world has ever fascinated me more that Germany, even as I’ve never really set foot on German soil. Once I walked around at the airport in Frankfurt while waiting for my connecting flight to Paris, as I was going over there coming from Athens, sometime in 2017. But that’s about it. The question is whether there would be a European Union as robust as we know it today without the total support of Germany. And the answer is a clear NO. Whether some Europeans like it or not, Germany is the driving force in EU affairs, to the point of having been named the “reluctant hegemon” by some people. Among other things, they have the largest population (83 million) they’re the largest contributors to the EU budget (± 26 Billion €) they have the most powerful industrial sector in the whole continent and they've had one of the most stable democracies in the world for over half a century. Sorry to rub it in, my fellow Americans, but Germany’s democracy is now much more stable than ours. No doubt Angela Merkle’s chancellorship for the past 16 years proved beneficial to Germany and, by extension, to the EU, although the latter part of my statement could easily be contested by a good number of Europeans who may claim Berlin has just been dictating the fate of Europe for their own nationalist advantage and aggrandizement. And the fact is there may be some good tinges of truth to it. Just ask many Greek people about it and they will peg most of the blame for their financial problems on Germany, starting with Merkle’s reluctance to float them during the 2008 financial debacle and beyond. But whether our European brethren like it or not, Germany is here to stay and we all better hope their next chancellor has a clear Europeanist head on his/her shoulders. And here’s where Annalena Baerbock comes into play. To begin with, she’s a charismatic woman. I saw her pictures and some of her videos and I immediately fell in political love with her (what else do you want me to do? She’s a good-looking chick too) I checked her public general track record and there's nothing there that might automatically keep her from becoming the leader of the 4th economy in the world (Japan’s is the 3rd, India’s is the 5th) and Europe’s # 1 (the UK’s is the 2nd and France’s is the 3rd) The next federal elections in Germany will be in September of this year and Annalena would be running for the Green Party. Unless there’s something hidden there that we don’t know anything about, she looks like a serious political force to be reckoned with, as she’s not only well-prepared and charismatic, but an ambitious political creature too. In the span of just a couple of years she has managed to displace Robert Habeck, the previous frontrunner for the party, who just today (Tuesday) announced it would be Annalena, not him, who would seek the Chancellorship this year under the banner of their Party. For some reason, I see some parallels between Obama’s sudden and augurious appearance in the US political scene at the Democratic convention in 2004 and Baerbock’s approching center stage in Germany's political theater today. I in no way claim to have a crystal ball to see the future but, as things stand at the moment, I’m 100% in for Annalena. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Expanding Universe and the Big Bang Theory. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, April 18th, 2021. Recently there was some sort of query on the online version of “The Guardian”, one of the best, most reliable sources of information in the world, about the well-known assumption that the Universe is expanding. The query was that, if the Universe is really expanding, where is it expanding into? I sent them my views on the subject, but, apparently, either I submitted my response too late, or they just didn’t consider it fit to print. No problem. I’m just a layman on this subject, but the proposition that the Universe is expanding sounds a bit nonsensical to me. Some scientists say the shape of the Universe is like a trumpet, a flat disc, a sphere, etc., but I have to wonder how come those supposedly bright minds that conceive those shapes not wonder what’s beyond that shape? From my perspective, such proposition is a non-starter, as in my average, just reasonably intelligent mind, the Universe has no limits. It has no beginning and it has no end. For example, if we were to send a powerful ray of laser light into space from each centimeter of our planet, none of those rays would ever reach an end (provided they don’t meet a hard celestial body that stops them) Meaning the Universe is limitless in all possible directions. Does that idea sound inconceivable to you? The same goes for the Big Bang theory. To begin with, that theory was first conceived by a Belgian Catholic priest named Georges Lemaître. Lemaître may have been a bright mathematician and physicist, but his theory looks suspiciously influenced by the book of Genesis. In my view, the Big Bang theory looks like just another mythological tale about the beginning of the Universe, except that such tale is dressed in scientific garb. The thing is, both those ideas are founded on sheer speculation, sheer imagination. Has anybody gone to the edge of the Universe to prove such edge exists? Was anybody there to witness when the Universe supposedly came into existence after the Big Bang? And, anyway, where did that inconceivably humongous amount of exploding cosmic silly putty come from in the first place? In the view of a layman like myself, both those ideas look like pure products of our own human egocentric, Androcentrist, Geocentrist general view of things. We see with our own eyes that everything around us has limits and has a beginning and an end, and we blindly extrapolate such limited impression into the vast Universe. No such thing. Time and space can be basically categorized as nonexistent in the larger Universe. But if we wanted to put it to words, we would have to say the Universe is limitless and it’s timeless. It has no boundaries and it never had a beginning, nor will it ever have an end. It has always been there and it will always be. Life may extinguish in one planet or another, planets may crash against each other, stars may be born or die, but the Universe will always be there and there are no confines to it. As simple as that. No such thing as an expanding Universe and no such thing as a beginning (Big Bang) or an end (Armageddon) to it. There is a document I wrote while living in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, back in 2009, that elaborates on the subject of the Big Bang Theory from a perspective of Jnana Yoga. That document I wrote in the span of one week, while teaching English to some Engineers employed at Al Salam, a Saudi Aerospace company tied in some sort of joint venture with Boeing and Lockheed Martin. That document I called “Eternalism, Reincarnation and the Big Bang”. If ever you’re interested in browsing through it, you could do so by clicking here.

Girl (©Lennon-McCartney) Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, April 16th, 2021. "Girl" is a song written mostly by John Lennon that was credited to Lennon-McCartney because of contractual arrangements between the two of them. It was part of the album “Rubber Soul”, which was released in the US in early December 1965. I clearly remember listening to that LP several times in a row the day I got my hands on it later that month. I remember at first I didn’t exactly know what to make of it. It was definitely not the kind of music I was expecting from the Beatles. I wasn’t sure whether to be disappointed in them or just puzzled by their new approach to their music. I thought somehow their “cheerfulness” was yielding to something else and at first I didn’t know what that something else might be leading to. It took me some time before coming to terms with their new style, but a couple of days down the line I had already realized there were definitely some very good songs in it. Just recall that "Michelle", "Norwegian Wood" and "Nowhere Man" were included there. The thing is the Beatles were simply maturing and their maturity was clearly coming through in their music. “Girl” is a song I thought was particularly unusual and maybe that’s the reason that, since those days, it got imprinted in my memory in an indelible way. The arrangement you will hear if you click on any of the two links available here, I “wrote” in a very spontaneous manner one night I was performing at “Chez Yves”, a Nightclub-Restaurant where I played 6 nights a week for almost a year while living in Paris, France, back in 1980. For those of you who are familiar with that city, “Chez Yves” used to be located in the Rue Tournefort, which runs parallel to the Rue Mouffetard, near the Place de la Contrescarpe, in the 5eme Arrondissement. It was a place where they served French and Brazilian food, but the bar where I performed used to stay open until dawn. I played there as a soloist singer-guitarist every night, except Sundays, and I usually started performing around 11:30 PM. During those days I used to use a rhythm machine that was very easy to manipulate, and even though I had a selected series of rhythms already programmed in it, I also used to improvise rhythms at random whenever I thought the audience would be willing to go along with me in testing something new. So, one night, as I had already started playing “Girl” with a different beat, I stopped, quickly programmed the rhythm machine to reproduce that rhythm, and played the whole song in it. And the audience liked it. So, I kept that song with that particular arrangement as part of my repertoire. That rhythm, by the way, turned out to be a Cuban rhythm called “Guaguancó”. But as summer came and I went down to the French Riviera and performed there without the aid of my rhythm machine, eventually that arrangement fell through the cracks of time until a couple of weeks ago, when I remembered it and decided to record it using my small, portable recording machine and my limited digital software. The final version you will hear came out a bit jazzier than the original one I came up with back in Paris in 1980, but the concept and the rhythm are the same. As usual, I “play” all the instruments and sing all the vocals. To listen to my version of “Girl”, please click here.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) Is the Democrat’s Monkey Wrench – Will He End-Up Playing the Role of 5th Columnist? Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, April 10th, 2021. It’s too early to tell what really lies deep in the heart of Joe Manchin. He claims to be a Democrat, but how far and how straight is he willing to stand for the American people? Is his present reluctance to go along with Biden’s infrastructure spending plan a mere case of grandstanding from his part just to have the limelight shine on him? Is he really ready to gamble with the wellbeing of the American people for his own political gain just like some Republicans often do? (i.e., Cruz, Hawley, Graham) And why does it always have to be a Democrat who switches camps, either partially or totally, to embrace the cause of the Republicans? One thing we have to hand to the Republicans is that, regardless of how wrong their plans for the country may be, they usually stick together, with just some occasional dissenters raising their voice among their ranks. And when Republican dissenters do raise their voices, they usually do it in numbers that don’t neutralize or reverse the general will of the Party. Just think of the few (10) Republicans who first voted to impeach the previous president for the second time, and the very few (7) of them who later voted to convict him. They did disagree with the partisan majority, but not in numbers large enough to affect the majorities’ will. In contrast, the majority the Democrats presently hold in the Senate couldn’t be more minimal. It’s just a majority of one: The vote vice-President Kamala Harris casts as President of the Senate. Joe Manchin, therefore, holds a pivotal position right now and he’s perfectly aware of it, so, it remains to be seen whether he will try to capitalize on it as much as he can, even if it may sometimes mean derailing Joe Biden’s well thought-out and needed plans for the country. Obviously, Manchin is not a deep-blue kind of guy, just as much as a few other “Democrats” aren’t either. Among Democrat elected officials, and elsewhere too, some so-called “Democrats” really aren’t. They’re just Republicans in disguise. They fit under the Democratic tent only because they support one single Democratic issue, say, gay rights, or immigration reform, or Roe vs. Wade, but when it comes to issues that pit capital vs. workers, or police abuse of authority, or budgetary matters, or programs that benefit the masses, or even racism, they're often quite willing to take the “conservative” Republican side. Manchin is one of those who call themselves “moderate Democrats”. How many Republicans do you know that call themselves “Moderate Republicans?” Mitt Romney maybe? Not even him. For the moment, it isn’t clear to me what Joe Manchin’s position is on many important issues, but I’m sure we're all going to find out about it sometime soon. My point being that Manchin doesn’t seem to have understood who he’s dealing with when he’s extending a conciliatory hand to the Republicans. Or, if he has understood, then he's just another Republican in disguise. Has he already forgotten the dire route the Republicans tried to embark the nation on over the past four years? Did he already forget the Republicans were ready and willing to allow a corrupt authoritarian president run roughshod over the American Democratic system? Hardly any other issue can be as serious and consequential to America as that. Does Joe Manchin take those issues seriously? Manchin should do well in recalling the lyrics to Pink Floyd’s “Dogs of War”, moniker that could easily be pinned on some, or even many, Republicans. Those lyrics go somehing like this: “Dogs of war and men of hate... With no cause, they don't discriminate... For hard cash, they will lie and deceive... Even their masters don't know the web they weave”. And the last stanza includes this: “Dogs of war don't negotiate... Dogs of war won't capitulate... They will take and you will give... And you must die so that they may live”. The last sentence may be a bit overblown for my comparison, but that’s well allowed within poetic license. So, hey Joe Manchin, to avoid the risk of having the whole thing blow up in your face, and maybe in that of the whole country as well, make sure you know who you’re really dealing with before compromising with the devil. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Thank You, Uncle Joe. I’m Sure Those Moneys You Just Sent Will Be Pretty Much Welcome Everywhere. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, April 8th, 2021. No doubt the money Uncle Joe just sent as part of his Covid rescue plan will be highly welcome by millions of Americans, particularly those over 60 or even over 70 or 80 years old, age brackets that include me. I got my money day before yesterday by direct deposit. Thank you Joe. These are difficult times for many of us. Even for the two or three years before the pandemic, people my age had no longer been getting enough job offers. By then, such job scarcity was already a phenomenon happening in most of Southeast Asia, most of Europe and even in some African countries, which are the areas of the world where I've spent these past 17 years or so teaching languages or just visiting. During those years I taught French, Spanish and English in some of those countries, but mostly English, as that is the language most in demand across the world. Before that, I had also taught Italian in California. By now it should be clear to everyone that the English language is indeed the lingua franca of our times. But, gradually, over the past five years or so, those teaching jobs began disappearing. Governments and educational institutions began erecting age barriers everywhere and, in spite of my good credentials and experience as a language teacher, doors were no longer opening to me as wide as they had opened before. Then, last year, because of Covid, Job offers dropped to zero and have remained so up to this day. Fortunately, I’m a recipient of SS benefits, which keep me financially afloat with a certain level of comfort as long as I stay in countries where the cost of living isn’t too high. I’m also fortunate to have 4 citizenships, all of them legal, as the constitutions of those 4 countries allow their citizens to hold as many nationalities as they wish. I am, of course, primarily an American, but as the French citizen that I also am, I can stay as long as I want and even settle down for good in any of the 27 countries members of the European Union, one of them being Greece, the beautiful country where I’ve been living for over a year now. The thing is, as the septuagenarian that I also am, I’m in pretty good shape overall, physically, mentally and spiritually, so, I don’t see any reason why I wouldn’t be able to teach any of the 4 languages I speak fluently to anybody willing to learn any of them, particularly because of the teaching diplomas I have and the years of experience I have thus far accumulated in that field. But many government and educational institutions across the world think differently and I understand their point of view, even as I respectfully disagree with it. The fact is some people my age tend to behave in ways that aren’t compatible with some of their exigencies. And some Asian and Southeast Asian countries have an additional reason to discriminate hiring on the basis of age. In South Korea, for example, which is a country where I worked for 2.5 years and had a pleasant, even memorable experience, their culture tells them older people deserve to be respected by all other younger ones just for the sheer fact of being older. This puts school directors in trouble, as their culture tells them to show respect to older people and if the foreign teachers are older than they are, how can they tell them what to do? But I’m in no way complaining about my present situation. I feel good. The Internet provides me with some of the best up-to-date, reliable, reputable sources of information that there are, the island of Crete is certainly a beautiful place to live in, Greek people are welcoming and, for the most part, kind; language is in no way a barrier and, to top it all, I’m in very good overall health. Things being the way they are, therefore, I often tell myself that life may not always be a bowl of cherries, but it isn’t a constant pain in the neck either. So, once again, thank you Uncle Joe for sending those moneys and please keep up the good work. I was just reading about Joe’s tax plan and I entirely agree with it. Let’s keep those corporations from cheating the United States out of that valuable and necessary financial contribution. To read about President Biden’s tax-plan proposal, please click here.

Where Does Mitch McConnell Think He Is? Russia? China? Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, April 7th, 2021. Wow. Since when does the American government tell private companies when to get involved in politics and when to stay out? Is authoritarian Mitch finally losing whatever bits of grip he had on reality? What do you think he would do if, for example, Coca Cola continued to denounce Georgia’s recent anti-voting laws? Throw James Quincey, the company’s CEO in jail? Poison him like Putin poisons his political enemies? Convict him of bogus crimes in a kangaroo court like the “communist” politburo does in China? Nationalize Coca Cola? Ha. Delusional McConnell is just huffing and puffing against the brick walls of American capital, just pushing the same old false dichotomy that has helped keep the Republican Party afloat for decades, that if Americans don’t let the Republicans get away with whatever dirty anti-Democracy tricks they want, the country will descend into socialism. Yeah, right. What do you think those corporate CEOs are, Mitch? A bunch of woke dopes? Those guys are capitalists by excellence, you dumbo, and they're pretty much in touch with the political pulse of the nation too, obviously much more so than you do. You arrogant delusional fool. And, anyway, the pact between big corporations and the Republican Party is not cast in stone. The lower-taxes, preference-over-labor treatment American capital gets from the Republicans in exchange for their financial support can be broken at will by either side at any time. And right now McConnell doesn’t have much say in whatever the Biden administration may be about to do next. So, for the moment, Republicans don’t have enough political weight to make corporate America do one thing or another against their will. The present political situation of the country is quite fluid and could drip out of the Republicans’ hands if they don’t go along, at least to some extent, with the political flow of the moment. And I’m not talking about the ideological restructuring American conservatism needs to do if it is to avoid an eventual splintering or implosion. The Republican Party should avoid stating outrageous claims and give itself enough time to reassess its pros and cons from a realistic perspective. As it is, the Party looks devoid of viable ideas. They have now become the party of NO, the party of sociopolitical resentment, the party of racism, white supremacism and authoritarianism. As sociopolitical engineers they have obviously failed. Their vision for the future of the country is murky at best, if not entirely vile. As we witnessed over the past four years, to follow them is to risk falling down a bottomless sociopolitical pit. Their plans for America can only lead to political stagnation and ossification of the American social structures, as that’s what social Darwinism does, perpetuate the powerful in power and let the rest toil for their survival in whatever way they can. McConnell’s complaints and pseudo-admonitions to the corporate classes are just one more example of the Republican Party’s pitiful predicament in the face of a changing American political landscape. There’s a small awakening taking place in the country right now, that if Joe Biden’s socioeconomic plans bear the desired fruit may finally bring some needed lasting change to the nation. And if the Republicans persist in their blind destructive policies of the past, they could easily end up having to kiss the American political scene goodbye which, in my view, would be a highly welcome event. The United States needs to have conservative forces actively participating in the national political game, so that our liberal wing won't take the country to any political extremes, but such conservatism needs to be responsible and pro-Democracy and needs to have the progress and the wellbeing of the American masses in mind, not just those of the moneyed elites. In other words, American conservatism needs to renew itself and needs to find a new vehicle to express itself, as the present incarnation of the Republican Party already looks ideologically defunct. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

A Protest Against Police Violence May Be Seditious Conspiracy. Invading the Capitol to Overturn an Election May Just Be Trespassing. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, April 6th, 2021. Any idea where that overt double standard may have come from? Let me give you a hint. “Even though those thousands of people that were marching to the Capitol were trying to pressure people like me to vote the way they wanted me to vote, I knew those were people that love this country, that truly respect law enforcement, would never do anything to break the law, and so I wasn't concerned.” So said Republican Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) about the anti-Democracy thugs who stormed the Capitol on January 6th at the behest of an authoritarian, anti-Democracy, Republican president. Then he added that, had those violent invaders been "tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter and Antifa protesters, I might have been a little concerned." In quite a stark contrast to Johnson's willingness to turn a blind eye on such anti-government violence, Bill Barr, a Republican Attorney General for the previous administration, last summer pushed prosecutors to charge with seditious conspiracy some demonstrators who did some similar damage to federal property in Portland, Ore., during street protests after the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. Got where the double standard comes from? Clearly, for those government officials, the severity of a crime doesn't rest on the laws or principles that were broken, but on the race and the political affiliation of the people who broke them. And that's the way things are in America. If you demonstrate to support or promote the rights of the American people in general or those of any ethnic minority in particular, or even if you just protest against police violence against African-Americans, you're a threat to the Republic and you could even be charged with seditious conspiracy. Break violently into the Seat of Congress, threaten to kill some congress people, vandalize the whole enceinte and even beat a Capitol officer to death in a violent effort to overturn an election to keep an unelected Republican president in power, and prominent Republican Senators will categorize you as someone who "loves this country" and "would never do anything to break the law". No way the country can return to such "normal" state of national affairs. Something has to be done about it. And the GOP's racism and authoritarianism are no longer expressed only by any overexcited, drunken rabble, but with pride and arrogance by government offcials at the top echelons of government. No doubt those white-supremacist guys like Johnson are desperate. They sense their so-called "conservative" (read: Retrograde) idea of the country is no longer shared by the majority of Americans, so they're quite willing even to resort to violent means to stay in power. In countries like Myanmar, the local authoritarian cabals are killing hundreds of pro-Democracy Burmese people in the streets, as they know violence is their last and only resort to remain in power. The Republicans haven't done anything similar in the United States only because they don't have the military on their side, but if they could they would. Just recall that in late December, 2020, Michael Flynn, a staunch loyalist of the previous president and an Army Lieutenant General in his own right, was doing the right-wing media rounds claiming his orange idol should declare martial law by way of invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807, which would have basically empowered the president to deploy the US Military in the streets against the American people. And later the whole Martial Law idea was discussed at a meeting with the then-president and his top aids, all of it with the intention of staging a pre-emptive coup d'etat against a duly-elected American president-elect. Make no mistake. Had the Republicans found a way to unleash the US Army against the American people just as the Myanmar government has done over the past few days against their own, you can be sure they would have done it. In Senator Johnson's view, although he clealrly admits the January 6th thugs were trying to upend the American Democratic system and basically overthrow a duly elected new president, he condones their actions because those thugs were mostly white and were standing for an authoritarian Republican ex-president. And that's the present state of affairs in the United States of America. If you're an elitist of most possible kinds and you voice your resentful, racist, anti-Democracy concerns loud enough, you will surely get the Republicans' full favorable attention (and maybe that of a few influential Democrats too) But if you stand for racial equality and justice, or raise your voice in favor of the rights and the wellbeing of the masses of Americans, or even if you just stand to protect the Democratic system of the United States, the Republicans will see you as their mortal enemy and will even try to charge you with Sedicious Conspiracy. To read an article that eaborates on the subject, please click here.

You Still Believe Trickledown Economics Works? Undeceive Yourself Once and For All. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, April 2nd, 2021. The bigger the lie and the more often it’s repeated, the more and the longer it stands to deceive the masses. The lie is the instrument of domination most often used by authoritarian leaders and most other wannabe or consummated dictators. The lie is the most destructive and efficient tool government officials can use to undermine democracies. Just recall how the previous president of the United States almost put American Democracy in checkmate by falsely claiming the election had been stolen from him. And, lo and behold, he did manage to fool tens of millions of Americans, many of whom haven’t yet woken up. The lie is a powerful tool to gain and stay in power, but don’t take such statement from me. Take it from one of the greatest masters of deception in the history of totalitarianism, Joseph Goebbels who, allegedly, said: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the [authoritarian and totalitarian] State” (words in brackets mine) Remember how often the previous US president accused the American press of being the “enemy of the people”? What he was actually saying is that the truth was the enemy of all those Maga people who followed him, as they had all fallen prey to his deceptive demagoguery. But there is a bigger and much older lie still prevalent in America that proves Goebbels’ alleged dictum is almost always perfectly correct, that in giving hefty tax breaks to the moneyed classes they will channel those savings back into the economy in the form of investments that will generate jobs for the masses. Yeah, right. They even came up with a catchy name for that scam: “Trickledown Economics”. Those Reaganite scammers do deserve to get the Goebbels Prize, which would be the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for mass deceivers, for they have for decades managed to fool the masses of Americans into believing moneyed people are a class of otherworldly guys who only have the benefit of the masses in mind. In that view, once you become rich you are, as if by magic, no longer a regular human being and are henceforth invested with a halo of sainthood that divests you of any selfishness, greed or dishonesty. Yeah, right. Moneyed people are just human beings, just like you and me, and as such they can be greedy and selfish and are in no way shielded from corruption and dishonesty. In fact, as the popular saying goes, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” and many or most of those moneyed people gained power over the masses as they went acquiring their fortunes. Moneyed people are powerful people, and as such they are subjected to corruption. But I’m not here to demonize those guys. No. I’m a human being too, and a very imperfect one at that, and If I were rich I would most likely be exposed to the same levels of corruption that they are. But, since I know I’m potentially corruptible, I’m perfectly certain that they are as well. As a result, I would agree with giving hefty tax breaks to the rich on one very simple condition, show us in very clear numbers and terms that your company invested the largest portion of your tax savings back into the economy or you and your company will no longer be on the list for future tax breaks. As simple as that. As the situation stands today, however, most, or at least a good majority of those companies, either use that money to buy back their own stock, pocket the tax break money or, quite likely, just lay off workers and proceed to divest instead of investing back into the economy. You think I’m imagining all this? Just check out how these 77 American oil companies took $8.2 billion in Covid relief tax cuts last year and, instead of investing that money back into the economy, they went ahead to lay off thousands of workers. Trickledown Economics my foot. That’s just a scam. Just one more successful Goebbels-like big lie. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Joe's Infrastructure Spending Plan is What America Needs Right Now and If the Republicans Don't Like It, Screw Them. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, April 1st, 2021. Ask the great majority of Republicans to join you in promoting an initiative that doesn’t include tax cuts for the rich, suppressing the vote or bashing in any way on any minority ethnic group and, as a minimum, they will openly give you a very cold shoulder. Show them you support white supremacy and have a high distaste for governmental and democratic institutions and they will give you a standing ovation. And quite a loud one too. Many of us actually think those guys no longer stand for America as we've thus far known it. No doubt the whole world is now aware of the Republicans' deep disdain for American Democratic principles and it is by now plain and clear for everyone to see they only stand to protect and perpetuate the privileges of the white American moneyed minorities. And in their racist, servile plutocratic blindness, they couldn’t give a lesser damn whether the country goes down the drain or goes up in flames. Just recall the blatant submissive subservience they quite proudly and openly professed to a racist, white-supremacist, authoritarian demagogue for the past four years. Worse still, keep in mind that a large and influential number of them still do. Joe Biden is totally right taking the side of the American people and he’s perfectly right in his willingness to invest big in national infrastructure. A $2.5 trillion price tag for his plans? Not bad for a start. Rebuilding 20,000 miles of American roads, rebuilding the 10 most economically-important national bridges and repairing 10,000 more, replacing the lead pipes and lines in the water-supply system, upgrading the electrical grid, investing in R&D, actively supporting the production of electric vehicles by placing 500,000 charging stations across the nation, making sure the US has accessible and affordable highspeed Internet in all corners of the country, renovating airports, those are just a few of the works that should have been done on a periodical basis over the past decades and some new ones that are now badly needed. Those works, of course, will produce millions of jobs and will have other beneficial repercussions on the economy. And how does Joe propose to pay for it all? Raising marginal income taxes on the moneyed classes and income taxes on International corporations over the next 10 years. Yes, it's about time those moneyed guys gave an extra something back to the country whose hard-working labor force and general pro-capital business environment have made them the multi-millionaires and billionaires that they are. And if they tell you taxing them extra is socialism, just kindly ask them to try moving to Europe. Or how about moving to China guys? Remember how Republicans used the Reconciliation Bill to pass the 2017 $1.5 trillion tax cut for corporations and individuals? A $1.5 trillion gift to those Americans who needed it the least?! You didn't hear any of them complain, did you? Trickledown economics my foot. I'm all for capitalism, but not of the cut-throat, pamper-the-rich, screw-the-workers kind Republicans want to keep in place in America. Let's level a bit further the playing field for everyone. Should we keep thinking everything is OK in America when 91 fortune 500 companies, including Amazon, don't pay a single penny in federal taxes while an average middleclass household pays 24%? Not any more. Joe's infrastructure investment plan and general reforms have to become reality. It is now imperative for the Democrats to use the same Reconciliation Bill strategy to pass the $2.5 trillion infrastructure package. And if the Republicans start crying for any imaginary deficit fears or any other worn-out "conservative" nonsense of that sort, just tell them clearly and loudly to go screw themselves. American conservatism in its present form is dead, anyway. It already revealed its true colors, its true face. As it stands today, American conservatism equals backwardism. It equals sociopolitical stagnation. In some instances it even means going back to Jim Crow-like laws and legislations. The country desperately needs to renew itself, renew its ideas. It actually needs to conceive itself under a bright new light, and so do the American conservative forces. For the moment, however, this is it. The United States has no other way out. Either the US government stands straight for the American masses and for renewing the country, or the whole of the American edifice may eventually just crumble and fall. Joe is perfectly right in pushing hard to implement his infrastructure spending plans. Go for it, Joe. I watched the speech he gave from Pittsburgh presenting with enough detail what his investment plan is all about and one thing came through perfectly clear, he designed his plan with the American people and the future of the United States in mind and that's exactly what the country needs right now: A strong, revitalizing shot in the arm. The one and only way for you to go is forward, Joe. And please make a real effort taming those bipartisan instincts of yours, as the Republicans' only quest for the foreseeable future is to wreck any and all of your smart projects and doom your presidency for good if you let them. And if in the process they wrecked the whole country, you can be sure they wouldn't give a single damn about it. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here. To watch a video of Joe's Speech from Pittsburgh, please click here.

Aviva El Seso (©Salaroche) Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, March 31st, 2021. What better time to sit down in front of my computer to record some music than during Covid lockdown? The pandemic situation is not extreme here in “my” small town of Kalives, or even on the island of Crete, or even at large in the country of Greece, for that matter. At least not as bad as it may be in parts of my beloved California and elsewhere in the US, or in Czechia, Sweden or Brazil. And I say this without the slightest tinge of schadenfreude in my heart. The fact is I’m here in Greece because the Southeast Asian countries I would like to go to are closed to foreign visitors. But I’m not complaining either. Crete is a beautiful island and Greek people couldn’t be any nicer and welcoming to foreigners. Just picture that here most people are quite happy to speak to you in English. So, with all that free lockdown time in my hands, what better entertaining endeavor than to record my own songs? “Aviva El Seso” is a piece I wrote sometime back in 1972-73, while living in the city of San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. Back in those days you could still say the living was nice and easy over there. Not anymore. All those Central American countries, except for Costa Rica, have basically gone down the drain, mostly because of extreme gang violence or excessive authoritarianism in Nicaragua. Costa Rica, by the way, is today one of the most stable democracies in the world, much more stable than the one we have in the United States. Over there, everybody's quite happy with their democratic system, which is far from being the case in our beloved America. I’ve been to Costa Rica a few times and I’ve always liked it. But this song was inspired in El Salvador. I wrote it in Spanish, which is one of the four languages I speak fluently. I wrote it one night, 48 years ago, when I came back home after partying at a place where there'd been an orchestra playing Salsa music and I just told myself “why not write a song in one of those rhythms?” and so I did. The funny thing is one day, about a couple of weeks ago, as I was writing something on my computer, I remembered the whole song, harmony, melody and lyrics in its entirety, so I said “I should record this thing”. And here it is. In English, “Aviva el Seso” means something like “wake up” or “wise up” or “open your eyes to whatever is happening”. Aviva el Seso is not a popular phrase in Spanish, I got it from a poem by Jorge Manrique, a Spaniard who walked this Earth around the middle of the 15th century. I didn’t write this little piece with anyone in particular in mind. I just thought I should try to make it sound like a Colombian, Panamanian, Cuban or Venezuelan Salsa, which is a cluster of Caribbean rhythms that have plenty of African influence in them. As it turned out, I think I did manage to make it sound that way. To listen to “Aviva El Seso”, please click here.

Hey Joe: Before Trying to Sell American Democracy to the World, Shouldn't You Try Selling it to the American People First? Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, March 29th, 2021. Picture an Auto Repair shop-owner trying to sell you his services while driving around in a clunker that barely functions. Or imagine a Veterinary doctor claiming to be the best in town while the cats and dogs he has back home are all sick and squalid. That’s more or less how Uncle Joe sounds when he tries to present American Democracy as the shining paradigm the rest of the world should follow. And please don’t get me wrong. I voted for Joe and, if he runs in 2024, I will most likely vote for him again, as there’s not a single chance in a billion that I may vote for any Republican. Sorry Republicans, it’s just that I don’t have the tiniest degree of sympathy for any racist, white supremacist, Democracy-hating, elitist bigots of your kind or any other. And the fact that I speak sincerely about our ailing Democratic system doesn’t in any way mean I wish it would fail for good. I have lived for years at the time in authoritarian countries like China and Myanmar and for months at the time in communist countries like Vietnam, so I know firsthand how it feels not to have some of the liberties we enjoy in Western Democracies, particularly in the United States. For that and other reasons, I’m a 100% pro-Democracy guy and, if anything, what I would wholeheartedly like is for the US to improve its Democratic system (and there's plenty of improvement to do) But I cannot fool myself pretending I can cover the sun with my thumb either. The blaring and alarming reality that came out to the surface of our conscious in America over the past four years can in no way be brushed back under the rug. No matter how hard Uncle Joe may try to dismiss it in his speeches, the American democratic system is seriously ill. Actually, it is barely functioning right. As we speak, there are many highly influential government officials across the nation laboring hard to undermine the country’s electoral system. And those individuals are not alone. They represent millions of Americans that support their anti-Democracy efforts. In the face of that, would you dare to claim American Democracy is standing on solid grounds? No way. Very recently, during a reassuring press conference, Uncle Joe clearly stated that right now we're in the middle of "a battle between the utility of democracies in the 21st century and autocracies", adding that “We’ve got to prove democracy works". But before even suggesting that our Democracy is working well and should therefore be a paradigm the rest of the world should follow, Uncle Joe should first make sure that all, or at least an overwhelming majority of our own fellow Americans are convinced Democracy is the kind of system we all want to have in the United States. Such reassurance, however, is, for the moment, quite beyond our reach as, clearly, a large number of Americans have, as a minimum, deep doubts about our Democratic system, if not an outright distaste for it. There’s a vast amount of work for you to do, Uncle Joe, even if thus far you’ve been doing well. But, for the moment, just keep up the good work. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

If We Let Republicans Have their Way We Might as Well Say Goodbye to American Democracy. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, March 27th, 2021. Just picture this: In the State of Georgia, it is now a crime to offer water or food to anyone standing in line to vote during an election. And no, I’m not joking. The Republican Legislature in that state just passed such law and a few others designed to make it more difficult for blue collar and other 9 to 5 workers to vote. The state of Iowa is following suit and the states of Florida, Texas and Arizona are looking into similar ways to keep people from voting. Do I find this amazing? Not really. Such Republican anti-Democracy moves shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone anymore. All those states have Republican-controlled legislatures and by now we all know most Republican don’t have a single pro-Democracy bone in them. The previous president’s big lie, that last year’s election was stolen from him, is alive and well in Republican minds and the longer that lie lives, the shorter the life of American Democracy will get. This is not a matter of the leaders of those states imposing their will on their constituencies. Those electorates had elected a Republican State Legislature in the first place and at this point in time nobody can claim not to know what that means. If you send a Republican to any position in government is because you want an increase in racism, white supremacism and bigotry in your life and, most importantly, you want a corresponding decrease in the level of Democracy in the country. There’s no two ways about it. The virus presently corroding Democracy in the United States doesn’t solely run deep in the blood of the Republican leadership. It is a driving force in the Republican electorate too. And the only way to deal with such virus is to crush it. But the only way to crush it is to beat it hard at the ballot box and that’s why the legislatures in those states are enacting rules and laws to make it as hard as possible to vote. As the situation stands at the moment, there are only two possible alternatives for the future of the United States. Either the Biden administration makes it patently clear to the American masses that the US government will from now on stand on their side, as opposed to continuing to pamper the moneyed classes to the detriment of the middle and the working classes, or we will lose the country. We will lose it to the forces of demagoguery and authoritarianism and, ultimately, even to dictatorship. You think I’m exaggerating? Think again, for only a few months ago the United States was on the brink of sociopolitical disaster and just barely saved itself from falling down an abyss of political chaos that might have ultimately descended into civil war. The resentment festering at the heart of tens of millions of Americans can no longer be brushed under that rug of complacency typically embraced by our politicians. There are tens of millions of Republicans who no longer feel the present sociopolitical situation has anything to offer to them. They feel rudderless and, in their desperation, they’re willing to follow any demagogue telling them he will save them. Give those people any scapegoat for their predicament, be it the ethnic minorities, the Democratic Party or our own Democratic system, and they will even take to arms against them. The American government is seriously failing the American masses and the Republican leadership knows it. But instead of looking for solutions to the problem, they want to exacerbate it, gambling they will come out on top if and when the turmoil they’re stoking finally subsides. Wake up America. There are some highly blind, irresponsible, even un-American people gambling with your very own future for their own short-term political gain. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

China is Not Yet Telling America What to do. They’re Just Already Doing Almost Everything Much Better than We Do. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, March 24th, 2021. While America uselessly keeps looking for every possible reason to look down on China, they just keep pushing forward at a pace that may soon leave the whole western world, namely the United States, behind in every sense. China is ruled under a one-party system where all the members of government have but one commanding thought in mind: To put China as far ahead and as high as possible over the rest of the world. In the United States, on the other hand, we have a highly dysfunctional quasi-Democracy where half the members of government are just looking for ways to keep the country stuck in a rotting mire of nonesense that reeks of “conservative” blindness and backwardness. Did you notice how not one single Republican Senator voted to pass Joe Biden’s highly needed $1.9 trillion rescue package? Not one. What a show of national unity, no? In those retrograde Republicans’ view, the American people may well get decimated by the pandemic and may as well go straight to hell financially too, but those backward-looking ideologues wouldn't even lift a finger on their behalf. “We’re conservatives”, they say, “we don’t stand for handing any ultra-needed help to the middle and lower classes. That’s socialism”, they say. “Talk to us about giving tax breaks to the rich and about dismantling as many labor and environmental protection legislations as possible and you’ll get our unconditional support”. So “American” no? Just ask yourself: Has the United States reached a sorry point of no return? One could easily say it has. Just checkout how those tens of millions of Maga people keep waiting in the wings for you-know-who’s second coming. For there will certainly be a second coming. Regardless of whether that destructive Maga spirit that raised havoc in the country over the past four years comes back incarnated as the same narcissist egomaniac messiah or wearing the flesh and bones of a living enhanced replica, the division sown in the recent past on the American psyche is way too deep to disappear overnight. But even before such catastrophic event befell the nation, there was already a level of dysfunction in our government enough for the nation to advance forward barely at a baby-step pace. China, on the other hand, enjoys a unity of purpose that runs from the highest echelons of government down to the lowest ranks of workers. One could easily claim that the largest number among those 1.4 billion Chinese seriously trusts their government and are willing to follow its dictates in an almost-blind fashion. The unspoken contract between the Chinese people and their government runs something like: “You lift us up from poverty, increase our lot and make our country the most feared nation in the world, and in return we’ll give you our freedom of speech, our freedom of association and partially our freedom of movement too”. And the Chinese government keeps sticking to their side of the bargain, so the masses of Chinese keep sticking to theirs too. In the United States, on the other hand, the masses are deeply divided and tens of millions of Americans are utterly disappointed in their government, to the point of even wanting to bring it down. Guess what country is today in a better position to take the lead for the rest of the 21st century? “Divide and conquer”, goes the saying, and America is already hopelessly divided. But the Chinese are not just spectators watching and waiting for the whole American edifice to finally crack for good, crumble and fall. No. They’re quite busy building an empire of their own and thus far they’re quite obviously succeeding in their efforts. Come to terms with it, America, the Chinese no longer respect us or fear us. They're just laughing at us. To watch a video that clearly exposes the ridiculous US predicament vis a vis China, please click here.

Joe Biden is No Revolutionary President He Just Has Understood the Obvious: America’s Only Way Out is in Siding with the Masses. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, March 21st, 2021. While riding on a train from Bar, Montenegro, to Belgrade, Serbia, a couple of years ago, the only other western passenger on the train, a Canadian, asked me how was it possible for the United States, the first economy in the world, to be lagging so far behind most other western nations regarding the prohibitive cost of healthcare and education we have, to which I responded that, in America, most people, particularly most American politicians, think that “if we got to be number one being the way we are, why should we change now?”, to which the Canadian guy had no response. There’s plenty of truth in my answer to the Canadian’s question, except that time and circumstances hardly ever remain the same and whenever they do, they don’t remain so for long. Things change and sometimes they change dramatically. These past four years have signaled there’s been a tectonic shift in the American people’s perception of the national reality. The happy-go-lucky American that used to be the envy of the world is no more. The American spirit has seriously soured since 9/11 and the frustrated masses of American workers and farmers have now embraced the usual scapegoating for their hopeless predicament: xenophobia and racism. Not that those two scourges didn’t afflict American society before, it’s just that now they have reached a critical point that could get much worse if left unchecked. Obviously, the masses’ willingness to let government pamper the moneyed classes expecting them to come to their rescue hasn’t bore any palpable fruit for them. Quite to the contrary. For one, that so loudly touted “trickledown economics” scam has turned out to be exactly that: A Scam. Sheer legalized class warfare. And it’s in plain sight for everyone to see that the American government has done very little, if anything, over the past 60 years or so, to alleviate the plight of the American commoner. As a result, as we've witnessed over the past few years, the American multitudes are ready to follow any demagogue who may pretend to stand on their side and, in their frustration, they’re willing to stand up against their own government, to the point of believing the American democratic system is a sham, and even going to the extreme of staging a preemptive coup d’état against a legitimately elected new president. Joe Biden has seen all this with fairly clear eyes and he’s responding to the present situation with a considerable, realistic presence of mind, much more realistic than Barack Obama's seems to have ever been. Yes, we got to be number one in the world by being the way we are, but the time has come to seriously reconsider the way we’ve been, for such a way is no longer working for the country. To stubbornly resist against change, including of the radical kind, would not only be utterly stupid from our part, it could also end up being painfully catastrophic for the nation. To read an article that addresses the subject, please click here.

Can the US Preach Human Rights to China When Tens of Millions of Republicans Voted to Keep a Racist Bigot in the White House? Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, March 19th, 2021. Get off your white horse, America, your Lone Ranger identity has been exposed for the whole world to see. Hidden under your self-righteous mask there is a face plagued with the cancer of racism, white supremacism and a deeply-rooted hatred for your own Democratic system. Trying to shame China for their persecution of the Uighurs in the northwestern province of Xinjiang is not going to get you anywhere. Maybe you should try to replicate our domestic situation and start a Uighur Lives Matter movement in China.  Accusing them for keeping their people under tight censorship also rings of sheer frustration and even veiled envy. Remember how the previous president constantly accused the national press of being “the enemy of the people”? China’s near-hermetic control of the media is something the Republican Party would love to put in place in the United States. And if nearly half the American electorate no longer believes in Democracy, how can you go around preaching the virtues of a system that not even at home is fully accepted? And what a foolish way to start a top-level diplomatic conversation with China in Anchorage, looking down on them? Don’t you know by now who you’re really dealing with? When talking to China America should concentrate largely on matters concerning trade, their military expansion, cyber security and the autonomous status of Hong Kong and Taiwan, not on questions of morality. The US still holds a position of preponderance pertaining to those subjects and we can talk to them about those matters from a position of force and authority. Otherwise, get off your white horse, America, you no longer stand on any higher moral ground above the rest of the world. If anything, America’s moral stature has been deeply cracked with no palliative measures visible in the horizon. You’re a deeply racist nation, America, come to terms with it, human rights are not your forte, and your Democratic system just came to the brink of collapsing under the domestic authoritarian onslaught that hit it head-on over the past five years. And if to this we add the highly undemocratic Electoral College system you have in place, you look barely as a Democracy to the rest of the world. As a famous black book says, “How can you say to your brother let me take the speck out of your eye when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?” Stick to your guns, America, trade, the military, cyber security, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Otherwise, you have a lot of serious housecleaning to do before going around walking tall in the world neighborhood again. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Biden’s Right Approach to China: Form a Block of Western Nations to Present a Unified Front Against Chinese Emperialism. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, March 18th, 2021. While living in central, eastern and southern China over a period of four years, I could see and read the clear writings on the wall. Actually, I could hear the very same message spoken to me directly from the horse’s mouth. And the better educated the Chinese people I spoke to were, the clearer the message was laid out for me to see: China’s ultimate quest is to eventually acquire the necessary power to tell the rest of the world what to do. At one point in our relationship or another, University teachers and students alike would all tell me, “we’re better than you guys and we’re gonna beat you at your own game, but in our own timeframe and in our own terms”. And they meant it. In their minds they can see it coming. They know there’s only one predominant obstacle in China’s quest for world domination and that obstacle is the United States. They also know the American hurdle they have to surmount in multi-pronged. Emerging powers, such as China has been over the past few decades, eventually reach a point where they feel powerful enough to take risks in challenging the hegemon, or the rules the latter may have imposed on the system of governance over which it rules. China’s building manmade islets for military purposes in the south China sea is not exactly comparable to Nazi Germany’s marching troops with impunity into the Rhineland in 1936, thereby clearly breaking the rules imposed on it through the Treaty of Versailles, but it’s already going in that direction. And China’s aggressive posture is only gaining in its assertion. Hong Kong, for example, a so-called autonomous Chinese region where I’ve been a few times, can now kiss goodbye to its autonomy from Beijing. And there already are American military commanders, such as Adm. Philip S. Davidson, the chief of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, warning that China’s next step over the next six years may well be taking over Taiwan, an island-nation that mainlanders keep claiming it’s just a runaway province of China proper. The Chinese can be very patient and perseverant. Just check out that in barely seventy years they have reached near-parity to the United States when it comes to technology and economic prowess. They are now back to believing their country is indeed the Middle Earth Kingdom of yore and are now seriously bent on making the rest of the world recognize them as such. And they’re persistent in their efforts. When it comes to the United States, the Chinese are relying on the Greek concept of Ouroboros, which even as that concept may otherwise have mystical implications, it refers to a snake that, blinded by circumstances, ends up devouring its own tail. They seriously expect American Democracy to self-destruct someday soon and the previous four years of sociopolitical chaos in our country only came to feed those expectations. The great majority of Chinese fervently believe their system of government is by far superior to any western-style type of government, particularly that of the United States and they see the deep divisions now plaguing America’s sociopolitical environment as proof that American Democracy is deeply flawed and unreliable. And when their inti-Democracy ideas are backed up by a financial power of the caliber of the second economy in the world, their ideas may easily outweigh any others in the eyes of many developing nations, particularly those whose governments have a penchant for authoritarianism. I agreed with the previous administration in their decision to confront China, above all against their predatory industrial policies vis a vis foreign investors, but I emphatically disagreed with their go-it-alone stance. Joe Biden’s approach to the China issue looks much more down to earth, much more feasible, much more based on the socio-econo-political reality of the moment. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Chanter Pour Toi (©Salaroche) Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, March 16th, 2021. “Chanter Pour Toi” is the name of a little tune I wrote back around May of 2019 while living in the small city-port of Bar, in the country of Montenegro. The name may be translated into English as “To Sing for You”. A curiosity about this tune is the spontaneous way in which it came out. One early afternoon I was just practicing some chord progressions on the guitar when a melody in my mind started following the harmony. The melody and the chord progression made sense as they easily took the shape of a song. But I soon realized I had never heard that song before. So, I said “this song has to be mine”. After playing it a few times, I also thought I should put some lyrics to it and so, the words just started pouring out too. The curious thing is they started coming out in French, which is one of the languages I speak fluently. Later that day I tweaked a couple of things here and there and that is how “Chanter Pour Toi” became the fun little tune you can now listen to. The recording I did in my apartment, here in Kalives, over the past week or so using a small BOSS-BR800 portable little machine and the software Sonar Platinum, which I have installed in my computer. I also used some digital instruments called VSTs, which stands for “Virtual Studio Technology”. As usual, along with the guitar, I “play” all the instruments you may hear and I sing all the vocals too. This is just a nice little tune that was floating around in the Montenegrin air that I was lucky enough to capture on my guitar on a peaceful sunny day. To listen to “Chanter Pour Toi”, please click here.

The Mantra that Government is the Problem Was Always Just Another Crass Selfserving Destructive Republican Scam. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, March 14th, 2021. It’s just another one of those Reaganite falsehoods that got so much traction over the past few decades that thus far has taken so long to debunk. Government is the problem, they say. Yeah right. Government is indeed a problem, but mostly for those who want to rig the system in favor of the rich and powerful. Get the hands of a well-administered government out of the affairs of the nation and what we get is a rampant dog-eat-dog Darwinist environment in the United States, which is exactly what Republicans have wanted for decades and the previous Administration tried so hard to get away with. Just check out how unprepared the nation was to tackle an unforeseen natural disaster such as the Covid pandemic. No centralized decision-making organism orchestrating preventive measures from Washington. A near-total laissez faire, “you’re on your own” attitude from the part of the Republican administration in power. And the country was going down the drain. Such may be called the crass stance of the typical callous Republican of the 21st century. Let chaos of a certain manageable degree reign across the nation, because “troubled waters are a fisherman’s gain”, where the fishes are the masses of Americans whose governmental safety net the Republicans would like to shorten and reduce as much as possible. And then there’s that entrenched “Conservative” prejudice that all government programs designed to support the masses are just free handouts for those lazy non-white individuals who will only use them to avoid looking for a job. Racism, plain and simple. No, government is not the problem. The problem are those individuals who only want to profit from the pro-capital business environment that prevails in America and don't feel any obligation to give much in return. Individuals whose blind ambition keeps them from realizing that the country is like a living landscape that needs constant care and that the only possible gardener who can do the job is government. Keep the government away from the affairs of the nation and the country’s environment will become an industrial garbage bin, national infrastructure will crumble, hospitals will become incompetent institutions, technology will stagnate, salaries and the quality of healthcare will fall, poverty will rise and the American Dream will sooner than later vanish into thin air. The country needs a strong, deliberative arbiter to see that the big fish doesn’t freely eat the small ones at will. The government has to play the essential, patriotic function of an equalizer of sorts to oversee that no excessive entrepreneurial ambitions of capital ever get to override the rights of the American majorities to the longterm detriment of the whole nation. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Blatant Royal Racism in the British Monarchy and Beyond. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, March 10th, 2021. Last night I watched a video of the Oprah interview with Meghan and Harry in its entirety, without commercials or any other interruptions. Largely 1 hour, 25 minutes and 32 seconds of conversation where there weren’t many droll moments to speak of, if any at all. A visibly pregnant Meghan laid it all bare for all of us to see: Life at Kensington Palace was miserable and asphyxiating for her, to the point of pushing her mind to seriously contemplate terminating her own life. A self-made, mixed-race American woman who worked her way from waitressing at an ice-cream shop to a steady acting job in a fairly successful TV show to capturing the heart and mind of an English Prince, couldn’t have been expected to quietly submit to the suffocating rigors and pretensions of a princely job. But she tried. She gave it a good shot to integrate herself into that world, but the whole apparatus turned against her, from the top leadership of “the firm” down to the British tabloids. She was not white enough for them. A good percentage of the population of the British Commonwealth is not white, but there’s no way they would accept a non-white individual as member of their royalty. Accepting her would be demeaning to the Crown. She had to be humiliated down to the level of her “inferior-race” and, if possible, forced to divorce Harry, so that the royal institution would be rid of such awful racial blemish for good. Harry’s paticipation in the interview was clear and thoughtful, as much as Meghan’s, and both of them tried not even to insinuate a desire from their part to exact revenge on Meghan’s royal torturers. And both of them showed their love and respect for the Queen, who turned out to be the only character in that shameful saga to come out looking as a decent human being. Whether that was a premeditated act of self-protection or a true sentiment inspired by the Queen herself, is anyone’s guess and a question we won’t find the answer for anytime soon. But the story they told was perfectly disgusting. Just picture that Archie, the couple’s son, who has so-called “royal blood” running in his veins, wouldn’t have been invested with any royal titles and would have been stripped of any protection from the British government simply because of the color of his skin. As Jimmy Kimmel said on his show the other night, and I paraphrase, “wow, things must be really bad in Britain when you have to emigrate to America looking for racial equality”. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Lena & The Beach Girls (©Salaroche) Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, March 9th, 2021. Malaysia is one of the 16 countries I have lived in and one of the 47 I have been to. I spent a few months there in the Spring of 2013 and I still have very good memories of those days. I don’t play Ukulele, but I sort of wrote a song playing one, with the help of Lena, a Malaysian girl who was living in a tent on the beach with some other girls of different nationalities. I spent a few happy days in Batu Ferringhi, the small town where Lena was camping out, but none of it would have been possible without the smart intervention of Eslan, a Malaysian guy who co-owned with his brother the small hotel where I was staying, “Lazy Boys”. By the way, the song "Lena & The Beach Girls" came out with some sort of "Ragtime" rhythmn along with some influences from Bluegrass music. To see a photo album showing the beaches of Batu Ferringhi and to meet Lena and the Beach Girls, please click here. To hear the song I wrote there, please click here.

Heading in the Right Direction - Some Relief to American Small Businesses and Low-Wage Earners - Screw Trickledown Scams. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, March 7th, 2021. It seems that the bigger a fallacy is, the more it tends to survive the test of time, particularly when the people profiting from the fallacy are entrenched in the corridors of power. Such is the Republicans’ worn-out Reaganite myth of “Trickledown Economics”: To give trillions of dollars in tax breaks to the rich and hope they will eventually gather enough good will to expand their businesses, thereby maybe adding a few more jobs to the economy. Yeah, right. Who wants charitable hand-me-downs of that or any other sort? That’s pure class warfare. Pure BS. Show me a fat tax break for the rich with enforceable strings attached to it and I’ll probably subscribe to it. Ask those rich guys to show exactly how they invested their tax-break money back into the US economy and I might even be glad to applaud it. And if they fail to produce any such proof, just wipe their names out of the list for future tax breaks. As it is, it’s just an incentive for most of those fat cats to buy shares in the stock market, go buy a larger house in Hawaii, buy an additional Mercedes Benz or get a second Yacht to moor it at the Miami Beach Marina or the Boston Harbor. Screw the trickledown scam. Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package is on the right track this time around. Imposing moratoriums on rent, evictions and mortgage payments, extending unemployment benefits at the federal level, sending money to state, local and tribal administrations and allotting considerable funds to vaccine distribution and other needed Covid-related activities. All of it among other things that no doubt stand to benefit the American masses. But that should only be the beginning. Once Covid is clearly on its way out, considerable investments in highway maintenance and enlargement, public transportation, sustainable housing, incentives for electric-vehicle production and power-grid improvement should all be part of the next step to follow. Not exactly a new New Deal, but something similar. And how will we pay for it? Tax the rich. Give those fortunate ones the chance to show their love of country by contributing an extra dime that will benefit the nation whose natural endowments, hard-working labor force, pro-business laws and innovative spirit have so generously made them millionaires and billionaires. Then there’s the need to start mending the devastating attrition American Democracy has suffered over the past few years. For that purpose, a voting rights reform is imperative. No way American Democracy can go on with the Republicans undermining the voting rights of the electorate as much as they obviously intend to do if the Biden administration lets them. I know Joe would never go as far as proposing to eliminate for good that highly undemocratic Electoral College, which has only brought havoc to the nation over the past 21 years. Just recall it was that stupid electoral pseudo-college who brought two unelected, immature, irresponsible fools to the presidency, G.W. Bush in 2000 and the other moron in 2016. But Joe can at least try to ensure that no eligible citizen of the United States is denied their right to vote and his administration can procure some of the necessary guardrails to see that no state can make voting an overwhelming task for the electorate to perform. It is no longer a secret that Republicans DON’T stand for Democracy in America. On the contrary. By now we all know they Stand against it. Failing to acknowledge this reality is to further jeopardize the future of our democratic system. In the meantime, hats off to the Biden administration for passing the $1.9 trillion relief package through the Senate and best of luck in setting in motion their nationwide infrastructure plan some time soon. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Mauritanian, the United States Government and the Milgram Experiment. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, March 6th, 2021. Those three subjects are intimately related. The link between the movie “The Mauritanian” (2021) and the United States government is obvious, as the movie tells the story of a guy from the country of Mauritania who was aprehended by the local police and extradited to the American Detention Camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he was jailed for over 14 years without charges and was repeatedly abused and tortured by American-government agents. The link between those two subjects and the third, the Milgram experiment, I will clarify a few lines below. I watched the movie on my computer a couple of nights ago and it impressed me enough as to write a short commentaty about it. The movie is based on the memoirs written by Mohamedou Ould Salahi, “The Mauritanian” himself. Parts of the movie are quite graphic in portraying the kind of torture Gitmo prisoners were subjected to, but those portrayals aren’t anything we haven’t been exposed to before in newspaper articles or in other movies contemplating related subjects, such as "Zero Dark Thirty" and others. The main character, Mohamedou, is played by Tahar Rahim, a French actor of Algerian descent, who not only physically resembles the real-life Mohamedou, whom we see at the end of the movie, but also does a very good job in portraying a certain type of Arab I have encountered during some of my months-long stays in Saudi Arabia. Some of those guys do indeed seem like really goodhearted people, not only in their demeanor, but in the helpful, uninterested things they do for others as well. It's worth mentioning that "The Mauritanian" has some excellent acting support from Jodie Foster, Benedict Cumberbatch and Shailene Woodley. The United States government looks quite realistic in the movie too, where Donald Rumsfeld and George Bush are mentioned a couple of times as responsible for the atrocities committed at Gitmo. And there's where the Milgram experiment comes into play. The Milgram experiment was designed and conducted by Stanley Milgram, a Professor of Social Psychology at Yale University, in 1963. Its results proved with a considerable degree of credibility that, when given a forceful, authoritative command, most human beings will inflict excruciating pain on their brethren, even to the point of killing them or perhaps ultimately to the point of exterminating them on the massive scale that the Nazis exterminated Jewish people during WWII. And the results of the experiment potentially include you and me as well. The torturing agents at Gitmo had the full authorization from individuals like then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice-President Dick Cheney and others, who at the time were some of the highest-ranking government officials in the nation, so they didn’t hesitate in dehumanizing their victims to an extreme extent, thereby dehumanizing themselves to a corresponding extreme degree as well. In addition, those American jailers and torturers were given a highly compelling patriotic incentive to enforce those brutalizing tactics: That in so doing they were protecting the United States and quite possibly keeping a second 9/11 from happening. However, as you can see in the documentary whose link I'm including below, not all Guantanamo guards had the same propensity to dehumanize prisoners and themselves as much as some others. Steve Wood, for one, even developed a friendship with Mohamedou during his captivity. The documentary shows some of the moments they shared when Steve visited Mohamedou in Mauritania once the latter was freed. According to data shown in the movie, at one point there were 779 prisoners in Guantanamo, of which only 8 were ever convicted of any crime in any court of law. Of those 8 convictions, 3 were overturned on appeal. Today, there are still some 40 prisoners in Guantanamo and who knows how many of them are still tortured just as often and brutally as Mohamedou was. As it’s said in the movie a couple of times, who would have thought such atrocities could ever be committed in America? The fact is no one with enough understanding of the human condition can expect the United States to be a nation where high, idealized morals and principles will prevail at all times and under any circumstances, but the absence of any acknowledgement from the part of the US Government that something went really wrong in Guantanamo for a couple of decades is not a promising barometer to measure the possibility that other similar or even worse national moral failures may occur in the future. To see an official trailer for the movie “The Mauritanian”, please click here. To watch a very recent documentary filmed in Mauritania where Mohamedou reunites with Steve Wood, the American guard he befriended at Guantanamo, please click here (there may be some short advertisement interruptions) To read a description of the Milgram experiment, please click here.

Fixing Public Wooden Benches in Kalives, Crete Island, Greece. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, March 4th, 2021. I’ve been in Kalives only for two months, but I can already say I like this seaside town very much. Usually, when I’m staying for some time in any town in any country, I rent a car and go visit the nearby towns and places of interest. Not this time. This time I’ve been staying put in Kalives for the obvious reason: The Pandemic has severely limited or outright forbidden most touring around. Fortunately, just like many other small towns in Greece, Kalives is an attractive one and, also as usual, most of the people here are friendly, talkative and accommodating to foreigners. I live in a studio facing the Aegean Sea, so it’s rather easy for me to walk along the shore a couple of times a day on a daily basis. Some sunny days I also like to go sit on a bench in one of the tips of the port and have lunch there right by the sea, usually enjoying one of those delicious hamburgers they make at Gyrothalassia, a seaside restaurant owned by Yorgos, a friendly Greek guy. But one day the bench had been vandalized, either by the strong winds of the previous night, or by some of those young human beings who sometimes do foolish things, to the point of making it unpleasant to sit on it. So, I decided to fix the bench and yesterday I went to a local Lumber yard, bought some pine wood, screws, washers and drill bits and fixed the bench using a battery-powered drill Yorgos lent me. As I was starting to work on it, a couple of guys came around to look and, when I encountered some difficulties drilling the wood, as Yorgos’ drill was not powerful enough, they offered to go fetch theirs and they ended up helping me in the whole process. Good guys. Miles, a Greek guy, went to his nearby home and brought his professional drill and Edie, an Albanian guy, got a meter and a hammer from the trunk of his car. It must have taken us some 45 minutes to do the whole thing and when the job was done, I thanked them a few times, shook hands with them and we parted ways. Good job. As a result, I now have again a bench where to go sit and have lunch right by the Aegean Sea and so does anybody else in town who wishes to do so. To see some pictures of the bench in question, please click here.

Is France Teaching America a Lesson on How to Respect and Enforce the Rule of Law? It Appears So. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, March 2nd, 2021. The French Courts just found Ex-President Nicholas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling. They handed him a three-year jail sentence with two of them commuted and the third one to be served maybe with limited home confinement or wearing an anklet with limited freedom of movement. And consider that Sarkozy’s transgressions were minimal compared to those the last American president should obviously be prosecuted for. Of course, as most other crooked politicians do, Sarkozy claims it's all some sort of a concerted “witch hunt” from the part of his detractors. But, yeah, “those French” seem to be much keener in protecting their Democracy than Americans are in protecting theirs. It seems that not many influential politicians and judges over there find it palatable to trade their Democracy for any other type of governmental system. Those guys have already tried Imperial, despotic and monarchical regimes, so now they seem to hold their present parliamentary democracy close to their hearts. They have even lived for a few years under foreign occupying forces and it seems the sum of those painful experiences makes them very unwilling to let anyone snatch the reins of government from the hands of their electorate, even if it were a duly-elected ex-president who went rogue while in power. What’s more, they are quite willing to prosecute their corrupt leaders even after they have left office and they even go as far as handing them jail sentences that, as a minimum, shame them and make them ineligible to hold any public office in the future. This time around, the French clearly one-upped everyone, particularly the United States, as they seem to know quite well that corruption is a cancer that can gnaw at all levels of government, that if it isn't nipped in the bud whenever and wherever it's detected it can eventually spell disaster for the nation. Meanwhile, back in America we still want to think our country is a beacon of Democracy where the rule of law is king. Sorry folks, but such statement has already been relegated to the bin of American cultural fallacies. In America, a president gone rogue on a few occasions was twice acquitted in the Senate and still has millions of citizens cherishing him and longing to put him back in power. That’s the undeniable fact. Close to half the American electorate would like to have a corrupt, amoral, pro-racism, pro-white-supremacism, anti-Democracy bigot as president. Just check out the adoration professed to the ex-crook in chief at the CPAC event in Orlando, Florida, this past Sunday. That was no display of American support for national democratic leaders. How did it all come to this? Did the United States lose its way over the past four or five years or is our present situation just a logical, inevitable step on the nation’s road to total political disaster? Whatever it is, the French are obviously not willing to follow America’s mis-lead this time around, not that they often have in the past either. The French philosophes of the late 18th century were influential in inspiring and supporting the revolutionary spirit of the American founding fathers. Maybe the time has come again for American leaders to look for sociopolitical support and inspiration, not only in France, but in a few other European Democracies as well. To read an article that elaborates on Sarkozy’s conviction, please click here.

Voter Suppression in the United States. So, This Is the Way It's Always Been and There's Nothing We can Do About it? Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, February 28th, 2021.

                      Rob Rogers-Andrews McMeel                                                                         Mike Luckovich-Atlanta Journal Constitution

Hard to Admit It, But the Ominous Specter of “The Previous Guy” is Here to Haunt Us for a Long Time to Come. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, February 25th, 2021. Whenever talking or writing about anything related to culture or politics involving the United States, I’ve been avoiding as much as possible to mention the name of the previous president, referring to him mostly as “the previous guy”, or something like that. Sometimes even referring to him using a very unflattering four-word sentence. But as time goes by, as much as I may try to just move on, the subject and the name keep increasingly reappearing, be it in the news or in newspaper articles and opinions. Recently, there was an opinion published in the New York Times written by Thomas B. Edsall, a guy whose articles I read on a regular basis, that prompted me to write this Commentary and share that opinion with you. The heart of Edsall’s exposé is the inexplicable magnetism that the previous president still exerts over his followers, many of whom seem to have elevated him to some sort of deified status. For example, just picture that, going into last year’s elections, 55% of white Evangelicals and 47% of Republicans thought Trump was “being called by God to lead at this critical time in our country”. Are those guys suggesting Trump is something like Christ’s “second coming” incarnated? The way things have been going, that’s not a farfetched interpretation. In the eyes of millions of Americans, the previous White House occupant remains unblemished by anything he might have said or done. Yes, his overall approval ratings have fallen, but they haven’t fallen as low as those of the Republican Party or Mitch McConnell have. The previous president now looks like the Republican Party's Mafia Godfather: Don Trumpone. To be granted an audience at Mar A Lago is now the seal of approval that boosts the popularity of those who get it, it's the Don’s blessing that increases their chances of being elected or reelected. In contrast, getting their name on the ex-president’s black list can spell political disaster for those who appear there. Who would have thought that in the first quarter of the 21st century, racism and white supremacism would still exert as much visceral pull on the hearts and minds of tens of millions of Americans as they did in the middle of the 19th? Hard to say it and not easy to admit it, but the powerful, noxious, divisive, anti-Republic, anti-Democracy symbolism embodied in “the previous guy” seems to have gotten hold of the American sociopolitical psyche with dogmatic depth and religious zeal. Sorry America. Better brace for it. "That guy's" destructive, ominous specter is still clouding the nation's sociopolitical skies and doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. To read T. B. Edsall’s detailed opinion on the subject, please click here.

I’m All in for Capitalism, But Not of the Cut-Throat Kind. There Has to Be a Strong, Prevalent Civic Element to It. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, February 24th, 2021. Government has to have the interest of the communities in mind in everything it does. It has to have the wellbeing of the American masses as an ultimate guiding purpose. Yes, government has to see that it provides national entrepreneurship with as many incentives as possible, but only as far as those incentives don’t impinge on the interests and the wellbeing of the majorities. Letting the profit motive and personal ambitions run roughshod over the socioeconomic progress or the plain livelihood of the majorities, as it did during the so-called gilded age, can no longer be seen as a smart government policy. We’re not living in the last half of the 19th century. Nothing is the same, except for that ol’ human nature we all carry within. Back in those so-called gilded times such unrestrained personal ambition may have put American industries way ahead of the British ones on its way to becoming the number one economy in the world. But that was way back then. There’s no longer any need today for any unbridled ultra-capitalistic thrust. To insist in keeping government as much as possible out of the economy’s business because that is the American way and that’s the way it should forever be, would just be a thick-headed, backward-looking proposition. Disregarding forever the welfare of the citizens the way the Texan people’s welfare has been obviously neglected by their Republican leaders can only spell trouble for the country. Please keep in mind that, besides the elements of racism and white supremacism, the feeling of being financially adrift was a strong component in the fanatic posture tens of millions of Americans adopted in supporting Trump. Keep neglecting the wellbeing of the masses by enacting legislations that favor capital in a blatant, irresponsible, disproportional manner and the minds of the masses will remain a ripe, fertile ground for the seeds of extremism to flourish. Anyone thinking the country should go back to any preexisting state of “normality” is basically thinking backward. The "normal” situation we all lived in before the Maga disaster hit the country was anything but. Such “normality” was precisely, exactly, unequivocally the situation that brought Donald Trump to power. That was a totally abnormal normality. You want to go back to something like that? You want to go back to it so that just a handful of years from now we get a meaner, shrewder, much better articulated demagogue in power? I’m all in for Capitalism, but not of the cut-throat kind, meaning I’m not in for any of that which economists call “free market fundamentalism” or anything resembling it. The interests and the wellbeing of the American masses have to be brought much more to the fore when deliberating and enacting any legislations. Enough of that labeling any government programs intended to benefit the great majority of Americans with pejoratives like "socialist", "Progressive" or any other similar, loaded, fear-mongering prejudiced terminology. Either we all start thinking of the United States as a unified country where the majorities have much more say in the democratic process, or the days of our lives could someday soon start to look quite “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Joseph Goebbels and Adolph Hitler Would Have Loved Facebook – The Biggest Propaganda Machine in History. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, February 19th, 2021. I’ll say it up front, I don’t use Facebook. I couldn’t care less about it. I used it for about a month back in the 1990s and bailed out of it for good, never to tap on it again. Even when I find info I need, if it is published on Facebook, I just bypass it and keep looking for other sources. The hell with Facebook. In my view, it is mostly a source for trash. But it can be much more than that. It is a well heavily contaminated with dangerous lies and hatreds of all kinds, a well whose festering waters quench the thirst of those suffering from all kinds of sociopolitical maladies. Yes, there may be some good things in there, but it is highly debatable whether whatever good lies therein outweighs the harm it inflicts on the societies of the world. And to try to protect the harmful, destructive antisocial discourse published there under the guise of a "freedom of speech" argument is highly disingenuous. Mark Zuckerberg allows it strictly with profit in mind. That guy doesn’t give a single damn about the constitution or about the dire fate American Democracy may suffer because of the harmful, disruptive antisocial discourse published on his platform. Lies, when amplified trough the powerful Facebook bullhorn, are no longer just lies, particularly when those lies are repeated and shared tens of millions of times in the span of just a couple of days. Lies, when published on that powerful platform, can actually become very serious threats against the democracies of the world. Facebook’s utter success rests on its algorithms. Zuckerberg has the technological means to fact-check whatever is published on his platform and block it or take it down whenever it is found to be a lie. But doing so would limit the number of visitors and postings Facebook would get, which in turn would limit the number of advertisements people would pay for on that platform, which would ultimately reduce the amount of money flowing into Zuckerberg’s bank account. Is Facebook seriously contributing to the slow dismantling of American Democracy? Who cares, says Mark Zuckerberg, nothing in this world is worth having more than a few extra billion dollars in his pocket. Zacha Baron-Cohen is a well-known actor and comedian, but please don’t discount him as just that. Even in his films, he’s got something to say about the sociopolitical state of affairs in the present world. To watch a video of Sacha speaking about Facebook and related things at the Anti-Defamation League in November 2020, please click here. To read a recent interview with Sacha, please click here.

A Decent, Experienced, Mindful American at the Helm of the Country. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, February 18th, 2021. Yesterday I spent one hour and ten minutes watching a townhall with Joe Biden, broadcast by CNN from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Anderson Cooper asked him a couple of questions and some of the few people sitting in the audience did too. The subjects ranged from the pandemic, how it will continue to affect schools, teachers and children, the $1.9 trillion rescue package, Police defunding, institutionalized racism in the justice system, student loans, how to reunite the country and how Joe feels living at the residency on the second floor of the White House. Most of Joe’s answers were familiar to many of us, as he has been talking about these things since he was running for president, so, in that sense, the townhall was not particularly revealing. Nevertheless, I sat attentively in front of my computer for 70 minutes to observe Joe’s general demeanor, his body language and his choice of words to gather a better sense of what the new President of the United States really stands for. He did not disappoint me in any of those counts. He was cool, calm and collected, straight forward, knowledgeable and in no way bombastic. I know a good part of his A-grade performance comes from his experience of close to 50 years as an active politician, but I also found it easy to see he was not trying to hoodwink anybody. He was not selling himself to the audience, live or at home, nor selling anything other than his plans for the country, which was in itself quite comforting. Overall, the impression I got is that, for the moment, the country is in very good hands. Hopefully, that impression won’t last only for the first hundred days of Joe’s presidency, but for the next four years and beyond. To watch the video of the townhall, please click here.

Contemplating the Sad Sociopolitical Situation in the United States Doesn’t Rob Me Even of the Tiniest Grain of Musical Inspiration. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, February 16th, 2021. While a Graduate student at the University of California, some of my colleagues would ask me how, even as the studies of Political Science were very demanding, I was still able to write and record some of my songs at home during my free time. My situation today is much easier, as my dedicated attention to the ominous sociopolitical events unfolding in the United States doesn’t in any way keep me from working on my music. As proof of it, I just uploaded a couple of songs I’ve recorded here at home since the year began, one of them, “It’s O’Rite”, being a song I wrote in December of 2020. The other one, “Sylvia”, is a song I wrote a few decades ago that I’ve never forgotten, so I recorded it again entirely on my own, “playing” all the instruments and singing all the vocals. Please note that I write “playing” in quotations, referring to digital instruments that are actually played using the computer keyboard, not the instruments themselves. There’s also a short story pertaining to each of the songs that relate their origins. To listen to the songs in question, please click here.

The Jan. 6 Trumpist Mob Attack on Congress Pales Compared to the Feb. 13 Republican Senators Mob Attack on US Democracy. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, February 15th, 2021. How did it all come to this? At what point in time did half the country go this crazy? This cannot be the work of one single demagogue by himself. When did Republicans become so resentful against the rest of the country? Particularly against the Democrats? Why is the GOP so enamored, to the point of idolatry, with a high roller would-be dictator lying conman? Trump’s defense in the impeachment trial often sounded like a plain statement of grievances, as if, for who knows what reason, the whole world owed allegiance to their false god. The hell with the Constitution, the hell with Democracy, the hell with the Republic, the hell with the whole world even. Nothing matters to the Republicans anymore. Their sacred cow has fallen out of grace with the majority of the electorate and they resent it deeply. They are hurting so much they would have gone along with Trump had he succeeded in reverting the results of the election in his favor. Had he staged a successful coup d’état the Republicans would have gone along with it. No single doubt about it. They would have also gone along with their demagogue god had he managed to declare martial law. In case you haven't realized it yet, the Republican Party no longer gives a single bloody damn about Democracy. My fellow Americans, you no longer live in the United States anymore. The United States is no longer the country the majority of us might have thought it was or might have wanted it to be. The shining city on a hill is no more. On what moral grounds can Joe Biden tell the Junta that just staged another military coup in Myanmar to respect any democratic principles or institutions in that country when we just had a president of the United States inciting his followers to basically override the results of a legitimate election in our own country, meaning basically that the president of the United States recently staged a failed coup d’état in the United States itself and got away with it perfectly unscathed? On what moral grounds can Joe Biden tell Vladimir Putin to reverse course and do a U-turn toward democracy when the Republican Party basically just negated the most fundamental of democratic principles, the right of the electorate to choose their leaders, by authorizing the president of the United States to incite insurrectionist movements whenever he doesn’t like the results of an election? Haven't you realized yet the serious implications of the Republicans' acquitting Trump in the Impeachment trial? In their view, from now on it is OK for the President of the United States to incite a rebellion against our own government because such incitement would be protected by the 1st amendment. What an utterly irresponsible anti-Democracy lunacy. Doesn't that amount to basically opening the gates wide open to an eventual dictatorship? No, my fellow citizens, you don't live in America anymore. The days for the United States to go around claiming to be a beacon of Democracy to the world are over. Sure, we can always do it, but we would just be brazen hypocrites if we did it. As the situation stands today, America taking the high moral ground to lecture any government in the world for any undemocratic practices they might be engaged in can justifiably prompt them to give the longest finger to our government and tell it straight to its face “before you accuse me, take a look at yourself” To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Trump’s Acquittal Was a Foregone Conclusion. Let’s Now Prosecute Him in the Courts of DC, Manhattan and Georgia. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, February 14th, 2021. It was a foregone conclusion from the beginning. The cowardice and the pull toward racism and white supremacism was way too irresistible for 17 Republican Senators to join the Democrats in convicting Trump. In the end, only seven of them were able to free themselves from the yoke of the Republican anti-Democracy forces. And this is just the beginning. Their corrupt, amoral conman leader is now free of official guilt to pursue his authoritarian dreams. He will even be able to run for president again in 2024, which will most surely sow deeper chaos at the heart of the country. My condolences, America, your Democracy just went a few steps further down the dark road to Authoritarianism and beyond. In case you haven’t noticed, Protestantism is no longer the main religion in America (42%) and Catholicism is now down one notch to #3 (21%) We now have a much more powerful dominant religious cult that overrides the rest, Trumpism (46.8%) The former two somehow allowed for Democracy within their beliefs, the new one looks decidedly against it. Secular religions can be more dangerous than the others, as usually the gods they cherish are of flesh and bone. The cult of Trump has just been injected a new dose of zeal. The Proud Boys, the Three Percenters, the Oath Keepers, the Boogaloo, QAnon and all other extreme-right fanatics and conspiracy theorists now know their nefarious designs have support at the highest ranks of the Republican Party. They now know they can indeed stand by and stand ready while their leader Trump plans their next steps. But there’s still a slim chance that their earthly god’s powers may be considerably diminished. State prosecutors in New York, Georgia and Pennsylvania are considering bringing Trump to the courts for a few different reasons and the District of Columbia too. Finding Trump guilty in any of those cases would be a blessing for the nation, as that would make it much more difficult for him to run for office again and would discredit him in an official manner, thereby subtracting legitimacy to any future claims he might stake. Not everything is lost yet. There’s still a bright silver lining in the cloudy skies of the nation. For one, the reins of the Executive and the Legislative branches are mostly in the hands of responsible, pro-American individuals, which means we may still be able to salvage whatever is left of the myth of America as a beacon of democratic hope to the world. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

In the Absence of Arguments, Trump’s Defense Resorted to Nagging, Inuendo and Patronizing While Attacking the Managers. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, February 13th, 2021. Same old worn-out song. The Democrats hate poor, harmless, cherub Donald Trump, so they’re trying to impeach him again. Typical Trumpian stance, playing the victim. Those awful impeachment managers who refuse to kneel before god Trump. Those “hypocrites” who love American Democracy more than they love an amoral would-be dictator like the ex-president. The defense lawyers’ strategy was so transparent and predictable I was tempted more than a couple of times to switch it off and instead just watch an old movie I downloaded yesterday. Actually, my time might have been better spent by switching to YouTube and watching some of those old Bugs Bunny cartoons, as I probably would have learnt more from that funny bunny than from any of those paper tigers like Michael T.  van der Veen. What a spectacle. An angry, personal-injury lawyer, spewing frustration for his sorry predicament defending the indefensible. No compelling argument from his part. Just deny the charges and attack the integrity of the managers and anyone else who dares to denounce the ex-president’s attempted coup d’état. Did you watch the trial yesterday? Did you notice the brazen contempt for the whole process van der Veen displayed at almost all of his interventions? That guy’s performance was just a publicity stunt to show his potential clients how forceful he can be even when he doesn’t have any real argument to present. It was all so predictable. No argument? No problem. Attack the messenger and you will stoke the sympathies of those jurors who already are on your client’s side, which in this case are the great majority of Republican Senators. On that count, he probably accomplished the task at hand: To give the Republicans loud cover for their prejudiced, preconceived, preordained shameless verdict of acquittal. May the Universal forces protect the United States of America from her enemies, foreign and domestic, but mostly from the domestic ones, i.e., the Republicans. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Republican Senators Who Acquit Trump Will Be Advocating Authoritarian, Even Dictatorial Rule in the United States. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, February 12th, 2021. Joe Neguse, the Representative for the State of Colorado’s 2nd Congressional District, summarized the prosecutors’ case against Trump in a clear, excellent, professional manner. He demonstrated how, across months prior to the election and during weeks after it, Trump incited and cultivated anger and resentment in his followers, first by telling them that if he lost would mean the election was rigged and later telling them the election had actually been stolen from them. Trump knew perfectly well that many of his followers were armed and ready to engage in acts of violence in his name, but he never ceased to provoke their anger. He was perfectly aware of the power his words exerted on his followers, so that on January 6th he knew for certain the kind of dangerous violent reaction his words would provoke on those thousands of his worshippers who invaded the Capitol building, which resulted in the death of five people. Neguse also showed how Trump, if allowed to run again for President, will by any means possible try to subvert American Democracy again and that if he’s not held accountable for his actions, other presidents will feel entitled to do the same too, with the ensuing deterioration of the American democratic system. Then, Jamie Raskin, the Representative for Maryland’s 8th Congressional District who is also the leading manager for the prosecution, laid out the boundaries for the line of defense expected from the ex-president’s lawyers. First, the question of whether the Impeachment trial is constitutional is no longer at play, as the required majority of the Senate already declared the process within constitutional boundaries. Second, the argument that Trump was protected by the 1st amendment when inciting his followers to insurrection is bogus, as the matter at hand is basically whether the ex-president failed to fulfill his oath of office, which clearly states that the president “solemnly swears (or affirms) that [he/she] will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of [his/her] ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," which ex-president Trump clearly failed to do. Failing to uphold his oath of office falls within the definition of “high crimes and misdemeanors”, which is a textbook impeachable offense. The defense team, therefore, should focus their arguments on whether the facts and conclusions drawn by the prosecution are incriminating enough to convict the ex-president as charged. Any other arguments would most likely be just bogus. Please recall that Senator Patrick Leahy, the senior Democrat Senator from Vermont and present President Pro Tempore of the Senate, is presiding over the impeachment trial, which means he probably won’t find any such arguments acceptable. But the most important responsibility in this trial falls on the hands of 17 Republican Senators, the exact number of Republicans needed to find Trump guilty of inciting insurrection against the government of the United States. If they vote to convict, a second decision will have to be made as to whether Trump should be punished under section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which would bar him for life from holding any public office. But if in the end not even 17 Republicans find Trump guilty of incitement of insurrection, it will be clear for the whole world to see that the Republican Party no longer stands for Democracy in America, for in acquitting Trump they would be standing for authoritarian, even dictatorial rule in the United States. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Democrats’ Strategy: To Show the Whole Nation, Not Just the GOP, How Responsible Trump Was for the January 6th Insurrection. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, February 11th, 2021. The New York Times and other reputable news outlets are making Trump’s 2nd impeachment trial available for the whole world to see. Live. From my small town of Kalives, here on the island of Crete, in Greece, I’ve watched the rambling, virtually aimless, ineffectual intervention of the lawyers for the defense and the highly graphic, well documented intervention of the prosecutors. All of it live. The defense’s disarray looked quite emblematic of the ex-president's customary chaotic modus operandi, while that of the Democrats only showed how the case’s facts and proofs go so overwhelmingly against the ex-president. Up to now, there hasn’t been much hyperbole in the Democrats’ presentations. The ex-president’s warped, amoral intentions and behavior against the Republic’s Democratic system were laid out so much in the open by himself and his acolytes over the past few months that all that the Democrats had to do was to organize them as evidence in a chronological, correlated order for all of it to make perfect sense. Donald Trump was heavily bent on overriding, actually annulling the American Democratic system by all means possible so that he could remain in power and, just in case all non-violent options failed, he planted and nurtured over a few months the idea of insurrection against the US government deep in the mind of his adoring followers. And on January 6th, 2021, his followers responded accordingly by storming the Capitol Building, the seat of the Legislative Branch, in a desperate, violent effort to stop the final official recognition of Joe Biden as the 46th president. A pathetic display of selfish, amoral, anti-American madness from the part of the ex-president for which he should be barred for life from serving in any government position. It is difficult to imagine what kind of un-patriotic, un-American blindness could keep Republican Senators from convicting the ex-president, but it is a given that most of them will acquit him. Such is the state of perversion afflicting the soul of the Republican Party. Meanwhile, the trial is a world stage where some previously unknown exceptional actors have been performing, namely Stacy Plaskett, the bright Delegate from the US Virgin Islands, and Madeleine Dean, the Representative from the State of Pennsylvania. Stacy, in particular, did a powerful compelling presentation and Madeleine laced hers with some effective emotional touches. Rep. Ted Liu is also worthy of mention, just as much as Rep. Eric Swalwell, both of them representatives from the State of California. To repeat, it is hard to imagine what kind of convoluted tricks can Republican Senators play on their own minds so that not even 17 of them would vote to convict the ex-president, but at this point in time there’s not much hope left in the minds of many of us that a majority of Republicans may yet manage to retrieve some sense of decency and rationality in their hearts. The Impeachment Managers know that and that makes their pro-Democracy pro-America efforts to convict the ex-president more commendable still, but they have a much higher nationalistic goal in mind: To show those Maga Americans the dangerous levels of delusion they fell down to in following that consummated conman called Donald Trump, so that they may eventually correct course and bring their minds back into the real world that the United States of America is still an essential part of. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.  

The Resilient Racism & White Supremacism Entrenched at the Heart of the Electoral College. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, February 9th, 2021. No Democratic system is perfect and each one can have its own degrees of imperfection. Some of them are closer to the ideal concept that the majority of the people should elect their leaders, some others are just Democracies in name and some others are somewhat in the middle. The United States democratic system is one of those clearly in the middle, with occasional but clear tilts toward the “only in name” side, exemplified most recently in the elections of 2016, when the individual sent to the White House had lost the popular vote by close to 3 million votes. The salient, but by no means the only, fault in the American electoral system is the Electoral College, which has a wild card inbred in it, one that, given certain particular circumstances, subverts the will of the majority of the electorate and hands a victory to a losing minority usually formed by a majority of reactionary, mostly racist, white-supremacist Americans. That wild card is NOT at play by accident in American presidential elections. It is there by design. The framers actually inscribed the Electoral College in the Constitution as a way to protect themselves and the rest of the elites of the time from any electoral revolt from the part of the masses, as the electors that were then intended to go to the Convention would always be the notables from each community, which would usually be landowners, businessmen and the like, who obviously would always look to protect their elitist interests and privileges over those of the masses. Most Americans are aware that the Electoral College is a serious flaw in the country’s democratic system but, either they don’t do anything about it thinking it is just part of “the American way”, or they stand against abolishing it because they know it often plays in favor of their racist, white supremacist designs. Most Republicans and some Democrats fall within the latter group, while many other Americans are just too coopeted by institutionalized cultural traditions to do anything about it. The cultural traditions in question, by the way, often run clearly against the rights and interests of the masses. There have been serious attempts to abolish the Electoral College in the past, like the efforts led in 1970 by Senator Birch Bayh from Indiana to amend the constitution for that purpose, but those efforts were defeated at the time by conservative (read “Reactionary”) Senators like the notorious racist Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and others of the same kind. There are other serious flaws in the American system of popular representation, like the disparity of representation we presently have in the Senate, where every state gets 2 Senators, regardless of the population those states may have. Thus, the state of Nebraska with its 1.9 million people, has equal representation in the Senate as California with its 39.7 million. There is something seriously flawed in that system, and it won’t stand a chance to be amended as long as there are “conservative” people in Congress that benefit from it in one way or another. The same goes for the Electoral College. As long as the Democrats continue to play the role of “Republicans Lite” and don’t take the side of the American masses, that highly undemocratic, pro-white supremacism system will stay in place for a long time to come. Sorry America. I love you, but you are just barely a Democracy in the true sense of the word. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Failure of American Bipartisan Conservatism to See These Are NOT Normal Times. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, February 8th, 2021. We are not in the middle of a national economic downturn. We are not even in the middle of a recession in the usual definition of the term. We are in the middle of a national disaster. We are not going through a crisis that can be overcome with palliators or timid, superficial band aids. We are in the middle of a catastrophe of global proportions of a lethality not seen since world war II. As most global disasters do, the Covid pandemic is deepening the existing disparities in the world society. Overall, we are all equally vulnerable to the pandemic threat, but different social groups are facing these hard times with different resources available to them. As it is plain to see, Covid is not uniting us all around a common effort to defeat it. On the contrary, it has divided us almost as sects are divided by their differing religious beliefs. People who accept that Covid is a real threat vs. conspiracy theorists who deny it, people who accept vaccines are the only way out vs. those blind antivaxxers who reject it, even politically we are divided as Liberals vs. Conservatives while the lines that traditionally separate the different ethnicities are now growing deeper because of the unequal economic vulnerabilities facing the different communities. This is not a crisis, this is a disaster. And economists of renown like Larry Summers are now openly opposing Biden’s $1.9 trillion rescue package saying it’s too big? Hey Larry, what kind of hermetic bubble are you living in? This is not a situation that can be solved with a meek economic stimulus of the usual kind. Either we overcome the pandemic problem as soon as possible or the economy is really going to tank. Either the government lends a considerably generous hand to the general population or the misery that will befall American life for years to come will be deep and widespread. Not for the upper classes, of course, but for small businesses, children, schools and most 9 to 5 Americans. Nothing is normal in our times and nothing is going back to normal ever again. Those friends of mine who tell me this is just one more critical phase the country is going through are blinded by their misplaced optimism. The American people are politically and ideologically divided perhaps as much as they haven’t been since the civil war and the pandemic is deepening the cracks that have ran across American social classes more than ever since the nation’s inception. These are in no way normal times. Abnormal times require us to look for solutions outside the box. Biden’s economic rescue package may still help to stop the sociopolitical and economic bleeding the country is suffering from, if only those Democrat and Republican reactionary conservatives allow it to go through. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Defamation Mega-Lawsuits Talk Much Louder Than Disinformation Lunatics. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, February 7th, 2021. Money talks, they say, and it definitely does in a few very influential ways in American life. First and foremost, with the 2010 Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United Vs. FEC case allowing unrestricted financial contributions to electoral campaigns, we can certainly say that money not only talks, but it actually elects candidates to the different political positions. Money also spreads misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories in the form of sponsorships to cable TV and radio programs that disseminate them. But now big money is showing to have another ultra-influential side to it in the form of billion-dollar lawsuits against individuals and “news” institutions that over the past few years have been laboring to undermine popular trust in government in the United States. Self-serving conspiracy-theory lunatics like Rudy Giuliani and Sydney Powell and mean-spirited cable channels like Fox News are now the object of defamation lawsuits against them. Dominion Voting Systems is suing Giuliani and Powell for $1.3 billion and Smartmatic is suing Fox News and their deranged, rabid anchors Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartiromo, for $2.7 billion. The dollar bill certainly talks, not only when it’s handed to you to make you say or do something, but also when you stand to lose billions of it for saying or doing something you shouldn’t have said or done because it was false and was unjustifiably harming somebody else’s reputation. The United States’ legal environment is known for the frequency in which lawsuits are hurled between individuals or institutions for different reasons and often those lawsuits are seen as merely frivolous ego trips. This time around, however, I applaud those lawsuits for they are finally accomplishing what no love of country or patriotism stood any chance to accomplish before: To mute those strident voices of anti-Democracy lunacy that have been plaguing the nation over the past few years, particularly during the four years of the previous administration. Hats off to Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic. Please teach those lying, anti-American crazies a lesson they will never forget. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Bold vs. the Un-American Shameless. Joe Biden vs. Most of the GOP Congress. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, February 6th, 2021. It’s only been a little over a couple of weeks since Joe was sworn-in as President and thus far he’s been performing above the expectations many of us had. He’s been right on the money in most of his moves and Congressional Democrats have been responding to him affirmatively, which in itself is something worth noticing. That the Democrats have control of both chambers of the Legislative is certainly a boon for the country in general and, I hope, for the American workers in particular. It’s also very encouraging to see how the whole apparatus of government is intent on nipping in the bud as much power as possible from as many of those noxious anti-American vestiges of the previous administration like Rep. M.T. Greene. Looking to bar the previous president from intelligence briefings is also a very wise, patriotic move, as no one can tell what that erratic, amoral guy might do with such valuable information. Who knows, he might hand it to Vladimir Putin in exchange for putting his name on a tower building in central Moscow or might even try to sell it to the Saudis for a few million dollars. In any case, those intelligence briefings are given as a courtesy to previous presidents and as a measure of keeping them aware of the whole political situation in case their advice be needed by the present Commander in Chief which, given the disastrous performance of the previous administration, no one thinks Biden would seek. It remains to be seen whether a minimum of 17 GOP Senators will step up to the plate and put love of country before fear of Maga voter’s retaliation and vote to convict the previous president for incitement of insurrection. Once that is done, we would have to see whether they also vote to bar him from holding any public office for the rest of his life, as that would basically mean beheading the pro-Authoritarian Maga movement, at least in the short run. It would also be a clear message to the white-supremacist insurrectionists that the US government is willing to fight back. A legal argument to defeat the ex-president’s defense and convict him was handed openly to the public just a few hours ago. 144 Constitutional scholars signed a letter stating that to claim the ex-president’s incitement to violence is protected by the 1st Amendment doesn’t apply in any impeachment process. In their own words “no reasonable scholar or jurist could conclude that President Trump had a First Amendment right to incite a violent attack on the seat of the legislative branch, or then to sit back and watch on television as Congress was terrorized and the Capitol sacked... On the contrary, the Constitution imposes an affirmative duty on the President to 'take care that the laws be faithfully executed'". Clearly, in their own words, “speech inciting violence is not constitutionally protected” (free speech doesn’t cover shouting fire in a crowded theater) Please recall that criminal or unlawful behavior is not a necessary condition to impeach a president. A demonstrable violation of their oath of office would suffice, as that would fall within the definition of "high crimes and misdemeanors". The learned, well-informed opinion of those 144 Constitutional Scholars rings perfectly acceptable to me and to many other Americans too, but whether it will ring equally true in the minds of most of those cowardly or outright corrupt Republican Senators, is another question. To read the letter signed by the 144 Scholars, please click here.

Not All Congresspeople Are Insane and the Lunacy Streak Runs Largely Along Republican Lines. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, February 5th, 2021. According to Article 1, Section 5, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution, Congress has the power to censure, reprimand, suspend or expel their members for different reasons, all of them having to do with questionable or unacceptable behavior from the part of their elected officials. The process to do so is different depending on the legislative body the individual in question is a member of. The rules that apply to the Senate are not the ones that apply to the House of Representatives. Neither of those sets of rules is the same as Impeachment procedures, but both require investigations and a final vote on whether the member in question deserves the punishment sought by the leadership. A two-thirds majority is needed to apply the punishment. In the House, charges against a member don’t necessarily have to be of a criminal nature, they can also be for “disorderly behavior”. The case of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene falls more along the lines of the latter than anything else, meaning that Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the House leadership are perfectly within their Constitutional right to divest her of membership in any committee she might have been chosen by her Party to serve on. The authority invested on the House by the Constitution grants it power to undertake disciplinary actions against any members with a view to “protect the institutional integrity of the House of Representatives, its proceedings, and its reputation”, which is something Marjorie Taylor Greene was clearly infringing on. After having expressed publicly her highly warped views on the veracity of High School shootings, California forest fires and the terrorist events on 9/11, Taylor Greene represents more than a serious liability to the reputation of that legislative body. Even worse, allowing her to serve on Committees that will decide what legislations will be enforced on the people of the United States may be a serious afront to the well being of the entire nation. The people of the 14th congressional district of Georgia may have elected her to Congress for their own reasons, be it right or wrong ones, but the Democratic leadership of the House has the duty to watch over the interests and the political stability of the whole nation, not just one particular disctrict, and it falls perfectly within their duties to see that lunatics of Taylor Greene’s kind are never granted Congressional Committee power to decide in any way the sociopolitical future of the United States. Good job Nancy. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Hey Joe, Press Ahead with Your Agenda and Don’t Listen Much to Any of that Republican Bipartisan Nonsense. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, February 4th, 2021. We would have to be deaf and blind, or in some kind of handicapped state of mind, not to have already realized that the Republican Party’s main interest is NOT in alleviating any burden, financial or otherwise, the American masses may at the moment be suffering from. That shameless ensemble of so-called “Conservatives” at the helm of the GOP and elsewhere are just a band of Darwinist, mass swindlers heavily bent on perpetuating a class system that keeps their one-percent supporters well-fattened and content at the expense of the great majority of Americans. Never forget that all through 2020 the Republican Party was seriously invested in supporting an administration that didn’t give much of a damn about the casualties or all other kinds of suffering the Covid pandemic was inflicting on the nation. They didn’t actually give one single hoot about the American people then and you would be extremely naïve to think they would give a single hoot about them now. It gets clearer by the day that many influential Republicans have lost their bearings and have overtly become a cabal of looney conspiracy theorists. Just check out how an individual as disconnected from reality as Marjorie Taylor Greene only gets a slap in her hand and keeps her Committee posts in spite of her hallucinating assertions about 9/11, the Sandy Hook shootings and other such tragedies. You cannot expect Republicans to join you in your efforts to save the nation from ruin, Joe. They can no longer be trusted. You have a very clear mandate from the electorate and your Party basically holds the reins of the Legislative branch in their hands. Forget bipartisanship and use that political advantage to any possible extent and in any possible way to shore up the nation’s precarious situation. Once that is done, you can sit again at the negotiating table and pay attention to whatever those warped Republican minds may have to say. But not before first making it perfectly clear to the American masses that your administration is on their side, not on that of the mega-moneyed classes, so that they won’t feel enticed to fall for any unhinged Republican-style demagoguery again. Then make sure you do your best to eliminate gerrymandering and enlarge the Supreme Court so that there will be more ideological parity in it. It would also be a laudable effort from your part to try to get rid of that highly-biased, highly-undemocratic Electoral College, so that in the future the results of American presidential elections would always reflect the will of the electorate and never again that of any such openly pro-conservative, arbitrarily-selected body of pseudo-electors, but I know it would be too much from our part to expect you to undertake such "revolutionary" endeavor, given the lifetime centrist politician that you are. But once you've gotten the country back in a certain shape and have restored to a good extent the majority of the people's faith in government, you can come back to the negotiating table and have some real patriotic, entirely pro-American policy discussions with the Republicans. Until such time comes, however, keep those GOP guys at bay as much as possible, for you can be sure most of them will make it their top priority to undermine your policy proposals as much as they can and in every possible way they can. To think otherwise would be extremely naïve. Take the side of the American worker in an open, decisive manner, Joe, always watching that no pro-labor legislation you may help enact hampers economic growth noticeably, so that you may ensure your administration stays in power for the next eight years, thereby increasing the possibilities for a Harris administration to follow yours. Joe, the damage done to American Democracy by the previous administration is deep and it's wide. There is no foreseeable way that the United States' reputation as a beacon of Democracy can be restored to any previous levels of credibility. But with a good amount of luck and a good dose of political skills, there is a good chance that the darkness of these past four years may slowly metamorphose into a new renaissance for America. One where the majorities may start getting a real taste of the milk and honey the United States is supposed to have in store for all its citizens, not only for the privileged few. So, go for it, Joe. Put your whole heart into it. And don't hesitate to go it alone whenever necessary. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Not All Democracies Are Republics and Not All Republics Are Democracies. America’s Choice is to Be Both or Only One. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, February 2nd, 2021. England is a Democracy. Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Spain are Democracies too, but none of those countries is a Republic. North Korea, China, Russia and Vietnam are Republics, but none of them is a Democracy. France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Costa Rica and others are both longstanding Republics and Democracies, just as Italy is. Other countries like Myanmar, where the military just staged a coup d’etat again, are Republics, but are Democracies only in name, just as Belarus is. The United States is a Republic, but by now the whole world knows it is not a Democracy in the full sense of the word. A condition for a country to be considered Democratic is that the will of the majority of the electorate be always respected so that the leaders of the country be always chosen by the majority of the people. Clearly, the United States doesn’t always fit within that definition, as there have already been five times in US history, most recently in 2016, in which the will of the voters was superseded, once by Congress in 1824, and the other four by the Electoral College, a group of people whose power is arbitrarily invested in them according to a biased, archaic, reactionary Article embedded in the Constitution. Sorry to say this, my fellow Americans, but a democracy that respects the will of the electorate only at random can NOT be considered a fulltime Democracy. The United States has been a Republic since its inception, but the Republican Party has now decided to apply the basic concept behind their name literally to their actions. On the surface at least, they seem to be rooting for an authoritarian or even a dictatorial leader, but they haven’t yet suggested they would like to put a monarchy in place in the United States. They obviously don’t give a single hoot about democracy, but they haven’t yet declared themselves Monarchists, which suggests they want the country to remain a Republic. A few of them are right in claiming that the idea of a Democratic America is not inscribed anywhere in the constitution. In fact, that idea is only implied in the declaration of independence and is suggested elsewhere. But the framers knew then, as well as the rest of us know today, that Democracy was and remains the only viable alternative to autocratic kingdoms and despotic regimes. A government of the people, by the people, for the people. That’s what Democratic systems are supposed to be, but as long as the Republicans keep pushing the country toward an extreme, literal application of the core concepts implied in their name, no one should expect them to stand up for Democracy in the United States. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. America finds itself once again at a crossroads. We have to make up our minds and decide whether we want the United States to be both a Democracy and a Republic, or just a Republic, in which case the country's system of government may slide down to the levels of China, Russia, Vietnam or any of those other undemocratic countries with similar authoritarian, one-party systems. Republics don’t necessarily have to be Democracies and that is precisely the basic idea permeating the Republican Party’s platform today. A party of the elites, by the elites, for the elites. Worse still, by now we know there are many elected Republican government officials who would like to put in place a government of the whites, by the whites, for the whites. But don’t despair about this too much or too long, America. The dye is not yet cast on this matter. There’s still time enough to make sure the ship of America doesn't founder down to the bottom of any authoritarian or even totalitarian depths. All you have to do is keep your eyes wide open and by no means allow the Republicans to get away with their perverse, noxious, racist, anti-Democracy, white supremacist designs. To read the United States Declaration of Independence, please click here.

The Only Way for Republicans to Win the Popular Vote is to Disenfranchise as Many Blacks and Minorities as Possible. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 31st, 2021. At this point in time, you can no longer pretend you don’t know it. A great majority of the electorate rejects the Republicans’ extremist agenda. Yes, a large, resentful, vociferous, even violent number of Americans still support the GOP’s racist, white-supremacist platform, but they are no way in the majority. And if the American educational system were producing better informed citizens with a finer capacity for critical thinking the Republican Party would for long have been relegated to the sidelines of American politics. Actually, if the American electoral system didn’t depend so much on the often-undemocratic Electoral College, the Oval Office would stand very thin chances of welcoming a Republican president again. As things stand today, if you support keeping the Electoral College intact and functioning, thereby giving electoral hope to “American conservatism”, you are basically standing against American Democracy and encouraging overt Racism and manifest White Supremacism in the United States. The Republican Party embodies such so-called American conservatism and those three elements are now the essential tenets the GOP embraces. Just consider for a moment that, without the Electoral College, Republicans would have won only 2 presidential elections over the past 32 post-Reagan years, that of the elder Bush in 1988 and that of Bush Jr. in 2004. In all the others, the Democrats have won the elections by popular demand, even as a couple of those elections were shemelessly overruled by the farfetched, pro-conservative, biased dictates of the Electoral College. For the same reason, the United States is often a poor example of Democracy at the presidential level. Just recall that the will of the American electorate has already been subverted and overruled five times in US history by the same archaic, prejudiced, reactionary Electoral College. Obviously the Republicans know perfectly well they are in the minority, which is why they are, as we speak, trying to enact legislations in some key states that will limit access to the voting booths to as many blacks and other minorities as possible. Right now, the GOP’s official electoral motto is “to cheat big or die” and American Democracy be damned. And please don’t tell me that my words are too harsh, that this should be a moment for bipartisan reconciliation and a time to forgive and forget. I would be willing to forgive some Republicans for the serious offense their Party has committed against American Democracy only if they were to publicly recant on their racist, white-supremacist beliefs, but I wouldn’t be willing to forget. To do so would be highly irresponsible on my part, for if Republicans tried once to overturn a duly-elected American government in such shameless and overt manner, they will most surely try to do it again. Sadly, for as long as there is no loud and clear mea culpa from the part of the Republican leadership, there will be no hope for any lasting sociopolitical stability in the United States. And even if one day there were some kind of atonement from their part, many of those guys should never be entrusted with government positions ever again. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Most Dangerous Enemies of American Democracy Are Already in the Midst of Government. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 29th, 2021. The triumph of the lie, that seems to be the central goal the enemies of the United States are pursuing. They know that no Democracy will ever be able to withstand the constant barrage of ill-willed fabrications they are unleashing on the nation, so they just keep marching forward powered by their anti-American zeal and supercharged by their knowing that millions of Americans are highly vulnerable to their lies. But those conspirators are in no way a band of extraterrestrials attacking the US from outer space. They are definitely NOT alien to American soil. They are not even individuals that the United States government has maligned or punished for any reason at all. The sharpest enemies of American Democracy were actually born, raised and educated, even in some of the best Universities in the United States, so that they are deeply immersed in the workings of American culture which makes the deceiving, mendacious rhetorics they use easily palatable and internalized by a large sector of the population. In case you've somehow missed the boat, the worst enemies of America are not the Europeans, the Russians or the Chinese. They are none other than our own Senators and Congresspeople. Our very own 5th column. Individuals like Kevin McCarthy, Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Josh Hawley, Lindsey Graham, Marjorie Taylor Greene and others, all of them actively supported by a good majority of the GOP leadership and tens of mllions of Republicans. Should we allow those people, their enablers and correligionaries, to get away with their catastrophic designs, they will bring down the United States government to undemocratic levels thus far seen only in third-world countries or in some of those institutionalized quasi-totalitarian nations like China or Russia or in any of those post-soviet, ex-communist, one-party authoritarian regimes like those they have in Vietnam, Belarus and others. Any nation that, as in the present case of the United States, loses its grasp on facts and truths, particularly those that pertain to its system of government and its leaders, is on track to losing its democratic system. Either Democratic systems are based on facts and truths, or they perish. It may already be too late to burn the American anti-Democracy forces down to their roots, but there may still be enough time to keep them as much at bay as possible so that, in time, we might be able to bring them into the Democratic fold. But I wouldn’t hold my breath. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Socialism for the Rich - Cutthroat Capitalism for the Rest. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 27th, 2021. That’s the American way, right? We are rugged guys so, who needs governments? In America you’re on your own and that’s the way we like it. Or so the elected leaders want the masses of Americans to believe. And what do the masses do? They just say “sure, that’s the way it’s always been, why should we change it now?” And so the beat goes on. Most Americans think the system should always reward the rich and let the rest of us mere mortals struggle in the daily rat race. And they think so in the hope that someday they will join the moneyed ranks and then it will be their turn to be the privileged ones. And if you don’t ever get wealthy or rich, too bad. It’s all your fault because you’re just another loser. Government programs to help the less fortunate? “No thanks”, they say. Such programs barely amount to hand-me-downs. Give the rich all the tax breaks they want and always bail them out whenever they bring the economy to the brink of disaster. White collar crime? That’s just social class warfare. Let’s be lenient to the rich, let’s protect them, after all, they are the ones who create jobs, no? But let the hammer of justice come down hard on all the rest, particularly if they’re black or Latinos. Those losers. And don’t ask the rich to contribute financially to the betterment of the nation, like paying taxes to make improvements in infrastructure, national education or national health. They don’t owe anything to the country. The country owes everything to them. And so the story goes. And please don’t think that in saying all this I'm just revealing myself as just another one of those resentful, envious, frustrated, wannabe guys. No. I’m not rich, but that’s mainly because becoming one was never any of my goals in life. I’m perfectly happy with the way things have thus far turned out for me, but that doesn’t mean I’m blind to the realities around me, one of them being the way Americans continue to be coopted into embracing a sociopolitical and economic system that increasingly works against their own short and longterm interests. If only we human beings, and particularly us Americans, had a little more widespread capacity for introspection. If only we could look slightly farther beyond our noses. If only we could overcome our selfishness an extra tiny bit so that we could get to see ourselves reflected on each other a tiny bit clearer. Then, maybe, and just maybe, the future generations could stand better chances of moving ahead more than we have toward a more socially harmonious world. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.  

The Acronym “Comintern" Stood for Communist International – Looks Like We Now May Have “Fascintern” for Fascism International. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 25th, 2021. The “Comintern”, or Communist International, was a worldwide political movement whose purpose was to propagate communism anywhere they could. They even had a rather moving emotional anthem called "The International", which you could listen to by clicking here. The movement was intended to unite the workers of the world under the leadership of the Soviet Union with the foremost intention of putting in place a so-called “Dictatorship of the Proletariat” everywhere. The Comintern failed miserably, not only in its worldwide ambitions, but also in their efforts to turn the Soviet Union into a prosperous country. As it happened, the USSR eventually imploded and officially disintegrated in 1992. The whole communist idea was based on lies meant to put in power a mafia of murderous, blind ideologues, their sycophants and other opportunists, all of them thirsty for revenge against the bourgeoisies, and bent on acquiring personal power and riches. The Comintern has for long been relegated to the history books, but now there is a somewhat similar global threat taking shape across the world, except that instead of having communist ideologues at the helm it has right-wing authoritarian extremists of the fascist kind, who include in their numbers unsavory characters like Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, Rodrigo Duterte, Victor Orban, Jaroslav Kaczynski, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and others. Because of their proto-fascist ideologies, the movement could easily be called the “Fascintern”, for Fascism International. The Fascintern is loosely united only by the way they think and by some of the grievances they have in common that they would like to redress, which they pursue through racist and white supremacist agendas. The glue that keeps them coming closer to each other is the global rightwing media and other online active extreme-right-wing movements like QAnon, but thus far there doesn't seem to be any coordination of activities between them. They talk to each other and they keep track of each other’s movements, particularly the Germans, the Austrians and the Americans, but even the Russians are pitching in. Even so, they still don’t have any concerted international program or any state sponsors of the caliber that the Comintern had in the Soviet Union. Recently, the fascists of the world have been encouraged by the events unfolding in the United States, where anti-Democracy forces succeeded in invading and taking over the seat of the Legislative branch, the Capitol building, even if only for a few hours. That massive revolt against the political heart of America sent a powerful message to the rest of the world, that these days no Democratically-elected government can feel perfectly secured in power. Beware America, we may be on the verge of meeting face to face with a whole new world, and the future may not look as fun as we would like. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

We Have to Ask Ourselves – Is our Beloved US Forever Plagued with Racism, White Supremacism and Proto-Fascism? Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 24th, 2021. The Neo-Fascist Proud Boys called Donald Trump weak because he didn’t call for an armed insurrection against the US Government. They called him a traitor because he denounced the violent attack on the Capitol on January 6th. Now, after it is quite clear that Trump incited such seditious acts and that he tried by all possible means at his disposal to annul the will of millions of American voters, there were only 10 Republican Senators who voted to impeach him. The rest of them appear willing to let him off the hook and acquit him once again. And this is only a new dark beginning. Just check out how part of the Republican establishment is laboring to punish those “unfaithful” 10 for wanting to protect American Democracy more than to absolve a demagogue wannabe dictator president. Please recall that finding Trump guilty of High Crimes and Misdemeanors would have very serious consequences, even as he no longer is president, as it would very likely entail punishing him according to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which would forever barr him from holding any public office again. Republican loyalty to him, therefore, is still highly relevant. We may say that Senators like Hawley and Cruz at least are not as hypocritical as most other Republicans are, as they already exposed themselves in the wide-open as anti-democracy proto-fascist individuals, but powerful guys like Lindsey Graham, Kevin McCarthy and others who still support Trump are the real dangerous ones, for they will now pretend not to have done anything wrong and the moment another white-supremacist demagogue comes along, including if Trump were to be reelected in 2024, they will jump on the boat with him. No doubt there is a growing white-supremacist streak running deeper within American culture than it previously appeared. Just picture how Garth Brooks had to muster extraordinary courage to sing “Amazing Grace” at Biden’s inaugural, as a large portion of the Country-Music industry was poised to condemn him for doing so. I like country music, but I always perceived it as laced with a good amount of American nationalism and even tainted with some traditional southern racism, but it may be a bit difficult for some others to picture that those guys would embrace white supremacist, anti-Democratic sentiments with such zeal. It only comes to show what a number of us have known for some time but seldom had the chance to say it out loud, that proto-fascism has deeper roots in American culture than many others ever dared to admit. I love America. I have been to 47 countries and I have lived in 16 of them and in none of those countries have I seen a sociopolitical environment that may grant a common guy like me the opportunities I was given and benefitted from in the United States, and for that reason I am very grateful to my country. But such love is NOT blinding and it cannot keep me from realizing that the highly-noxious sociopolitical sickness that plagues the country at the moment is way too widespread and culturally inbred as to make it possible, even to powerful good Americans like Joe Biden, to eradicate it for good with one single stroke of executive order or Congressional legislation. Unfortunately, the scourge that afflicts America today doesn’t stand a chance of disappearing during our lifetimes and will very likely keep destabilizing the nation for many generations to come. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Rejoice America – Things Can Only Get Better if We Work on It Together. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 23rd, 2021. No, things are NOT rosy colored yet, but no doubt they are looking much better than just a few weeks ago and that is plenty of reason to rejoice. For the first time in four years, the United States has a real President and that in itself should gladden hearts around the world, not to mention ours. Once good ol’ Joey gets rid of the pandemic and gest the economy going again, who knows, I might even contemplate the possibility of going back to California. After all, that land is your land, that land is my land, from California to the New York Valley. From the Redwood Forests to the Gulf Stream waters, that land was made for you and me. Rejoice America, things can only get better if we work on it together. To watch a fun, very well-crafted video bidding goodbye to the previous pseudo president, please click here.

Three Women and a Marine Band Almost Stole the Show at the Inauguration Ceremony. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 22nd, 2021. The live Internet broadcast of the inauguration ceremony was received here on the island of Crete with perfect quality and in my small town of Kalives we were gladly able to enjoy it from beginning to end. Great show. No doubt the Capitol provides an outstanding scenario for such quadrennial events. The whole spectacle was of the finest grade but, to many of us, the great surprise of the day was Amanda Gorman, a 22-year-old African-American poet whose talents are very much worthy of praise. She recited a poweful inspiring poem called “The Hill We Climb” which she herself penned specifically for the occasion. In her words she did not paint any rosy pictures of the fragile situation the nation is presently in, but emphasized and actualized the same unique vision that inspired the founders to create the United States, vision that is still prevalent today in the minds of millions of us. Last night I watched an interview of Amanda done by Anderson Cooper in which she talks about matters related to her poem, which pertain directly to the country's present situation and, frankly, I find it impressive and encouraging to see there are today such talented young Americans with such clear insight into their own selves and lives and into the heartbeat of their own country too. To watch the interview in question, please click here. There was also Jennifer Lopez with her heartfelt rendition of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” combined with “America the Beautiful”, which is one of the most uplifting patriotic pieces ever written. But before Jennifer's intervention, there was Lady Gaga giving us one of her always-outstanding renditions of the Star-Spangled Banner. That lady certainly has one of the richest, most versatile voices of our time. Thank you, LGG, for that wonderful performance. The highlight of it all was, of course, Joe Biden. His speech didn’t say much that was new to many of us, but it was all exactly what he needed to say and exactly what we wanted to hear. That he will see that we beat the pandemic for good and that the only way out of the mess the previous four years have left in their wake is through national unity. Godspeed, Joe. The overarching success of the event, however, I ascribe to a couple of elements that, since the beginning of the ceremony and through the duration of it, caught my attention for their excellence, particularly because I was watching the show live, thousands of miles away and in a small coastal town of barely 1,600 people located on the Greek island of Crete. First, there were those clear, well-orchestrated sounds generated by the United States Marine Band, which was quite impressive. And, second, there was the superior sound engineering that amplified and disseminated such refined musical performance across the world. Both of them outstanding expressions of American musicianship and technological knowhow. Great show. Overall, the inaugural was a virtually flawless patriotic, high spirited event, a superb and quite appropriate way to welcome a new day for the United States. Welcome to the helm of the country, Joe and Kamala. To watch the video of Amanda Gorman reciting her inspiring, down-to-earth poem, please click here.

America Has Fallen – Not All the Way to the Ground, but Certainly Far Below Its Proud Previous Heights. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 20th, 2021. What a difference four years make. Remember January 20th 2017? Or even January 20th 2009? Those were clear displays of American civility. Proud shows of collective respect for the nation’s democratic principles, from the highest ranks of public officials to the least influential of citizens. A peaceful, harmonious transfer of power that attested to America’s commitment to democratic values. Forward to today and we can see how much the moral stature of the United States has been diminished. Just check out the Capitol Building on the day a new democratically elected president of the United States is to be inaugurated. The whole perimeter is encircled under the tightest possible security, as if the very heart of American Democracy were under siege, which it basically is. Some 25,000 National Guards have been deployed in the area and there are also additional thousands of police officers, secret service agents and Coast Guard boats on the Potomac. Such widespread sense that the foundations of the nation are under threat is the legacy of the worst president in American history and such are the consequences of millions of Americans having fallen prey to the ill-willed lies and deceptions of a demagogue conman. The light of the United States as a beacon of democratic values has been dimmed. America’s moral, rational standing has been forever tarnished. The American people can no longer be trusted to make the right decisions on behalf of the world. They cannot even be trusted to make the right decisions on behalf of their own country. Not everything is lost, of course. America is still standing high, but the Star-Spangled Banner no longer waves at the top of the mast. It is now waving far below its ideal heights. Joe and Kamala represent a strong possibility that the nation may yet heal, but the chances of that happening will rest heavily on whether the Republican Party decides to abandon its destructive ways or continue pushing the nation toward the abyss of anarchy and chaos. For the moment, let's just hope for the best. May the Universal forces cast a benign eye on the United States of America. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.  

What if the Whole Trumpist Anti-Democracy Movement Was Just Part of the Same Old Capital vs. Labor Conflict? Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 19th, 2021. It is widely known that religious associations, particularly Christian Evangelicals, were open supporters of Trump's efforts to overturn the will of the American electorate, but It sounds kind of contradictory that big capital would help finance a revolution against the same government that provides them with trillions of dollars’ worth of incentives and tax breaks. Big capital bent on destabilizing the very same country whose business environment and laws have allowed their CEOs and investors to become billionaires? It may look contradictory but, sadly, such appears to be the case. It is a well-known truism that when people have some of something they like, they always want more of it. And when people have a lot of it, they want to have it all. Why have a Democratic system in the United States with all those ideas about sharing pieces of the pie with the masses, granting them insurances of any kind and allowing them to come sit at the table of governance when the US could have a racist, white-supremacist, plutocratic, Darwinist, authoritarian, or even dictatorial government that can tell all those “losers” non-White Americans to go back to the place where they belong, at the feet of the moneyed classes? And if that is not the case we have in the United States today, why would big corporations be interested in supporting seditious revolts against the US government like the one that took place on January 6th? Exposing national parks to oil exploitation, negating climate change, giving a green light to the Keystone XL pipeline, bailing out of the Paris accord and any other similar stances adopted by the Trump administration were designed to let capital interests run as free as possible and, just like those African big wild cats that get hooked on human flesh once they have tasted it once, as soon as big corporations tasted the Trumpian free-wheeling busines environment, they wanted more of it. Thus, apparently with that purpose in mind, Goldman Sachs, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Koch Industries, Walmart, Amazon, Comcast, Tik Tok, and others, have been donating money to Republican Congress people like Josh Hawley and other individuals and groups that have been disseminating well-debunked misinformation about the presidential elections, namely that Trump won. Obviously, Democratic capitalism is a system that no longer satisfies big-capital’s unbridled ambitions. Now they need to look beyond such system and the logical next step is Authoritarianism of the Capitalist kind. To get a clear idea of what Authoritarian Capitalism is, just take a good look at the second economy in the world: China. China is the perfect example of Authoritarian Capitalism, and very successful at it too. The gist of the Chinese system of government is centralization of power, of the kind that demands unconditional obedience to the politburo dictates which, in turn, just follow Xi, Jing-ping's orders, particularly now that he has anointed himself president for life. Aware of it or not, that is more or less the model Trump had begun to put in place in the US, assigning yes-people in key places, like Bill Barr at the DOJ, Mike Pompeo at State, Betsy Devos at Education and others, who would blindly carry out his orders as he wished. Four more years of Trump would have brought the dynamics of the US Government much closer to those of the Chinese model and American capital would have been perfectly happy with it, as they would have been the main beneficiaries of it all. But, as mirroring reality as that postulate may be, even if a transition from a US-style Democratic Capitalism to a China-style Authoritarian Capitalism was ever to materialize, given the starkly different history, cultures and traditions that have shaped the two countries, the US would never get to look exactly like China, although both econo-political systems could get to look quite similar. In any case, did it ever occur to you that Trumpism could ultimately serve as vehicle to put in place a China-style econo-political system in the United States? It probably didn't, but the problem is the threat is not going away along with Trump. It remains alive and kicking at the heart of America, just waiting for the right moment to resurge again. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Will Joe Biden Perpetuate Racism and White Supremacism by Absolving the GOP of Any Consequences for Their Seditious Behavior? Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 18th, 2021. Joe is a good guy. A bit wishy-washy (i.e., a bit too centrist) and clearly on the side of old-politics, but he obviously has a good heart. Unfortunately, atop his patriotic beliefs is the worn-out idea that ALL elected officials, regardless of their party affiliation, care for the United States as much as he does. And that is where the dangerous rub is. Joe is trying hard to hold on fast to his belief that all Americans love and protect our democratic system as much as he does and, in so doing, he may end up granting some sort of amnesty to all those Republican conspiracy theorists who basically tried several times to stage a coup d’état against him, one of them violently, even before he was sworn-in as president. A Republican Party that pays no price for their seditious transgressions will only be encouraged to do it all again and, who knows, next time they may even succeed in their traitorous efforts. To Joe and Kamala, I very respectfully say, our country needs you badly and the rest of the world too. Please don’t take weakness for wisdom. The domestic enemies of the country are powerful and are many, so please don’t extend too many olive branches to the Republicans, for they will just turn them into poisonous darts against you and our nation. - The fact is Republicans will only see weakness in Biden’s olive branches and will only feel vindicated for their extremism if he absolves them. “See?”, they will say, “it pays to be a rightwing extremist. We brought the whole country to the brink of civil war, but now we are getting away with it with no consequences”. And, guess what? They will also think, “let’s do it again as soon as we can, but next time let's do it much more forcefully”. You think the great majority of Republicans will NOT think that way? Not after only 10 of their senators have thus far voted to impeach Donald Trump? You think I am exaggerating? Just check out the number of them that even now are still going around pushing the blatant fallacy that the election was stolen from Trump, not to mention those who still support QAnon-style conspiracy theories. The divisions the country is suffering from are NOT superficial and to heal them will NOT be a walk in the park. To absolve the Republican Party of any responsibility for the sociopolitical chaos they have brought to the United States would basically mean to aid and abate them. There have to be consequences for their high-stakes betrayal of the nation. Joe and Kamala should not extend too many olive branches to the Republicans and they should in no way interfere on their behalf when the DOJ or any of the States' District Attorneys brings charges against any of them before a court of law. Careful with that goodness you carry in your heart, Joe, for its misuse may only end up helping to perpetuate racism and white supremacism in America. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

A Much Plausible Perspective on the Dynamics of the Present American Sociopolitical Tribulations. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 17th, 2021. The American thinker and abolitionist Theodore Parker may have been the one who first thought and published the sentence “the arch of the moral Universe is long, but it bends toward justice” sometime back in 1853, but it also may have been Martin Luther King Jr. who first made it resonate all over the world in a sermon he gave in 1964. The sentence has transcendental philosophical implications for its predeterminism, as if existence itself had been scripted from the beginning of time (if such beginning ever occurred) The idea basically proposes there are no significant intervening variables across the moral arch's trajectory, as if it were an absolute imperative, which makes the statement bold and alluring. The way that the American-born writer Anand Giridharadas applies the concept to the ongoing situation in the United States tends to illuminate with enough clarity the ordeal the nation is presently going through. Anand is actually saying that Trumpism, with its racist white-supremacist thrust, may be just evidence that such divisive, reactionary view of the world is presently suffering its final throes. Something like viewing Trump as a backlash to Obama and the Maga cult as part of a persistent, recurring reaction to the defeat the confederates suffered in the civil war. The eternal dialectics. No doubt there is much more justice today in the whole world than there was in the middle of the 19th century and, in that sense, the moral arch in question may indeed be bending toward a more equitable world society, but there is still a very long way to go before our reality meets our ideals and only time will tell whether that assertion holds true for the generations to come. As for me, I see no reason to believe it shouldn’t and I certainly hope it does. To watch a video where Anand Giridharadas elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The American Cultural Mirage – Was the Free-And-Easy American Way Just a Deceptive Superficial Illusion? Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 16th, 2021. “Those lucky Americans”, the Europeans used to say for decades, “they take the world for their oyster. They just want to laugh and have fun. They don’t give a hoot about cultures and traditions. They just want to spend their money and rock and roll”. That was very often the image most of the world had of the American people, guys and gals who were boisterously happy with themselves and very proud of their country, sometimes rude and largely uninformed, but usually the object of the rest of the world’s envy. There actually came a moment during my travels through 47 countries over the past 17 years when I sincerely felt like the lucky one among my peers because I am American and they were not. The immigration advantages I got by dint of my American nationality over my colleagues’ wherever I went actually made me feel special. All the while, back in California everything was working fine, so, regardless of any minor shortcomings, America always looked beautiful when looking at it from any of the other countries. But then, one day there came along the year 2015 and those sand castles began to crumble. Back home American smiles were metamorphosing into expressions of frustration, anger and hatred, not against a foreign adversary, but between Americans themselves. Suddenly, I found myself warning other Americans about the fragility of our democratic system and about the serious existential threat that, from January 20th, 2017, the very president of the United States represented to the political stability of the nation. Suddenly, America ceased to look beautiful and from that moment on, everything went downhill. By January of 2020, many of us feared for the very survival of America’s Democracy. The apotheosis came around on January 6th 2021, when hordes of Donald Trump followers stormed the Capitol Building causing all lawmakers to hide in emergency rooms or right under their desks. A clear spectacle worthy of 1950s and 60s African and Latin American Banana Republics. Thus, the idea of “those lucky Americans” became that of “those poor, immature, ignorant, undemocratic Americans”. America the beautiful was no more. And such is now the state of affairs in the wake of the worst presidency in the history of the country, that of Donald Trump. Joseph de Maistre was right when he said that “every country has the leaders it deserves”, which seems to be perfectly applicable to the present case of the United States, as Donald Trump was the personification of the warped, racist, white-supremacist, anti-Democracy, pro-Dictatorship passions that tens of millions of Americans harbor in their hearts. Without a doubt, the deep, festering wound that Donald Trump has inflicted on the United States is well deserved. First, the highly unreliable, often-undemocratic American Electoral system allowed him to come to power and then, highly influential government officials, along with tens of millions of Americans, enabled him and abetted him. The United States deserves to be in the dire situation it presently is in, for such damage the nation has brought upon itself by itself, no help needed from any foreign enemy to crack the American Democratic system as deeply and widely as Donald Trump and the Republicans have. But not everything is lost. There is still plenty of beauty in America worth salvaging and worth fighting for but, you tell me, how many years will it take to restore faith in America in the hearts of those people who threw everything away, including their love of country and their religious beliefs, as they kneeled in adoration at the altar of a corrupt, amoral, proto-fascist demagogue? To read an article that elaborates on a related subject, please click here.

The American 5th Column – The Worst Enemies of the United States Are Mostly in Our Midst. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 15th, 2021. Ex-police officers, ex-firemen and ex-military are on the FBI list of suspects that might have organized, instigated or participated in the massive assault on Capitol Hill this past January 6th. Such findings throw a shroud of suspicion even on the American secret service, which is why none of the agents that worked for Trump will be assigned to work for Biden. This may be telling us that rampant racism and widespread white supremacism already run much deeper in the nation’s political veins than some of us might have dared to think. Actually, there is a credible assertion going around in Congress that some Republican members of that legislative body might have been involved in coordinating the insurrection. For example, how is it that there were some Trump supporters allowed to roam around the Capitol in guided tours on January 5th, the day before the assault, when such tours had been tightly restricted because of Covid? Someone up high authorized those tours and it is worth finding out who and why they did it. By now we all know that the Republican Party can no longer be trusted to watch over the stability of American Democracy, but the remaining, blaring question is how high, how wide and how deep is that subversive American 5th column already embedded in all branches of government and in all Military, Security and Administrative Institutions. It may be that there are only a few traitorous elements of that kind randomly encrusted here and there, but it may also be that the seditious network in question already has its tentacles rooted at levels of Government much wider and deeper than that. The Biden administration should consider it their gravest patriotic duty to look into this matter with the most serious attention, so that such anti-American political cancer may be extirpated at the deepest possible roots. Good luck Joe. The survival of your beloved country’s Democratic System has been placed in your hands. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

You Think Now that Trump is Gone the Future Looks Bright Ahead? Get Ready. America’s Ordeal Has Only Just Begun. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 14th, 2021. Prophet of doom? Me? No way. I may have a wider, clearer perspective on America’s fate than most of my Covid-trapped fellow compatriots, but that is because we expats are not caught in the same hometown highly partisan bickering most of them are embroiled in. If any of my fellow Americans don’t get a reasonable grasp of this kind of warnings is because they find themselves in the thick of it and miss the forest for the trees. Yes, Trump will very soon be thrown out of the White House, and that is great news, but his tens of millions of followers are not going anywhere. They will stay put and alert, ready to follow their Führer’s orders to do all kinds of white-supremacist, anti-American, anti-Democracy lunacies along the lines of storming the Capitol Building or worse. Please note that there has been no open, collective mea culpa from the part of the Republican Party, which means those guys are getting ready to derail whatever the Biden administration may try to do because, as we all know by now, Republicans are heavily bent on dismantling the American Democratic system and very keen on installing an authoritarian regime in its place, if not a fully dictatorial one. And if to that we add the fact that many elected Democrats are just Republicans in disguise who will also try to boycott important parts of Biden’s agenda, you may get a clear picture of the cloudy, if not outright stormy days that await the nation in the next few years. With that scenario in mind, you still think America’s future looks bright ahead? There are tens of millions of Americans who no longer give a single damn about the country’s Democratic system. You think Joe Biden and his meek mellow ways is going to mollify those guys’ angry animal instincts? The only way to appease those rabid hordes could be by enacting massive social programs of the kind not even the majority of Democrats would approve of because they would label them “socialist”. And even if they approved them, it would just be a temporary appeasement, for now we all know about the festering racism and white supremacism that lurks deep within their hearts. Prophet of doom? Me? No way. Cleareyed maybe. Wide aware, perhaps. I love the United States and whatever happens over there is of the utmost importance to me. But I am not going to try to fool myself believing the present and future situations look like a rose garden. And even if those were so, we would still need to be very careful with the thorns as, in this particular case, those Trumpist thorns are highly poisonous and deadly. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

An Email I sent to the Chair of the Democratic National Committee Expressing my Strong Disapproval of the DNC Policies. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 13th, 2021. I am NOT a Democrat. I vote Democrat only by default, as I would never in my life vote for any of those racist, white-supremacist, proto-fascist, anti-Democracy Republicans, so I don’t have any other choice but to vote Democrat. In my view, many elected Democrats often behave like Republicans in disguise, which makes the Democratic Party highly tainted with hypocrisy. The Democratic Party very seldom behaves like a real leftwing Party, which is why Democrats are best defined as “Republicans Lite” or “Moderate Republicans”, meaning they are a center-right party, NOT really a party of the left. There is a political void that the Democratic Party has created when failing to stand up for the interests of the American workers and the middle and lower classes and that is the void that proto-fascist demagogues like Trump have filled and will continue to fill for as long as the Democratic Party continues to fail in its duty to stand firm for the American people. America needs a real leftwing party that watches over the interests of the American masses, not a pseudo-liberal two-faced pseudo-leftwing mirage like the Democratic Party. To read the full content of my email, please click here.

The US Educational System is Seriously Failing the Nation as Millions of Americans Cannot Tell Facts from Fiction. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 12th, 2021. Lying big as an effective way to govern, that is the legacy Donald Trump's presidency is bestowing on the country. America needs to put in place mandatory classes on Democracy and Demagoguery as part of the national High School curriculum. We need to have all American High School students contemplate in detail the events and circumstances that led to the rise of fascism in Europe that culminated in the catastrophic Second World War. Young Americans need to learn at an early age that fascism is NOT an exclusive European phenomenon. They need to understand that politicians may lie to advance their own selfish agendas and that they would lie even at the expense of the wellbeing of the nation. They need to know that the enemies of the country are not solely some foreign groups and governments but some domestic groups and associations too. They need to understand the advantages democratic systems have over any others, so that they learn to appreciate what they have and not take it for granted. Young Americans need to internalize the idea that the American system of government is not indestructible, that it requires every American to watch over it. Furthermore, Americans need to understand that the idea of rugged individualism is mostly an idea that no longer works. That it might have worked to bring the country up to the 21st century, but now it looks increasingly obsolete and a serious obstacle to national progress. Americans need to understand that the deep sociopolitical divisions that have surfaced over the past 5 years are the direct result of an economic system that takes disproportionate care of the upper one percent of the population over the masses of Americans. Trickle down economics, for example, is just another big lie that only increases the enormous disparity of income between the haves and the have-nots and needs to be debunked for good. The American educational system is failing mostly because it keeps perpetuating national myths that no longer reflect the reality of the country. There is too much complacency in the population and not enough national introspection as to what is really wrong with the country. The two major political parties are both entrenched in their pseudo-center-right (the Democrats) and plain-right (the Republicans) ideologies, blocking much social progress, citing as excuse that any popular program that may be labeled “socialism” is anathema to the nation, thereby perpetuating a class system that oppresses the masses for the benefit of the upper few. The big lie about the unviability of Universal Healthcare systems like the ones they have in the UK and other European countries and the reactionary lie that much, much more affordable education is not an essential necessity for the nation, are both fallacies that the American masses have been coopted to accept as truths, and the American educational system is the main culprit for it. American graduate studies may be the most reputable in the world, but US High School and College institutions are failing the nation, for they are NOT producing citizens with enough critical thinking as to be able to tell a corrupt, proto-fascist demagogue like Donald Trump from any other decent, regular American politician. Americans need to understand once and for all that fascist forces are alive and thriving in our midst and that those forces, if allowed to get total hold of the reins of power, will take the United States down the same destructive path that left Germany and Italy in shambles almost a century ago, but with much worse consequences for the nation and the world at large. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

It Took an Austrian-American Immigrant to Describe the Danger of Trumpism Exactly Like It Is. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 11th, 2021. Austria was under Nazi domination from 1938 to 1945. It was not taken by military force, but annexed to the Third Reich in a move known as the Anschluss Österreichs. Austrians had for long wanted to become part of the German state and Hitler, an Austrian-born German dictator, finally gave them the chance to do so. There was some resistance to the annexation, but eventually the great majority of Austrians went along with it, as evidenced in the masses of them that gathered in the streets to welcome the triumphant arrival of Hitler in Vienna. There came a boiling point where they did not have a choice but to join in. Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in Styria, Austria, two years after the war. He never experienced first hand the ordeal of living under Nazi Austria’s regime, but he saw the detrimental physical and psychological consequences his father and his neighbors suffered after the war, particularly the guilt they felt for having collaborated with such murderous regime. In general, even in Germany, the masses’ Nazification process did not happen overnight. It was gradual and it took time. Once that process was largely accomplished, once the masses had fallen on their knees in adoration to their Führer, the process for the extermination of the Jews was not difficult to set in motion. In a video, Schwarzenegger explains to us the ominous similarities between that Nazification process and the quasi-religious cult of Trump that has taken hold in the minds of tens of millions of Americans. Just as much as some of us have for years been warning of the dangers of Trumpism, Schwarzenegger also warns us, in no uncertain terms, that American Democracy is today in a very perilous situation and that the consequences of not putting a stop to Trumpism as soon as we can would be very similar to those that befell the German and the Austrian nations when they failed to put a timely end to Nazism: Disaster. To watch a Twitter video of Schwarzenegger warning us about Trumpism, please click here.

The Ignorant Inflamatory Claim that Twitter Is Infringing on the 1st Amendment – No Such Thing. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 10th, 2021. There is freedom of speech in America, but it is a crime to shout “fire” in a crowded theater. The first amendment does NOT cover and protect all forms of expression, at least not everywhere. Most importantly, it is only the US Government who is obligated to abide by the 1st amendment, NOT private entities. For example, I can ask anyone to shut up and get out of my house if I find their views on any subject offensive to me or to the rest of my guests. I am NOT legally bound by the 1st amendment to tolerate speech that I disagree with. The same goes for Twitter, Facebook, Amazon or any other instrument of social media. Those are NOT governmental institutions, they are private enterprises and, as such, they are entitled by law to restrict the content of their broadcasts as they wish. When the president of the United States is inciting his followers to insurrection against the US government, Twitter and the rest of the social media have the right to ban him from their platforms, not to mention that they have the moral, patriotic obligation to do so. Donald Trump has basically been shouting “sedition” over the past few weeks, which is the equivalent of shouting “fire” in a closed theater. Such behavior should not only be considered unacceptable, it should actually be considered criminal. In banning Trump from their platforms, Twitter et al are perfectly within their constitutional rights to do so and are in NO way infringing on the 1st amendment. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Republican Party Promises to Keep Dismantling Democracy and Setting the US on the Road to Ruin. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 9th, 2020. In Germany, from 1932 to 1944, there were many attempts on the life of Adolf Hitler, the most famous of them being the one staged by Claus von Stauffenberg at the Wolf’s Lair on July 20, 1944. None of those attempts succeeded but, obviously, even before Hitler became Chancellor on January 30, 1933, and even within the ranks of the Nazi Party, there were always a few Germans who saw a very serious national danger in him and wanted to deprive him of any power. But those lucid Germans were only a few. The great majority of Nazis stood by Hitler until the end. They remained loyal to him over a period of 12 years until one day Germany was reduced to rubble. Such was the level of idolatry Hitler arose in the German people. The Nazi virus was so deeply entrenched in the German psyche that, in order to rebuild the nation after the war, the Germans saw it absolutely necessary to abolish the Nazi Party, declaring it illegal, thereby banning it forever from Germany’s political life. The case of the Republican Party looks minimal compared to the Nazi’s, but the similarities are obvious. To be clear, I hold Donald Trump in the deepest possible contempt, but I have never advocated, nor would I ever advocate, any attempt on his life or on the life of any other individual, Republican or otherwise. I do consider, though, that the 25th Amendment shoud be invoked as soon as possible, thereby immediately putting an end to Donald Trump's presidential madness, even as I feel Vice President Mike Pence will not agree to such move. The thing is thus far a good majority of Republicans have NOT shown any signs of contrition for their continuing efforts to set the United States on the road to authoritarianism or even dictatorship. Only blind people could fail to see that the Republican Party no longer believes the United States should be ruled in a democratic way. It doesn’t require a long stretch of the imagination to see that America could at this point be in a serious situation comparable to that of Germany in 1932, when Hitler lost the runoff presidential election to von Hindenburg, but just a few months later was named Chancellor, thereby initiating the Third Reich, with the disastrous consequences such event entailed for the whole world. In other words, the Republican Party is a cancer festering at the heart of America quite comparable to the cancer festering in Germany’s heart back in 1932. Will we have to wait till the Republican Party has sown total havoc in the nation before we abolish it for good? The GOP needs to be burned to the ground. No enemy or sharpest rival of the United States, be it Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, or whatever, poses a greater threat to the nation than the Republican party does. To preserve the stability of the American Democracy, we need a conservative party that may balance the politics of the liberal wing of the nation, but the Republican Party is no longer a conservative political entity. The GOP has abdicated its conservative principles and beliefs. The Republican Party has revealed itself as the party of racism, white supremacy and proto-totalitarianism. Allowing the Republican Party to continue pursuing its destructive agenda would be a fatal mistake comparable to the mistake the Germans made back in 1932, when they allowed the Nazis to have influential representation in the Reichstag (similar to the US Congress) thereby setting their nation on the road to catastrophe. For the survival of Democracy in the United States of America, the Republican Party needs to be burned to the ground. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Kalives, a Seaside Town on the Island of Crete. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 8th, 2021. I just uploaded a photo album showing some views I took these past couple of days here in Kalives. To check out the photo album, please click here.

The Barely-United Banana Republic States of America. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 7th, 2021. America the immature. America, the nation of unconscious, ignorant brats. The United States has once more shown the world it is populated by a very large number of citizens who are incapable of valuating their own nation and don’t have the smallest idea of the beauty of the country they are bent on destroying. Real uninformed, unconscious bulls in a democratic china shop. Hundreds of violent, proto-secessionist thugs, some of them quite tellingly waving confederate flags, along with many others waving pro-Trump banners and wearing MAGA hats, stormed the Nation’s Capitol yesterday, recklessly breaking windows and causing the death of a woman, all of it in a clear attempt to derail the legitimate process of American Democracy. Ironically, even while violently attacking and invading the chambers of Congress, those hordes of Trumpist vandals were chanting “USA”, as if their destructive rampage were for the benefit of the nation, a mob of deluded, highly mistaken, Trumpist worshippers. And what did the “President” of the United States do? He told them “We love you”. Then his daughter called them “patriots”. Nothing can be clearer: The “President” of the United States and his family love hoodlums who vandalize the national halls of Democracy. No doubt about it, the “President” and his family don’t give a single damn for this country. Shame on them. But also shame on the American educational system, for it is failing to produce citizens possessing critical thinking. It is failing to produce Americans who can tell right from wrong all by themselves. As things are, millions of Americans cannot even tell what is good for themselves and for their families. In the meantime, as a lesson to their un-American ilk, Congress should seek to invoke the 25th amendment and throw that humanoid vermin out of the White House as soon as possible, so that the rest of the America-loving people may feel a bit vindicated for the gravest mistake they committed in electing such amoral, unprincipled, utterly incompetent character to the presidency. Shame on the Republicans for having for so long supported such despicable individual and shame many times over on the Trump family for their ill-willed handling of the country. To watch a video that shows the events of January 6th, please click here.

America the Beautiful? Yes, But the Beauty is Fading Fast. Kalives, Crete Island, Greece, January 6th, 2021. The number one economy in the world, the most powerful military ever, the most reputable educational institutions, the thriving hub of technological and artistic innovation and… yes, the most chaotic presidential elections in the industrialized world. America is failing and is failing because it suffers from a very debilitating disease: political and emotional immaturity. Drunk under the influence of a nationalistic arrogance deriving from real and imaginary national accomplishments, a large, influential sector of the population refuses to let go of the country's darkest cultural traits of the past. Everyone clings to the notion of America’s greatness, but way deep inside not many seem to know what it really means to be an American. Clearly, our impressive understanding of technology is way ahead and above our shaky understanding of our own selves. If it were not so, the country would not be in the dire sociopolitical circumstances where it presently is. America the beautiful. The further we go forward into the 21st century, the more such trope rings hollow. With Brexit, the Brits just extirpated themselves from the European Union. In contrast, Amexit would not represent America’s departure from any similar international econo-political treaty, it would mean extirpating itself from its own founding democratic principles, which is precisely what is happening right now. Amexit would refer to America quitting on itself, betraying itself, walking blindly into a perilous, uncharted, undemocratic future, which is exactly what we are witnessing almost on a daily basis at the highest levels of government. “We have been down similar roads before”, some friends tell me, “and each time we found our way again”, they say. “Everything will be fine now that Trump will be gone”, some editorials write, “everything will go back to normal now”. Normal? What normal? I ask. The same old racism? The same traditional, barely-disguised white-supremacist tendencies? The same electoral treacheries? The same brazen shortchanging of the masses for the benefit of the upper few? The same hypocrisy of the two major political parties? The same shortsighted reactionary decisions of the Supreme Court? The more it changes, the more it remains the same, say the French. America the Beautiful? It may well be that we have all been looking at some sort of portrait of Dorian Gray over the past few decades, enthralled in the superficiality of our own self-centered lives while the soul of America has been rotting right under our very unwatchful eyes. America the Beautiful. Let’s just cling fast to that trope. Maybe, and just maybe, and only if we manage to awaken a lot of love of country in the heart of each and every one of us, there may still be time to save the whole American experiment from eventual ruin. To read an article that elaborates on a related subject, please click here.

Those Millions of Americans Who Wish to Put an End to American Democracy. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, January 4th, 2021. Would you have believed it if anyone had told you 20 years ago that just a couple of decades later there would be some duly-elected US Senators openly advocating to override the will of the American electorate in an effort to keep in the White House a President- candidate who had clearly lost the election? Would you have believed it if they had told you that one day the outgoing US president would personally put pressure on a Secretary of State in an effort to have him cheat and reverse the will of the people in his favor? Would you have believed it? I wouldn’t. I would have told them that they were wrong, that the United States was NOT a third-world country, that no US government functionary would stand for such anti-Democracy nonsense. I would have told them that, even as much as I distrusted the Republicans, I still thought all Americans, including the GOP, would stand up and forcefully defend the country’s democratic system. And the one who would have been wrong in that hypothetical situation would have been me, because both those predictions would have turned out right. Actually, the present situation is even worse than that because, in addition, now we also have tens of millions of Americans who no longer believe Democracy is the best system to choose our leaders. They now seem to think their Führer is above any law of the land and, most importantly, above the will of the American people. Consciously or not, a good number of Republican Senators, along with millions of their Republican followers, don't seem to care whether they set the country on the road to dictatorship. Such is the sad but perilous state of affairs in the United States today. To read an editorial that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

2020, the Year the Celebrated Myth of American Pragmatism Died. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, January 1st, 2021. Goodbye 2020. Glad to know you are gone for good. See you never. What a mess of a year you were. The year when the great majority of members of one of the two traditional political parties, the Republicans, brazenly traded reality for a pack of lies and conspiracy theories. The year when over 74 million Americans openly gave up on facts and truth. The year when Pragmatism, the most characteristic American philosophy, was buried under mound upon mound of mendacity and deception. The year when the heart of America was revealed as still highly contaminated with deep racism and widespread white supremacism. Goodbye 2020. You were just the culmination of the previous four calamitous years, but I am glad you are gone. You gave us some tough, but well-needed love too, as you finally opened our eyes to the darkest innards of the American Republic and to the perilous fragility of our Democratic System, which are hard, but factual realities we will all have to learn to deal with. On that count, you may yet end up producing some beneficial unintended consequences. Above all, however, it was your bringing about the death of American Pragmatism your legacy most worthy of lamenting. From now on, in America we can no longer take for granted that the meaning and the truth of any idea will always be a function of their practical outcome. From now on, in Republican eyes, truths and knowledge may no longer be always gleaned from facts and reality, but from wishful, delusional, self-gratifying constructs too. From now on, falsities may easily be taken for truths and truths may easily be taken for lies. Such is the Trumpian philosophy that corrupted and invalidated the Republican Party’s claim to carry the mantle of Americanism. Such is the most regrettable legacy 2020 has bestowed on us. In the long run, however, we will all have to come to terms with that year, and we may actually end up thanking it for revealing to us the depth and the width of the sociopolitical maladies that afflict the nation, so that, maybe, and only maybe, we may eventually manage to revive whatever is left of that ol’ American pragmatic stance and use it to find a way to patch up the mess 2020 has left us in its wake. To read an article that elaborates on a related subject, please click here.

Face It Americans: Trump’s Presidency Was Not Catastrophic Only Domestically – Internationally Too. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 28th, 2020. Gratuitous, demeaning attitudes against Germany’s Chancellor, insulting comments against Canada’s Prime Minister, patent contempt for the European Union, clear disdain for Japan and South Korea, shameless brown-nosing to Vladimir Putin, clear admiration for the North Korean dictator, cozying up to autocrats in the Philippines, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Brazil, and, yes, even at the International level, legitimizing the idea of “fake news” when it comes to any fact-based criticism of any government. Add to that Trump’s bailing out of the Paris Accord and his refusing to contribute to the WHO and you have a perfect, pathetic pariah of the International community. So much for making America great again. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Real Damage Trump Has Done to America: Widespread Popular Despise for Facts, Truths and Accountability. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 27th, 2020. Trumpism is like a virus, but the damage such quasi-religious Trumpist pathogen has inflicted on the country is much more insidious and hidden to the naked eye than the one microscopic Covid has thus far done. Scientists have discovered a cure for the Covid pandemic, have tested it in several clinical trials and now a vaccine is being gradually distributed in a few countries. There is a scientific, fact-based hope that the virus will eventually be eradicated. But how can any science come up with a cure for the psychological malady plaguing the minds of over 74 million Republicans who have lost their ability to differentiate fact from fiction? How can you mend the minds of those millions of fellow Americans whose thinking is now seriously detached from reality? The damage Covid has inflicted on the United States is measurable in the high number of deaths, the considerable number of businesses that keep closing for good and the educational and social disruption it has generated in its wake, but how can we measure the damage Donald Trump has inflicted on the nation? Particularly since that damage is psycho-socio-political and does not produce any visible physical symptoms? Physical ailments are usually treated with drugs and rehabilitation, some psychological ailments too, but when the mental patient is already inflicting harm on their own selves, just as the Republicans are now inflicting serious harm on their own country, the best way to treat them is to isolate them and put them under medical surveillance. But, how can you treat those tens of millions of Republicans who refuse to even realize they are mentally imbalanced in the first place? How can you even talk to them about it when their default response when you express to them your non-Trumpist view of things is to insult you? Covid has indeed wrought havoc in the world in general and in the United States in particular, but a vaccine against it has already been found and tested and there is a clear silver lining about this pandemic in the horizon. Trumpism, on the other hand, is a much more treacherous virus, namely because it has seriously impaired the ability to perceive reality in the minds of those Americans who are contaminated with it. Worse still, since Trumpism is a national epidemic of the psychological kind, there is no posible vaccine for it, so, please tell me, how do we erradicate such vicious, cancer-like virus from American soil? To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Sadly, Some Good People Have Fallen Hard for Anti-Covid and Anti-Vaccine Conspiracy Theories. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 23rd, 2020. I have been living in the small, holyday-town of Almyrida, in the northwest of the island of Crete, for almost two months now, which makes it that, this time around, I have been living in Greece for almost 11 months, mostly because of Covid. And I am under the impression that I am the only American in this town. Apart from the local Greeks, most people I have met here are English. Then there are also a few French, a couple of Dutch, an Egyptian Bar owner and a couple of Scotts too (NOTE: I have dual American-French citizenship) I have had brief chats with a couple of Albanians and Romanians and even had a conversation with a woman from the country of Georgia during a dinner party at a French guy’s place. But the people I have most engaged in repeated conversations are the French and the Scotts. And it is among them that I have been faced with blind anti-Covid and anti-vaccine cases. (For reasons of privacy, I will not use their real names when referring to them in this commentary) Janine, a French lady who has been living in Almyrida for a few years, is very unhappy because of the restrictions the local Covid lockdown have imposed on her. But, since she has not heard of any Covid-infected sick or deceased people in our area (there aren't any) she believes the effects of the pandemic have been blown out of proportion by the authorities and it is all a hoax staged by the governments of the world to control the people. When I tell her that in Santa Barbara, California, my friend Jamie hardly sees a day go by without hearing that a friend, or a friend of a friend is seriously ill at the hospital or even dead because of Covid, Janine simply does not know what to say. She just continues to hold on to her conspiratorial beliefs. The same goes for my Scott acquaintances, Claire and John. John says that for a vaccine to be reliable it has to be tested for 20 years or more, so they don’t intend to get a Covid shot whenever it may be available. But when I tell them that Pfizer has been around since 1849, that their Covid clinical trials involved 43,000 people, that Pfizer was active in manufacturing and distributing penicillin to soldiers during WWI, and that they were later instrumental in discovering and manufacturing more specialized antibiotics like terramycin, tetracycline and others, he just does not know what to say. He just believes he knows more about bioengineering and pharmaceutics than the scientists at Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca do, so he stands firmly in support of conspiracy theories that tell him not to trust any Covid vaccine. I obviously disagree with my three acquaintances, but this is not a matter of simple differences of opinion. This is a question involving perceptions of ourselves and of the reality around us, which in their case seem to be more than a bit warped. Ultimately, this is a matter of extreme arrogance from their part in that, without any scientific proof to sustain their cynical arguments, they believe they know much better than any medical or governmental institution involved in arresting the spread of Covid and eventually eradicating it for good. Their stance also has political implications, but I don't think that would be an angle they would be ready to contemplate. Regarding other matters, I know my three acquaintances are good, normal people and I frankly do not see why I should give a single damn about whatever they may believe regarding Covid or the vaccines, but the fact is that, after witnessing how deeply they have fallen for such loony ideas, I am no longer interested in cultivating any friendship with them any further. Would you? To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Republican Ex-Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger Calls the GOP Banana Republicans. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 22nd, 2020. Great moniker for the GOP. Quite appropriate for their third-worldish behavior of the past few months, first in brazenly trying to suppress the vote and later in shamelessly trying to overturn the will of the American electorate. Quite similar to the behavior we would have expected from military-backed political parties in Latinamerica or Africa during the 50s and 60s. Obviously, unlike most of his fellow partisans, the governator did not drink Trump’s Kool-Aid. He did not trade his conservative instincts for a quasi-religious fealty to a demagogue conman. He believed all along in fiscal discipline, the rights of the individual and the inviolability of our democratic system. In brief, he remained true to his Republican creed. Schwarzenegger represents the kind of character that may help the Republican Party to renew itself. As imperfect as he may be, his reputation has not been tarnished by his party’s disgraceful behavior of the past few years, so he still has plenty of credibility even in the eyes of non-Democrat liberals like me. Just the fact that he has thus far managed to stay above the fray ads a lot to his political credentials. He cannot run for president, as he is Austrian by birth and the Constitution states US presidents have to have been born on American soil, but maybe he could serve as magnet to form a coalition of Republicans that still hold American values close to their hearts, as few as those may be. To watch a video of Schwarzenegger stating his views, please click here.

A Clear Mea Culpa from the Part of an Ex-DOJ Attorney. An Example that All Republicans Should Follow. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 21st, 2020. Erica Newland is a career lawyer who worked at the Office of Legal Counsel of the Department of Justice for a couple of years until by the end of 2018 she decided to quit her post. She did so because she could no longer fool herself into believing she was doing more good than harm in providing legal cover to Trump’s efforts to dismantle American Democracy. One day she came to realize that the pushback she and her fellow attorneys were staging to assuage the harm Trump’s authoritarian instincts could have on the nation, was nowhere effective enough to justify her participation in all of it. Now she can only feel she was complicit in Trump’s undemocratic efforts and feels compelled to offer to the nation her apologies for her specious professional behavior. Erica’s professional and personal awakening is precisely the kind of open display of contrition the whole of the Republican Party should wholeheartedly emulate. Otherwise, the nation will never have any reason to believe they have learnt anything from their serious mistakes of the last four years. Anything short of a similar mea culpa would be just an ominous sign that they intend to do it all again as soon as they get the next chance. To read Erica Newland’s detailed statement, please click here.

Either We Hold Trump and the GOP Accountable for the Previous 4-Year Nightmare or US Democracy Is on the Road to Ruin. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece. December 20th, 2020. As mentioned in these commentaries before, American Democracy survived the heavy onslaught Trump and the Republicans staged against it over the past four years, not because the Constitution or any governmental laws and regulations protected it, but because there were enough true Americans in influential governmental positions who effectively defended it. The Constitutional and legal guardrails that have kept US Democracy afloat since the nation’s inception wouldn’t have been enough to save the country from falling down the road to an eventual dictatorship. The President of the United States, the US Senate and millions of Republican partisans were, and still are, quite willing to smash the US Democratic system against the authoritarian walls Donald Trump wanted to build around it, thereby destroying it. What the country just went through under Donald Trump’s tenure cannot be disregarded as “normal”. There is a lethal virus circulating in the American sociopolitical blood system and it is NOT Covid, it is the fervent desire embraced by the Republican Party to override American Democracy and install a Darwinist, Plutocratic, authoritarian, proto-dictatorship government in its place. You think Joe Biden’s timid, so-called “bipartisan” approach to politics will be enough to lure those Trumpers back into the “we are all Americans” tent? No way. For the country to have a real shot at unity again there has to be some kind of atonement from the part of the Republicans. They have to somehow admit they were utterly wrong in their efforts to keep a consummated conman, anti-Democracy demagogue in power. Anything short of such acts of contrition would be just like allowing them to put on their “we love Democracy” masks again, which would no longer work. By now we know much better and, hopefully, the larger masses of Americans won’t get fooled again. Still, something has to be done abut this before we can really go forward. To steer the nation away from the road to perdition the Republicans wanted to embark it on, we need to see that the constitutional and legal guardrails that almost failed to rein them in this time around, are amended and enforced to the point where it would be much, much more difficult for any future authoritarian demagogue presidents to flout them. No way for the country to escape unscathed out of this one if we fail to contemplate the prevous four catastrophic years with the seriousness they demand. It will certainly take a lot of love to put the country back on track. A lot of love for American Democracy. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Dereliction of Duty President and the Malignant Negligence Republicans. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 18th, 2020. With American patriots like Donald Trump and the Republicans, who needs bitter enemies of America? As the situation stands today, no foreign government poses a more serious and palpable threat to the integrity of the nation’s governmental and democratic institutions than the President of the United States and the Republican Senate do. And, as if such scenario were not somber enough, those same pseudo-American individuals keep turning a blind eye to the growing number of deaths caused by the pandemic and keep resisting extending a necessary, well-deserved, financial hand to ease the ongoing economic distress plaguing the American people. With domestic leaders like that, who needs foreign enemies? I bet Putin of Russia, Xi of China, Orban of Hungary, Kaczynski of Poland, Erdogan of Turkey, Bolsonaro of Brazil, Duterte of the Philippines and the rest of their authoritarian, anti-Democracy, pro-dictatorship ilk keep celebrating while they watch the president of the United States and the Republican Party faithfully do their anti-American bidding. None of them could have come up with more efficient ways to undermine the integrity of the country as much as Trump and the Republicans have thus far done. Where is the outgoing President of the United States in the face of the ongoing deadliest days of the Covid pandemic? Missing in action. Where is the long-delayed economic stimulus that the states, American businesses and the general American public so badly need? Mired in the blind, reluctant, reactionary minds of the Republican Senate. And to think that such obvious, brazen dereliction of duties seems perfectly irrelevant in the minds of over 73 million Americans. Appalling. But not all of us have lost our moral compass. Some 81 million of us kept our heads firm on our shoulders these past few years and have thus far managed to extirpate that revolting cancerous tumor from the Oval Office. Now, let’s just hope the Georgian electorate will soon snatch the Senate leadership from the hands of that highly dishonorable, utterly undeserving Mitch McConnell. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Republican Party Eviscerated Itself – Any Hope for a Renewed Post-Trump GOP May Be an Illusion. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 17th, 2020. We have to come to terms with it. The Republican Party’s behavior over the past four years was nothing short of disgusting. Their servile submission to an openly racist, authoritarian sociopath was an overt insult to American democratic principles and moral compass. In the view of some of us, the only way for American Conservatism to save some face after such monumental blunder is to burn the Republican Party down to the ground and start anew under a new ideological tent that excludes, actually bans, from its ranks any traces of Trumpism. Would that be a realistic, feasible proposition? Not at this point in time. Not as long as Trump’s noxious legacy is still smoldering in the hearts of proto-fascist individuals like Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan and other rabid authoritarian fanatics of their sort, which could easily include Mitch McConnell too. The point being that it would be a foolish illusion to expect to eradicate such deep anti-Democracy convictions from the hearts of those guys. In contrast, Republicans like those who joined to form the Lincoln Project are a different story. They are promoting a conservative narrative that may thrive within the confines of decency, always guided by a strong, clear love and respect for American Democracy. Unfortunately, those guys are few compared to the large number of Republican Trumpers who threw their love of country and moral principles out the window since 2016 and fell hard for the authoritarian demagoguery of their conman-god. No easy way out of this one. I have hardly, if any beliefs and convictions in common with most kinds of conservatism. In my view, American conservatism often equals social stagnation and even sociopolitical backwardness. But I understand the necessity of having an active, decent, conservative national political force to keep in check any excessive liberal propositions that may lead the country in the wrong direction too. Some conservative people propose that, now that Trump is gone, the Democratic Party should move closer to the center, meaning it should move closer to the right, but I think that is a blind, totally misguided proposition. I think that to preclude any other administration from repeating the catastrophic events of the past four years, American conservatives NEED to give up on their often-extreme positions on issues like taxation for the rich, healthcare and education, so that the American masses may never feel abandoned again and may never again find hope in the demagogueries that consummated conmen like Trump may come and tell them. The Republican Party needs to be, either burned down to the ground, or renovated in a way that would make it hardly recognizable. Allowing the Republican Party to continue promoting their present, destructive anti-Democracy ideas is a chance no Democracy-loving American should stand for. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Impossible to Deny: Facts and Reality Are Now the Republican Party’s Nemesis. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 16th, 2020. We all had to see it with our own eyes to believe it. The present American sociopolitical environment is such that John le Carré would not have considered it credible enough to include it in one of his highly plausible fictional plots. Betraying their conservative principles, one of the two traditional political parties in the United States, the so-called Grand Old Party, openly dropped any sense of honor, patriotism and decency they might have claimed to have in the past and fell blindly, slavishly at the feet of a raving hallucinating demagogue conman. No shame, no honor, no integrity from the GOP’s part, just bare bigoted partisan intoxication. Thus came about the resounding fall of the house of American conservatism. Unbelievable but true. But such moral disintegration did not happen overnight. It did not suddenly come galloping into the American sociopolitical reality riding on Donald Trump’s shoulders back in 2016. It took decades for Republican morals to degenerate down to the state of “malignant madness” where a Nobel Laureate Economist says the Republicans find themselves today. This is not a 21st century phenomenon. The seeds for the GOP moral decay were already well sown back in the 1980s during the Reagan administration, those mythical eight years that have come to constitute the modern basis for the Republicans’ worn-out, false triumphalist narrative. In reality, Ronald Reagan’s reference to a shining city on a hill was just a disguised white-supremacist dog whistle of the kind Donald Trump would only amplify forty years later and do so in a much more obvious, brazen manner. It is hard, even for a non-Democrat liberal like myself, to believe that such traditional American political institution as the Republican Party would turn out today to have staged the most successful political deception of the past over 150 years. Stuart Stevens, an American writer and political consultant for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign and now a member of the Lincoln Project, couldn’t have said it better in August of this year when he claimed that “it was all a lie”, in reference to the Republican Party’s decades-old political hoax (see here) Shame on the Republicans. There is not much more left to say. But the nation’s problems don’t lie in what the Republicans did in the past, but in what they will do in the future. Can they ever mend their ways? Not many of us think so. At least not until they atone to the damage they have inflicted on the country. Not until they openly apologize to the whole nation for their betrayal of the democratic principles of the Republic. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 15th, 2020. Whether it was Thomas Jefferson who actually articulated those words or someone else, their wisdom is undeniable. Either we engage in constant vigilance or we will lose our liberty. America finds itself at a crucial crossroads today because we let our guard down over the past few decades and allowed powerful destructive domestic forces to encroach on the highest echelons of government. We have failed to be vigilant to the point where our liberties are now perilously compromised. Fortunately, we are nowhere nearing the final chapter in the American experiment saga. We are living in the middle of a critical episode in American history, but nothing wrong that has happened over the past decades is irreparable, not even the deep sociopolitical divisions that presently plague us. There is plenty of hope for the future of America, but such hope does NOT reside in going back to any pre-Trumpian status quo. The national state of affairs that preceded Trump is precisely the situation that brough him to power. The negligence from the part of both political parties in failing to watch over the rights and the wellbeing of the American workers, the false belief that American Democracy is ineradicable, the false notion that the American sociopolitical and economic systems are indestructible, the irresponsible general apathy and complacency that keeps millions of voters away from the voting booths in every election, those are some of the elements that shaped the status quo ante that if we go back to it may only further endanger the stability of the nation. From now on, the American people should remain involved in the political affairs of the country or the sociopolitical upheavals we have experienced over the past four years could easily become the norm. American politics can no longer be entrusted solely in the hands of the politicians. We can no longer trust them to always have the best interest of the nation in mind. We have to keep them in check, both Republicans AND Democrats. Just look at the Republican Party and how unwilling they are to acknowledge the serious error they have committed in slavishly following Donald Trump’s undemocratic lunacies. And as long as they don’t publicly engage in acts of contrition, they will never change their destructive behavior. There have to be some ways for the rest of America to let Republicans know that their highly reprehensible conduct of these past few years is wrong and is no longer acceptable. There will always be differences in the ways we conceive and promote the ideas of equality of rights and the pursuit of happiness among the variety of races that populate American Society, but as long as we all agreed that the purpose of America is always to pursue a more perfect union where everyone has an equal chance to improve their lot according to their abilities, we would be OK. Unfortunately, a good majority of Republicans seem to have lost sight of the common destiny that unites us all as Americans and are trying to veer the nation in a mistaken direction that, if allowed to go forward, would only lead us farther away from the ideals inscribed in the Declaration of Independence. For the moment, in electing Joe Biden for President, a sociopolitical catastrophe has been averted, but the American people cannot afford to let their guard down again. There is a price to pay for the liberties we so much cherish and that price is a constant vigilance from the part of each and all of us. To watch a video where Presidential Historian Jon Meacham elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Street Violence in Washington DC – An Ominous Reminder that the Country is Sitting on an Easy-Lit Powder Keg. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 13th, 2020. Donald Trump will not concede defeat and now many of his followers are digging for biblical reasons to support his undemocratic lunacy. Street violence broke out in Washington DC on Saturday night between Trump supporters aided by the white-supremacist Proud Boys and Joe Biden’s supporters rightfully claiming he won the election. The ones already willing to sink the country into deeper chaos in the name of their deranged Führer, the others willing to openly stand up for Democracy in the United States. There were also protests in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona, staged by Trump worshippers still trying to overturn the results of the elections there, thereby hinting that the situation will not get any better anytime soon. As long as Donald Trump doesn’t concede defeat and tells his worshippers to accept it and go home, the situation is NOT going to improve. Trumper fans are now staging “Jericho Marches” in reference to the Jewish people’s ± 1,500 BC marches around the walls of that Canaanite city with the intention of bringing them down. The marches culminated with the Jewish People blowing their trumpets, whose loud, powerful sound finally brought the walls down. The only problem in the Trumpers’ Jericho-marches analogy, however, is that the walls they are trying to bring down are none other than the foundations of the American Democratic system: The American Electoral processes. I am NOT a religious person but, in my understanding, the only god that could come to the Trumpers’ help in their anti-Democracy efforts would have to be the same god that brought Hitler, Stalin and Mao to power in their respective countries. May the universal forces protect us all from such destructive, undemocratic “god”. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Sedition? Treason? – The Republicans’ Barefaced Frontal Assault on American Democracy. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 12th, 2020. What else is there to say? The Republican Party is openly seeking to overthrow a duly-elected American government. How else can the Republicans’ ill-willed anti-Democracy moves be characterized? The GOP is consciously, deliberately trying to dismantle the American democratic system. The Supreme Court just made it abundantly clear to them that their arguments to subvert the results of the election don’t have any legal standing, yet they keep attacking the ligitimacy of millions of votes with the sole apparent purpose of smearing with dirty doubts the democratic processes of the United States. Why are Republicans so bitter? Where does their deep resentment come from? What wrong has the country done to them to deserve such high level of hatred from their part? I tell you what: By a margin of over 7 million popular votes and 74 electoral votes, the American people told their Führer-god to get the hell out of the White House by January 20th. That is what the Republicans are so bitter about. And in their desperate, authoritarian view, it is a question of all or nothing. Either they have their Führer back in the Oval Office for another four years, or they will try to destroy the electoral system that denied him a second term. And the country be damned. So much for making America great again. Overt fifth columnists. That is what the Republican Party has become. They are now openly laboring to destroy America from within. Shame on you, Republicans. Shame on you. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Professional Integrity, Not Constitutional Mandates, Kept the United States from Falling Down Trump’s Dark Autocratic Pit. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 11th, 2020. The Constitution of the United States is a brilliant, well-thought-of, well-crafted document worthy of praise, but it is NOT perfect. By itself, that document is just a conglomerate of good ideas, concepts and words. For it to be effective, it needs to be in the hands of people willing to abide by the main principles that inspired it, that is, “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity”. In the absence of such good will from the part of the people who interpret it and put it to practice, the Constitution could well be just an excellent essay in political philosophy. Like perhaps all products of the human mind, the Constitution of the United States is flawed, and it is so because it fails to address some contemporaneous situations that were probably unforeseeable at the time the framers conceived it. And absent some future, corrective constitutional amendments, a literal reading of that document may always risk failing to address some of the most salient sociopolitical difficulties facing the United States today. As it is, a strong determination from the part of the people in government to always generate a more perfect union is of the utmost importance, otherwise the conceptual gaps that render the Constitution imperfect, may someday fail to protect the country’s integrity as we presently know it. For example, some State legislators and Secretaries of State have the power to overturn the election results at the request of the President, just as much as some Governors and some Federal Judges too, but so far they have refused to do it. The Supreme Court also has the power to hear the Republicans’ unfounded allegations of electoral fraud, but none of the nine judges has thus far agreed to it, so they have thrown those allegations out. Nothing in the Constitution has specific instructions as to what to do, for example, in the event that any of those functionaries decides to actively participate in a non-violent Coup d’État like those Donald Trump has been attempting over the past few weeks. It is tacitly assumed that all functionaries, elected or not, are lawful citizens willing to watch for the preservation of the institutions of government, which is probably a reason why the framers didn’t see the need to address any such hypothetical scenarios in the Constitution. Similarly, nothing in that document precludes the President from exerting the vast powers of his office to pressure other functionaries to do his self-serving biddings. It is tacitly assumed that no President would be as brazenly corrupt as to try to do that, except that Donald Trump obviously is. Also, the United States Congress is NOT supposed to abdicate its responsibility for keeping the Executive in check, but the Republican Senate actually has, and there was nothing the Constitution could do about it. The Constitution, therefore, with all the checks and balances outlined in it and as bright and well-crafted a document as it may be, will never by itself be enough to safeguard the sociopolitical integrity of the United States. Honesty, integrity, good will, and a deep love of country from the part of the people in government are personal and professional attributes that will always be essential, sine-qua-non elements for the survival and well-functioning of American Democracy. The main reason that the country is today going through such troubled times is that the President of the United States and the leadership of the Republican Party have amply demonstrated not to possess precisely those necessary attributes. Yes, the Constitution has some serious flaws in it, the Electoral College being pehaps the most salient among them, but it does provide the nation with plenty of wisdom and discerning guidelines to follow. Ultimately, however, it is the American people, through their vote and through their elected and appointed officials, who will always have to stand up as guarantors of Democracy in America. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

There Are No Bigger Shameless UnAmerican Idiots than Those Republicans Who Are Proud to Be So. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 9th, 2020. Since November 3rd, the different courts have turned down dozens of Republican claims that Joe Biden was not fairly elected. Yet, those Trump idolaters keep soldiering on in their blind, groundless, asinine bid to overturn the elections by any means possible. Even now that the Supreme Court has very succinctly thrown out their latest Coup attempt, those amoral Republican political Orcs still intend to continue smearing with slanderous doubts the American electoral system. "The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied," said the Supreme Court in a unanimous order, but I doubt such decision will deter those lunatic Trumpers from insisting in their deranged, undemocratic, coup-attempt efforts somewhere else. It is unbelievable. Could it ever have occurred to you that the Republican Party would one day degrade itself to such shameful, immoral, anti-Democracy lows? I never had much regard for the GOP. I always viewed them as Darwinist Plutocrats. Still, I also thought that, somewhere deep inside, many of them really loved America. Now I am no longer sure of that. There is no way that those guys can continue treading down their present anti-Democracy path and not be aware of the serious detrimental consequences that their actions entail to the Republic. There is no way they cannot know that what they are doing is wrong. And it is in that awareness of their being wrong where lies the most serious threat to the future of the United States as a Democratic country. One of the two most distinguished, traditional American political institutions, the GOP, no longer gives a single damn about the will of the American people. They only care about grabbing power through any means possible and to hell with American Democracy. Those are the unfortunate facts, and those facts are sad. They are very shameful too. Regrettably, however, they are very true as well. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Labor Party’s Betrayal of the British Workers Mirrors the Democrats’ Betrayal of their American Counterparts. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 8th, 2020. What would the English comedian-actor Russell Brand have to do with any analysis of the sociopolitical problems the UK and the US may be suffering at the moment? Please allow me to explain. First of all, please understand that I am NOT a Democrat. I always vote Democrat, but the Democratic Party is often too duplicitous, even too hypocritical for my political preferences. The reason I vote for them is that the restrictive binary American political environment usually provides me with only one other alternative and there is no way in a million years I would vote for any of those reactionary, elitist, anti-Democracy Republican nutcases. Whenever anyone asks me to define the difference between the Republicans and the Democrats, I tell them that, in the long run, there is really not much. I just tell them to consider the Democrats as “Republican-Light” or “Moderate Republicans”. Similarly, I am in NO way a fan of Russell Brand either, I actually have never even watched any of his movies. But I largely agree with what he says in an opinion he recently published in the New York Times where he proposes that the worldwide neoliberal thrust undertaken by Tony Blair and Bill Clinton during the 1990s amounted to a betrayal of the British workers, which in turn generated in them the deep resentment that propelled millions of them to support the ongoing Brexit follies. To Russell’s proposition I add that the same betrayal of the American worker from the part of Bill Clinton and the Democrats also pushed millions of them to support the disastrous advent of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States. Please note that I have referred to the Democrats’ betrayal in the past, particularly in commentaries uploaded on October 18th and October 22nd, 2020, but in previous commentaries as well. Just as much as the American workers, the British labor forces often feel abandoned, with no real, palpable, effective representation in government, and such feeling makes them vulnerable to the promises any populist demagogue may make to them. It also makes them susceptible to find blame for their troubles in real or imaginary external or domestic forces or in immigrants. And consider that the Labor Party in Britain is much more to the left of the political spectrum than the Democrats are. Across the decades, the Labor Party has obtained for the English worker benefits that the American worker isn’t even allowed to dream of. For example, in England, since around 1948, they have entirely socialized medicine, meaning that health services are basically FREE for all permanent residents, which is something that barely even crosses the minds of most American politicians, be it Republicans or Democrats. Actually, in the highly prejudiced minds of many reactionary Republicans and even in that of many pseudo-liberal Democrats, England could easily fall in the category of socialist countries. Ignorance and selfishness don’t have any exclusive political affiliation and they don’t have any specific nationality either. The sociopolitical problems that plague the UK and the US will never be overcome as long as the Labor and the Democratic parties remain subservient to the reactionary forces in those countries and for as long as those reactionary forces uphold an oppressive upper hand over the masses. In the United States, the extreme-right propositions articulated by demagogues like Donald Trump will always find support in the working classes, that is, until the day the Democratic Party finally decides to abandon their deceitful, hypocritical stances and agrees to firmly and openly embrace the workers’ and the lower classes’ cause. To read Russell Brand’s opinion, please click here.

The Shameless Republicans Keep Silent while Trump Keeps Staging Coup d’État Attempts in Plain Daylight. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 6th, 2020. You couldn't make this up. It is the stuff of political fiction movies. It could easily be the script for a political comedy too. And it would all be very funny if the protagonists performing in it weren't real-life characters and if the democratic system jeopardized with such ludicrous coup attempts wasn’t the American. A band of inept lawyers representing the President of the United States keeps trying to overturn the results of an election by insisting that the Secretaries of State, the Governors, or anyone with enough power to subvert the Constitution, send “faithless” pro-Trump electors to the convention on December 14th, thereby overturning the will of the Ameican electorate. In case you haven't figured it out, such moves amount to non-violent Coup d’État attempts. And while this has been going on, guess what the Republican Party’s leadership has been doing or saying about it? Absolutely nothing! They are all, or almost all, silent and, as we all know, silence is either passive complicity or brazen support. At this point in time there is very little doubt that the great majority of Republicans no longer give a single damn about Democracy in America, if they ever did. Shame on you, Republicans. Shame on you. What have you guys become? You are basically relinquishing your right to be called Americans. Where did your morals and your patriotism go? Are you willing to send the country's Democratic system to hell in order to keep a lying, racist, amoral, consummated conman in power? What has the country done to you to deserve such ill will from you? This is madness. Sheer madness. Fortunately, there are over 80 million real Americans that entirely disagreed with your dangerous lunacy and elected a pro-Democracy, decent man to the presidency. To watch a short video that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Idea of a “Rugged” Self-Centered Cowboy Individualist vs. the Idea of a Shared United States of America. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 5th, 2020. It feels good to know that other Americans actually get to the same conclusion about the root problems presently widening the nation’s deep sociopolitical fissures as some others of us have done before. Some guys like myself arrive to those conclusions through experience living in other countries (in my case 16 of them) and perceiving through our own senses the differences between one culture and another. Some others get there through scientific analyses and statistics that reveal and demonstrate to all of us what the main causes for America’s problems really are. The article I’m hereby referring you to is of the latter kind. It is a revealing piece of socio-psychological-cultural studies that would be difficult to refute, except with insults of the worn-out stupid “you’re a communist” kind. As I have clearly expressed in commentaries you can find here-below (see Commentary uploaded on November 25th, 2020) America’s main problems don’t derive from intricate economic or political complexities. Our problems are cultural, rooted on a demoded, archaic notion that the United States is still a “frontier” style country where all cowboys and cowgirls have to fend for themselves against a hostile, wild, wild west kind of environment. As I have mentioned before, such mistaken conception of America was best expressed by Brad Pitt’s character Jackie in the film “Killing them Softly” in a scene where Barack Obama is on TV exulting the unity of America and Jackie loudly responds "Don't make me laugh. I'm living in America, and in America, you're on your own. America's not a country. It's just a business”. And therein lies the root cause for many sociopolitical difficulties the United States is suffering today, difficulties the nation has suffered for many previous decades, if not from its inception: Blind selfishness seriously exacerbated by blind racism, both of them deeply ingrained in a prevailing age-old, outdated, Republican-Anglosaxon, white-supremacist view of America. But what our fellow Americans of the reactionary kind refuse to see is the depth of the harm they are inflicting on themselves by going against the arc of destiny. Whether they like it or not, the ideals inscribed in the Declaration of Independence are way too universal and true as to succumb to their relentless, mistaken, selfish, segregationist efforts. At this point, I couldn’t agree more with Martin Luther King when he said that “the arc of the moral Universe is long, but it bends toward justice”. And whether any of our reactionary fellow Americans like it or not, so it is today, so it was yesterday, and so it will always be. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

A Much Better Side of America: A Non-Bombastic Well-Spoken Reality-Based President Who Makes Sense. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 4th, 2020. Don’t take my word for it. See it and hear it for yourselves. And I’m not talking about Joe Biden only. Listen to Kamala Harris as well. These are obviously two people who are quite far from being perfect, but I bet they are also very far from pretending that they are. If anyone deserves a good chance to prove themselves as leaders of the United States, are those two. Not much more to add. Judge for yourselves. To watch a video of Joe and Kamala responding to Jake Tapper on some important subjects, please click here.

American Democracy Was Temporarily Saved – Not by Chance, but by Popular Determination. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 3rd, 2020. The pillars of American Democracy stood standing against the constant onslaught they suffered from the Republican authoritarian forces over the past four years. The ramparts of government held rather well and endured to live another day, but they also showed the structural cracks that may cause their fall in the event of a future, better organized and calculated attack. And our Democracy survived, not because we were lucky, but because over 80 million Americans decided to stand firm in defense of it and voted to oust a deranged, authoritarian fool from the White House. The all-out, brazen attempt to annul the will of the American electorate undertaken by the legal teams representing the President of the United States since November 3rd didn’t bear the rotten fruit the “president” longed for, and that was yet another reassuring sign that there are a good number of true Americans serving in the judicial system who are not willing to throw American Democracy out the window just to please a powerful, but lunatic, would-be dictator. Yes, American Democracy has been temporarily saved, but let’s not fool ourselves, the country is in no way out of the woods yet. The guardrails of American Democracy held, but they also showed how fragile they are, particularly now that we know there are over 73 million Americans willing to tear those guardrails down because they don’t really care whether the United States remains a democracy or if it eventually becomes a dictatorship. For the moment, Joe Biden’s advent to the White House should be a matter of celebration for those of us who know American Democracy is worth standing firmly up for, but it shouldn’t be a reason for complacency and for letting our guard down. There is a chance the pro-Democracy anti-authoritarian fight ahead of us may never be completely won so, until we find a permanent solution to that problem, let’s by all lawful means make sure that fight is never lost. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Fearmongering Conspiracy-Theorist Bigots par Excellence - Meet the 2020s GOP, Same as the 1950s GOP. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, December 2nd, 2020. I love America. What America has given me over the decades no other country in the world could have ever given me. And I’m not just expressing an idealist, patriotic or even chauvinistic feeling. My statement is validated by the fact that, thus far, I have been to 47 countries and have lived in 16 of them, and in none of those countries have I detected a sociopolitical environment that provides anyone with as many opportunities as that of America does. I really believe the United States is an exceptional country and I believe a good part of its exceptionality resides in the variety of ethnicities, cultures and ideas that give it shape. Among that diversity of ideas, however, there are some very powerful ones that actually run contrary to the ideals inscribed in the Declaration of Independence and even in the Constitution. And here is where a certain question mark comes to the fore. How come a sociopolitical environment that embraces the idea of equal rights as strongly as the American does, engenders so much pushback against equal rights as strongly as the Republican Party does? Of course, the rights they're pushing against are not those of the Anglosaxon population. The rights of those people are those the Republican Party has sworn to uphold above those of any other ethnicity. The rights the GOP oposses the most are those of the African-American people, although those of the Latino and Native-American populations as well. The thing is, the Republicans know deep in their hearts that their racism and their white-supremacism are wrong, just as much as their increasingly obvious repudiation of Democratic principles is wrong too. They also know that a good majority of Americans don't harbor in their hearts any such lowly feelings, so they know they have to play the political game using as many lies, dirty tricks, deception, hoaxes and fearmongering as possible to stay within reach of power. This, however, is in no way anything new. The early 50s was an embarrasing chapter in the history of America for the McCarthyism that characterized it, and during that period, a great majority of Republicans remained silent while Joe McCarthy slandered dozens of people and hurled false accusations even against the American institutions of government as part of his rabid, paranoid, pseudo patriotic agenda. And a large number of Republicans went along with McCarthyism then just as much as they have been going along with Trump’s shameless repudiation of Democratic ideals today. Fortunately, out of their own Republican ranks, in the early 50s there also came the Eisenhower administration, which, in a rather unassuming manner, helped put an end to McCarthy’s dangerous reign of lunacy. But the Republican Party's push for racism, authoritarianism and white-supremacism did not disappear along with McCarthy at that point in time. It just receded to the middle or back burners of the American political scene. All it took for the Republicans to show again their true racist, reactionary traits, was the advent of an amoral, authoritarian fool like Donald Trump to the presidency. Will Republicans ever learn? Will we ever find a way to bring those Americans who cling to the destructive ways of the Republican Party into the wide stream of Americans who really love the United States and would like to see the promises the country stands for be true and available to all Americans, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity or party affiliation? Only time will tell. To Read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Error in Refusing to See the Similarities Between the Rise of Trumpism and the Rise of Nazism. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 30th, 2020. Back in the 1930s, the German people didn’t know how or when to stop once they had embarked on their nationalistic race toward Nazism. As a result, by May of 1945 the whole nation was humiliated and totally devastated. In contrast, this past November 3rd, American nationalism met a hurdle it couldn’t overcome, which has given the nation a pause to try to recalibrate the situation and maybe correct course. That doesn’t mean the anti-Democracy nationalistic scourge that surged in the United States over the past four years has been stamped out for good, but it makes contemplating the similarities between the German and the American cases a wise thing to do. The deep despair gnawing at the heart of the German people in the 1920s was profound and was founded on an adverse national reality much harsher than whatever may be the real grievances that brought millions of Americans to follow that dishonest, amoral, crooked pied piper called Trump. Hitler’s placing the blame of the German army’s surrender (Nov. 1918) on the shoulders of the high command and those of the Jewish population is comparable to Trump’s placing the blame for the decline of the American worker’s standard of living on the shoulders of the so-called “deep state”, the pro-Democracy “liberals”, and the immigrants. Fortunately, the situation in the United States is not today anywhere as dire as was that of the Germans a century ago and it was not as deep or widespread as to to keep over 80 million American voters from throwing Donald Trump out of the White House in this past election. In so doing, the country has put a temporary stop to the destructive, authoritarian train of events unleashed by the Trump administration, but the forces that kept Trump afloat during the past four years are still pretty much alive and kicking. Actually, the humiliating defeat their Führer has just suffered at the ballot box has probably fueled the MAGA hordes’ unfounded resentment against our governmental and democratic institutions, particularly because of their delusional peception that the election was stolen from them, and it would be irresponsible of the rest of us not to expect a backlash of undetermined proportions. We usually look at the Hitler phenomenon from the point of view of the disastrous path his leadership embarked the German people on from 1938 onwards, but we tend to forget that, before he revealed himself as the evil genocidal force that he turned out to be, the German people already revered him as their sole leader and savior and had granted him a total, unconditional personal allegiance, which is the point that the MAGA people find themselves in today. And let’s not forget that Hitler was defeated by von Hindenburg in the runoff elections of April 1932 and that it was only in January of the following year, when von Hindenburg granted him the chancellorship, that he was able to initiate the Third Reich. Donald Trump was defeated in the elections this year, but he is only 74 years old and he still has plenty of years ahead to keep sowing havoc in the country, particularly because of the unconditional support he enjoys from the blind fanatics that follow him. In a few words, we should be careful to assez the present situation with the rigour it deserves so that we don't fail to learn from the sad example Germany presented to the world close to one hundred years ago. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Hey Trump! You Immature, Narcissist Fool! YOU LOST! OK!? Now Just Get Ready to Get Out of the White House! Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 29th, 2020. Geez! What will it take for that retard moron Trump to come to terms with reality? And what will it take for all those shameless brown-nosing Republican idolaters to gather enough courage to tell him to concede? The more you look at the Republicans’ performance since November 3rd, the more you think barefaced human stupidity doesn’t have limits. Just check out the situation in Wisconsin, where the Trump campaign just spent $3m dollars in a vote recount in Milwaukie that resulted in Joe Biden gaining a further 132 votes over Trump (see here) At the same time, a federal appeals court discarded another challenge from the Trump team, who now say they will appeal to the Supreme Court. Those corrupt Republicans will go down to their graves cherishing their racist god Trump. And don’t tell that amoral, crooked, narcissist fool that the majority of Americans don’t want him as president anymore because he will never believe you. He will also go down to his grave believing he was the poor victim of a liberal plot. That pitiful, delusional retard still thinks he won Pennsylvania and Georgia with no evidence to substantiate his claims. And to think some of the leaders of the most powerful nation in the world are Republicans. It is mindboggling. Something is really not right in the United States when shameless clowns of that sort hold some of the topmost positions in government. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

We Can No Longer Fool Ourselves – The Great Majority of Republicans are Racist, White Supremacist, Proto-Fascists. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 27th, 2020. You think the title statement is untrue? You think it is an exaggeration? You think it is just a partisan, never-Trumper falseness? Just please ask yourselves, if my statement is not true, how come some 94% of Republicans voted for Trump this past election? Would you argue that the previous four years were not time enough for them to realize that Trump is a racist individual who repeatedly attempted to trample on the Constitution and often gave clear dog whistles to the Proud Boys and their white supremacist ilk? Please ask yourself whether, as we speak, the average Republican is not aware of Trump’s and the Republican leadership’s brazen attempts to disenfranchise whole communities of black voters before and after the election? They all are. The great majority of Republicans know exactly what Donald Trump stands for and with that certainty in mind, they voted for him. To think that everything will go back to “normal” now that Trump will be gone is basically like believing Little Red Riding Hood and other fantasy characters of that sort exist. There is no “normal” to go back to anyway. The Republican Party had thus far been projecting a sometimes-convincing resemblance of civility and decency, a half-credible image of citizens who believed in defending and improving the country’s democratic system. But all of that was only a mirage, a hallucination induced on the rest of us by means of a collective, traditional belief that all Americans love our country with equal passion and conviction and that none of us in possession of our five senses would ever even think of blocking its evolution towards a more equitable ethno-social integration. But now it turns out such belief was never based on reality. It was all a hoax. The Republicans always harbored in their hearts a hidden racist, anti-Democracy agenda. And now Joe Biden is thinking of inviting some of them to come govern with him in his administration? In the view of some of us, Joe Biden has always been a malleable politician, some sort of weathervane who sometimes turns according to the political winds of the moment. He is even well known for giving in to the Republican side for the sheer sake of bipartisanship. This time, however, Biden should be very careful not to fall in the category of appeaser or apologist. This time around, the Republicans have gone a bit too far and their transgressions were, and most likely will continue to be, very serious. They have openly supported a shameless racist president who often encouraged white supremacism and, worse still, they have intentionally and forcefully tried to undermine the foundations of our democratic system. As the country’s situation stands today, for Biden to nominate a Republican to a cabinet position would be like inviting a Trojan Horse into the courtyards of his administration. Any Democrat official, elected or not, who disregards the excessive disdain for the nation's governmental and democratic institutions that presently circulates among the Republican ranks does it at their own risk. We all have to be careful not to extend a hand to rabid dogs that bite. There first has to be some kind of atonement from the part of the Republicans before the rest of us can begin opening our arms unconditionally to them again. The American poet, writer and scholar, Caroline Randall Williams is perfectly right when she says that Republicans need some kind of chastisement from the part of the rest of America or they will never learn the lessons they should learn. This she calls “Loving Chastisement” (see here) To condone the dangerous, racist, neo-fascist, anti-Democracy route the Republicans took over the past four years would basically mean enabling them to do it again and again and again, until the United States would no longer be recognizable and would no longer qualify among the salient Democracies of the world. And Joe Biden better understand this, and he better understand it well, or he will make the arduous task that awaits him a lot harder still. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Bernie Sanders May Be Considered an Extremist even by Many Democrats but I’m With Him on This One. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 25th, 2020. As I have mentioned before in these commentaries, one of the reasons, perhaps the main one, that millions of American workers embraced Donald Trump’s nationalistic lunacies, thereby dangerously gambling with American Democracy, is the Democratic Party’s failure to stand up for them when facing the class warfare they are constantly the object of from the Republican Party and even from some Democrats too. As the situation stands, all anybody has to do to invalidate any proposal to legislate more labor protection for the masses, or much lower cost for healthcare (not to mention a universal one) or much lower cost for education (not to mention a free one) is to label such proposals as “socialist” or “communist” and their demonization is accomplished. Such time-tested emotional-psychological conservative ruse, whose effectiveness still works today, plays an essential role in keeping and expanding the gap between the haves and the have-nots in America. It just adds credence to, and justifies the culture-ingrained archaic notion that, American society is not the sum of its parts, but just a haphazard conglomeration of isolated cells each of them pushing in their own direction with not much in common with each other than the need to enforce protection for their own lives and property. Such notion transforms most Americans into self-immolating “harakiri” individuals still entrapped in the self-defeating cowboy mentality that open rogued individualism (read “blatant selfishness”) is the right and only way to go. Such mentality brings to mind the final speech Brad Pitt’s character, Jackie, says at the end of the movie “Killing them Softly”. In that scene, Barack Obama has just been elected president and is on TV talking about the shared destiny of all Americans, "Don't make me laugh," Jackie says, "I'm living in America, and in America, you're on your own. America's not a country. It's just a business”. But don’t tell any of those “rogued individuals” of America that such self-perception is largely worn out, that it is no longer applicable to our times, that we are reaching a point in the history of the country where we either start taking better care of each other or we will all get in serious sociopolitical problems with each other. That sense of a shared destiny is what the Democratic Party should stand for, but it really doesn’t. The conviction that America is a country united under its ideals of equality and justice for all is often missing in the Democrats' agenda. They have allowed the patriotic symbolism in the American flag be highjacked by the elitist, authoritarian demagogues entrenched mainly in the Republican Party, but also within their own ranks. Yes, America's laissez-faire business policies are at the heart of its financial success, but those policies don't need to keep going in the plutocratic, darwinist direction of late. We need to bring much more socioeconomic equity between the American classes or in the end we will all regret it. Wake up Democrats. Either you start seriously taking the side of the American workers or another demagogue a la Trump, or even Donald Trump himself, will snatch the presidency from you in 2024. This time with a vengeance. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Renewed Opportunities a Biden Administration Represents for a Better Global Understanding. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 24th, 2020. Emily W. Murphy, the administrator of the General Services Administration, is finally authorizing transition operations to begin, including releasing the necessary federal funds to the Biden transition team. Better late than never. Such reluctance from the part of the Trump administration to accept their obvious defeat is just symbolic of the relentless pushback Biden’s policies will be facing over the next four years from the Republicans, particularly if Georgia’s runoff Senatorial elections place the Senate majority back in the dirty hands of that backward-looking, imbecil, sociopolitical dinosaur named Mitch McConnell. Despite that, however, the rest of the world has already given a deep sigh of relief that Donald Trump’s International-relations demolition derby is finally coming to an end. That fact, however, doesn’t mean the future looks rosy colored up ahead for everyone. Europeans in particular would be foolish not to have learnt the lessons of the past four years and should continue strengthening their own defense systems, be it in the financial, diplomatic or military fields, keeping in mind that America won’t ever be the same reliable ally they might have thought it was in the past. With over 73 million Americans still longing for a nationalist, authoritarian leader, the United States can no longer be trusted to be always the guarantor and defender of Democracy in the world. The cat is out of the hat. But the world has never been a stable sociopolitical environment for long periods of time anyway, so we will all eventually manage to adapt to the damaged post-Trump global circumstances. In the meantime, let’s take some time to rejoice in the inevitable reality that Joe Biden is the next President of the United States. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Republican Leadership is Complicit in Trump’s Drive to Undermine American Democracy. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 23rd, 2020. “Any electoral system that doesn’t elect ME as president has to be rigged”. That’s obviously what Donald Trump is thinking right now. But such stance is not supposed to alarm us anymore. By now we all know better than to expect from Trump any decent, civilized, statesman-like response to any situation that is contrarian to his narcissistic instincts. What still perplexes some of us is the persistence with which such moral corruption has got a hold of the Republican Party’s leadership. Trump’s strategy has already come down to openly asking some state legislatives to bypass the constitution and the will of the people and send pro-Trump “faithless electors” to the convention on December 14th, which would be a blatant, shameless effort to step all over the American democratic system. Yet, the Republican leadership doesn’t do or say anything about it. On the contrary, some of their most prominent members still stand with Trump in his efforts to invalidate the elections by any means possible. Many business leaders are basically imploring Trump and his cronies to concede, but if most of them know who they’re dealing with as much as some of us do, they know they cannot expect much reasonableness from the narcissist in chief. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Democrats Are Incredible Computer Evil Geniuses According to Delusional Sidney Powell and the Republicans. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 21st, 2020. Trump attorney Sidney Powell is going around openly claiming that Democrats are incredibly efficient computer evil geniuses who managed to rig the entire nation’s computerized voting system with an amazing algorithm that flipped millions of Trump votes to Joe Biden. According to Powell, the algorithm was designed by Hugo Chavez, the late Venezuelan dictator, who used it successfully in the elections he won in his country (Wow!) The reason Powell and her outstanding intelligent colleagues managed to uncover such mastermind Democrat plot is that the votes for Trump were so many that the machines couldn’t handle transferring that many votes to Biden, so they stopped. Now, Powell’s fantastic conspiracy theory has gathered so much oxygen in MAGA circles that after right-wing dingbat Tucker Carlson, from Fox News, dared to ask her to present some evidence, some Republicans have started calling him “traitor”. Have a taste of your own medicine, Tucker Carlson, such rejection from the part of your co-religionaries should let you feel in your own flesh the kind of fact-free, pro-Trump, totalitarian environment you have been advocating in your program over the past few years. Allegiance to your Führer has to be total, Tucker Carlson, there is no room in MAGA world for anyone to question any theory that may benefit Trump, regardless of how illusory, asinine or farfetched such theories may be. Sidney Powell, on the other hand, is probably basking at the moment under the unconditional admiration of the MAGA people as the latest defender of the faith. Their god Trump needs to be cherished constantly, particularly now that he has been thrown out of Olympus and Powell is the High Priestess of the moment feeding her ultra-farfetched concoctions to the Trump tribe. Amazing. In Powell’s view, the ghost of Hugo Chavez has come back to haunt Donald Trump and rob him of his electoral triumph. Those Venezuelans are turning out to be a lot smarter than anyone had ever thought, at least in Sidney Powell’s distorted, hallucinating, labyrinthic mind. To watch Sidney Powell blabbering out her delusions, please click here. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Donald Trump’s Pitiful Coup Attempts Thwarted by Law-Abiding Republican Functionaries. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 21st, 2020. Surprise, surprise, not all Republican functionaries are corrupt, amoral cowards like Senators Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham. Some of them still believe that rules and laws matter and that our democratic system is worth standing up to powerful pro-authoritarian rulers like the President of the United States. The latest blow against Trump’s shameless, shameful campaign to invalidate the will of the America people came from members of the Michigan State Legislature: “We will follow the law and follow the normal process regarding Michigan’s electors”, said two Republican leaders of that legislative body, thereby letting Trump know they will not intervene on his behalf to unlawfully tilt the state elections in his favor. The country needs many more Republican patriots of that kind and caliber. Americans who have really internalized the idea that Democracy is the best system of government for the nation and are unwilling to hand the country to forces that relentlessly toil against it, be it foreign or domestic. Thank you guys, for not being as corrupt as the rest of your party is. Republicans really need to heal themselves from the hallucinatory fever they presently suffer from. High ranking Republicans are clearly aware of the dire direction Trump’s dirty moves are embarking the country on, but they no longer care, if they ever did. The highly noxious psychological virus the GOP is infected with is much more perilous to the country than Covid or any other possible deadly pandemic. Fortunately, not all Republicans have been infected with the MAGA disease to degrees that blind them to the harm they are inflicting on their own selves and by extension on the whole country. Hats off to the Michigan legislators and to Georgia’s Secretary of State, Republicans who initially bit the fools bait Donald Trump threw at them, but have been able to free themselves from it at the crucial moment the country most needed them to. And such is the situation we find in the United States today. A situation where we have to praise our government officials simply for following the rule of law and for doing what they were elected to do. Not for performing extraordinary acts of valor in the service of the nation, but simply for not being as corrupt and amoral as the President of the United States is. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

A Lone Voice of Reason: “Integrity Still Matters”, Says Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 20th, 2020. The President of the United States is angry at him, the state’s two Republican Senators entangled in a runoff election for their seats want him to resign, the Republican Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is pressuring him to discard thousands of legally-cast black votes, and he and his family keep getting death threats from Trump sympathizers. Yet Brad Raffensperger, the State of Georgia’s Secretary of State, still says the elections across the state were conducted appropriately and legally. No matter how hard his fellow Republicans keep trying to make him cheat, he still says that no one who has investigated the elections has found any evidence of voting fraud, process tampering or voting-machine malfunction in his state. So, he stands firmly in support of the results showing Joe Biden as the winner of Georgia’s 16 electoral votes. “Integrity still matters”, Raffensperger said, refusing to give in to his fellow Republicans’ dishonest, anti-democratic efforts to corrupt him. Other states are also under Republican pressure, not only to discard legally-cast votes, but also to try to send pro-Trump “faithless-electors” to the convention on December 14th, so that the election results may be reversed in favor of Trump (see here) The Tump campaign has filed lawsuits in Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia, particularly in cities like Detroit, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Atlanta, but thus far none of them has produced anything, as the courts have found no evidence to support their claims. Even as we speak, Donald Trump has invited State Lawmakers from MIchigan to the White House this coming Friday as part of his all-out brazen efforts to subvert the election (see here) That such efforts may bear the rotten fruit he desires doesn't look like a plausible outcome, after all, you cannot overturn an election simply because you didn't like the results. In case you didn’t know, Brad Raffensperger is a pro-Trump Republican conservative who actually wanted Trump to win in Georgia but, apparently, the man still has enough principles and integrity and is mature enough to accept defeat after carefully verifying that the election was conducted correctly and legally. Hats off to Brad Raffensperger. His example is a spark of hope that maybe there are a few other MAGA government officials who are not just blind, irresponsible, Trump-worshipping, bought and sold, amoral cowards. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The United States: A Fledgling, Fragile 55-Year Old Multiracial Democracy. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 18th, 2020. The symbolic birth of the American democratic system came when George Washington handed his presidential powers to John Adams, the newly elected second president of the United States. Such event made it clear to everyone that the nascent nation would not be a kingdom, but a Democracy where power would be transferred from one president to another according to the will of the people. But included in the concept of “people” whose will would select their leaders were neither women nor African Americans nor any other ethnic minorities. Not even non-landed Americans. The “people” in the framer’s mind referred to landed white men only. Non-landed Americans were finally enfranchised around 1860. Black men started voting around 1867 and their voting rights were officially granted constitutional protection in 1870, with the passing of the 15th amendment. Despite such provision, however, over the following 100 years Black Americans would still be subjected to open harassment and intimidation by twite-supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan to keep them from voting. In practice, Black Americans were finally enfranchised in 1964 with the passing of the Voting Rights Act, a law signed by Lyndon Johnson that rendered illegal all efforts to keep African Americans from voting. Under this light, the United States has been a full multiracial Democracy only for the past 55 years. Yet, as of November 18th, 2020, millions of Americans still refuse to accept the idea of America as a multiracial Democracy. A majority of them reject that idea indirectly by supporting Donald trump, a President who has openly advocated suppressing the Black and Latino vote. Others, like Senator Lindsey Graham, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and other influential elected officials, do it directly and openly, either by enticing State Governors to discard legitimately-cast Black votes or by claiming before the world cameras that Donald Trump won the election. Sadly, the idea of Democracy in its whole width and length is still far from being embraced by all Americans. Democracy is NOT an end, we say, it is a constant process. It is NOT cast in stone either. It is fragile and it is vulnerable to foreign and domestic forces that will try to dismantle it and dispose of it for their own authoritarian, even dictatorial purposes. As we speak, we are living in a moment when American-bred powerful antidemocratic elements bent on crippling or even destroying the nation’s democratic system are gaining momentum. The sociopolitical skies are not looking very bright for America. If getting rid of Trump in a legitimate election is proving to be so difficult, just wait till the Biden Administration takes over the reins of the country and watch how Donald Trump, the Republicans in the Senate and the 73 million MAGA people who adore Trump, do everything in their power to derail whatever efforts the new Administration might make in trying to move the country forward. I just hope I’m wrong with this last assessment. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

A Clear Spark of Hope for America: A Responsible, Informed President-Elect. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 17th, 2020. What a difference an election makes. In just a few weeks the country will have gone from having a demagogue, disparate, amoral, clownish baboon as president, to having a reasonable, clear-headed, experienced, responsible human being at the helm of the country. Welcome Joe, the whole world needs guys like you, but most of all, America needs you and we need you badly. Watching Joe and Kamala’s recent remarks on the state of the US economy was encouraging, not only for the plans they broadly outlined for the future, but for the influential people they invited at the (Zoom) table to elucidate those plans: Major business and union leaders. Particularly reassuring was Joe’s pledge to the American worker that his administration will be advancing their interests and watching over their rights as a key driving element in his administration. Yes, I know. Many of us are thinking “those are very pretty words, Joe, but we have heard it all before”. And whoever may be skeptical about Joe's words is perfectly right to be so. Politicians, after all, are well known for making promisess they never keep and Joe has been a politician for most of his life. So, let's just wait and see how everything unfolds after January 20th, let's keep Joe's administration in check and hope for the best. We also know that even if Joe really means what he said, there would still be a considerable hurdle before him trying to block most pro-labor, pro-majority legislations, the Republican Party, whose plutocratic, Darwinist, sinister, authoritarian plots were laid bare before our eyes over the past four years (to read about Lindsey Graham's disgusting attempts to throw away legal mail-in ballots in Georgia, please click here) On that count, however, all we can do is wish Joe plenty of wisdon, lots of courage and a lot of luck. But, for the moment, let’s rejoice in the fact that the country will be under the watch of a knowledgeable, clear-headed president for the next four years and that we will all be rid of that corrupt, clownish baboon called Donald Trump, hopefully forever. To watch Joe and Kamala’s remarks on the US economy, please click here.

The Sorry End of Donald Trump’s 4-year Wrecking-Ball Presidential Stint. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 16th, 2020. The whole world let out a heavy sigh of relief when Joe Biden Defeated Trump in the latest presidential elections. Many, including myself, thought the American electorate had just managed to rescue the country from eventually falling into the jaws of dictatorship. Our nauseating clown in chief, of course, being the amoral, cowardly ninny that he is, cannot come to terms with the reality of his defeat even several days after the whole world learnt he is just a high-roller loser of the topmost magnitude. But this time there are no credible alternative facts, if there ever were. You’re fired! Donald Trump. Time for you to go face the music that New York’s Southern District Courts have in store for you (see here) Good luck with that, you rotten consummated conman. By now it is perfectly clear to you and to all of us that you were never capable of scamming all of the American people all of the time. And your refusal to concede only adds an inflection point to the oversize joke your whole presidential performance should have amounted to, if it only weren’t for the sorry detrimental effects your revolting tenure as president has had on the American judicial and overall democratic system. But, even as the whole world may be apprehensive about the future of America, there is still plenty of time for Trump to have a few, last, loud laughs. He just needs to go look at himself in the mirror and laugh at perhaps the most puerile, ludicrous, laughable face in the world today, his own. Meanwhile, keep your eyes on the ball, America, the lunatic in chief will still be President of the United States for the next couple of months and there’s no telling what kind of insanities that deranged, amoral, authoritarian fool might yet try to pull out of his rotten hat. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Trump and the Republicans Want to Decapitate US Democracy Using a Guillotine of Lies. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 15th, 2020. Hard to believe, but American Democracy is no longer safe in the hands of our most influential national leaders. The President of the United States, the leader of the Senate majority, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, some Governors and Majors, as well as some members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, all of them have decided that Democracy is a disposable inconvenience when the American people don’t vote for their cherished Führer Donald Trump. And what is on the mind of the lunatic in chief stacking up the Pentagon with lackeys? Surely, as usual, he is up to no good (see here) At this point we would be fools not to put all options on the table. And that’s only looking at matters in the short term. In the long run, what we should all be concerned about is in keeping our Democratic system alive. The nation’s sociopolitical afflictions will NOT vanish next January 20th if and when Trump vacates the White House. The cat is out of the hat and now we know for sure what kind of rabid anti-Democracy Orcs we are dealing with: The Republicans. “The future’s not ours to see”, sang Doris Day in 1956 in the song “Que Sera, Sera”, but all Democracy-loving Americans would be stupid not to read the clear writings on the wall. American Democracy is on the edge of an ominous precipice. Contrary to what many complacent Americans may think, Democracies are not cast in stone. They are inherently fragile political systems that can grow strong only in proportion to the active participation of the people who stand up to defend and preserve them. Open your eyes America. “To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven”, Pete Seeger sang to us in 1959. Accordingly, this is no longer the time for complacency. This is the time for real Americans to stand up for Democracy. Beware America, your sociopolitical future in no way looks like a bowl of cherries. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here. I would also suggest you read a very clear no-nonsense warning by clicking here.

Almyrida in the Times of Covid. Crete Island, Greece, November 15th, 2020. Yesterday I took a stroll down the streets of the viallage where I presently live and took a few photos. Some of them came out OK and I made a photo album with them. If you have ever wondered what can a small village on the island of Crete look like in the times of Covid, you can get a glimpse of one by clicking here.

Trump’s Claims of Massive Electoral Fraud are Delusions but the Damage Such Claims Do to American Democracy Is Real. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 13th, 2020. No matter how hard the Republicans try, the courts will not rule in favor of their bogus lawsuits alleging there was massive fraud in the elections. There simply is no real evidence to support those claims. The most those guys can get is recounts like the one taking place in Georgia, which are not unusual, but never alter the initial results in any significant manner. There is no instance on record of any vote recount having flipped the results in favor of the opposite party. All those lawsuits amount to staged histrionics, but of a perilous kind. Trump’s refusal to concede defeat is just a childish, spoiled-brat tantrum, but the Republicans’ decision to support him is more consequential. Their adding credence to such glaring fabrications is damaging to American Democracy. Reflecting the GOP leadership’s blind and irresponsible position, 70% of Republican voters now believe the election results are not legitimate. Understandably, but not acceptably or responsibly, McConnel’s acquiescence to Trump’s refusal to concede is based on personal interests. He needs to keep the party’s base active and involved particularly in Georgia, where the results of two Senate runoffs will determine whether he keeps his job as Majority Leader in the Senate. At this point, the only remaining recourse available to the Republicans in their attempts to openly overturn the will of the people would be to have some “faithless electors” voting for Trump at the convention on December 14th despite their state’s electorate majority having voted for Biden, but it is still a bit difficult to imagine that Congress would go along with such blatant undemocratic attempt. Donald Trump lost the election and, whether he likes it or not, he will have to officially vacate the White House on January 20th, 2021. Republicans may yet lose their majority status in the Senate and McConnel may lose his flagrantly misused and abused post in that Legislative body, but the real unfortunate loser in this ongoing episode will be American Democracy. As it all stands today, tens of millions of Americans no longer believe their electoral system is fair and square. Their confidence in American Democracy has been fractured and only time will reveal whether such fracture is reparable or not. The lessons of this sorry episode should be clear for both Democrats and Republicans, but mostly for the Democrats, as their failure to watch over the rights and interests of the American people is largely to blame for the rise of neo-fascist demagoguery in America. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Did Ethnic Minorities and Middle and Lower Classes Just Legally Snatch the Election from White Supremacist- Elitist Republicans? Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 12th, 2020. And the answer to that question is “probably yes”. To begin with, just please ask yourself how “democratic” can American Democracy be when most politicians across the political spectrum of the country always look to safeguard the rights and the wellbeing of the upper 19% of the population over those of the much larger 81%? And the answer is “because the American masses have been coopted”. Demos is Greek for people and Kratos is Greek for power. Democracy is a modern concept deriving from those two terms that we use to define a political system whereby the leaders of a country are selected according to the will of the majority of the people. Have you ever asked yourself how come the majority of Americans most often elect administrations that propose legislations that are, to one degree or another, mostly beneficial to the upper classes and not to themselves? Have you ever wondered why Americans have been choosing for the past few decades to be recipients of financial benefits that supposedly trickle down to them from the moneyed classes in the form of hand-me-downs instead of getting those benefits directly from established nationwide economic structures in the form of rights? Once again, the answer to that question is “because they have been coopted”. To this day, most Americans cringe when they hear politicians like Bernie Sanders talking about Universal Healthcare or Universal state-financed education. “Anything of that sort is anathema”, many Americans say, “we are Americans and in our country everyone is on their own. The government can go fly a kite. We don’t need it. We are happy to be dependent on the charitable instincts of the moneyed classes. Let’s give money to the rich and they will provide us with jobs. Getting rights from the richest government in the world is wrong, but getting hand-me-downs from the richer American classes is OK”. Go figure. Harakiri is a Japanese term used to describe an act of suicide inflicted on yourself by ripping open your own abdomen with a long, sharp knife. American society keeps committing Harakiri on itself and the long, sharp knife it keeps using is the pseudo-conservative, pseudo-traditional ideas embraced and promoted by the American political classes, mostly, but not solely, by the Republican Party. Every nation has the leaders it deserves, goes the saying, which tells us that Donald Trump is NOT a sociopolitical aberration, but the logical consequence of the American people’s refusal to evolve. America needs to wake up, but doing so looks like an almost impossible task. There is a glimmer of hope in the fact that over 74 million Americans decided to vote for Joe Biden in the recent elections, thereby throwing Donald Trump, a would-be dictator, out of the White House (see commentary below) But it remains to be seen whether such massive activism extends beyond the urgency of the moment and translates into a constant repudiation of the clearly pro-elite policies espoused by both major parties. Open your eyes, America. The future of your country is at stake. Wake up. You deserve a much better destiny than this.

True to Himself in Refusing to Accept Defeat Trump is Behaving like Dictators Do. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 12th, 2020. Is Trump orchestrating a slow coup-d’état right before our own eyes? In placing loyalists in key positions at the Pentagon, firing Defense Secretary Mike Esper, installing Michael Ellis as the NSA general counsel, is Trump preparing for the possibility of deploying the US Military in the streets of the nation? As everything that Trump seems to do, if this were a coup-d’état it would be a very clumsy one, but therein lies the rub. Believing it is unthinkable nobody does anything about it. But, would the US military go along with such coup? Would they accept to repress their own people? Very likely they would refuse to obey Trump’s orders to do so, but that would certainly bring the whole nation to a standstill. The DOJ is already investigating allegations of voting fraud that don’t exist and the Secretary of State is saying before the cameras that he is ready to usher in four more years of the Trump Administration. Putting all of it together, why does it all feel like déjà-vu? Because we were warned about it a few times in the past: “Donald Trump won’t go away peacefully”, people in Trump’s inner circle like Michael Cohen, Tony Schwartz and others told us, “you will have to drag him kicking and screaming out of the White House”. And most people thought those warnings were exaggerations, but now things are beginning to look like they may have actually been premonitions. Once the senate electoral runoffs in Georgia are decided, and the issue of the Senate majority is settled, McConnell and Trump’s other henchmen in the Senate may finally disavow Trump, at which point he might barricade himself in the Oval Office, thereby requiring the intervention of the Secret Service to remove him by force. Preposterous? Ridiculous? The stuff of political tragi-comedies? Yes. But that’s what we are exposed to when we “elect” dangerous, amoral, mentally-unstable, selfish, irresponsible clowns to the presidency of the United States. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Republican Party Is at the Moment the Worst Enemy American Democracy Has Ever Had. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 11th, 2020. Unbelievable but true. The most powerful people trying to undermine the foundations of American Democracy are NOT the Chinese or the Russians. The most dangerous forces trying to destroy our Democratic system are not foreign, but forces born and bred right at the heart of the United States. They are forces embodied in those highly influential individuals who are presently toiling inside the corridors of power of the US government to attain their nefarious, destructive aims. Mitch McConnel, William Bar, Mike Pompeo, Lindsey Graham, and others, all of them Republicans holding positions of authority whose misuse and abuse can seriously cripple our Democratic system to the point of eventually rendering it inoperable. All of them are Republicans, which is to say, they are Americans who no longer believe in a Democratic America. Sad but true. Actually, it is much more than sad, it is threatening, it is dangerous. For the moment we have to let them play their disgraceful, unsubstantiated, yet still legal, games of denial. Let’s let them exhaust the slim validity of their bogus claims that there were widespread high levels of electoral impropriety in this month’s elections. But let’s not fool ourselves. Those Republican games can turn out being just some initial samples of the depth of lunacy that those deranged GOP officials and their 70 million followers can fall into as their false hopes for keeping their would-be despot Führer in the White House fade. Biden is still playing it cool, trying to project a “don’t worry be happy” image and that is a commendable stance, but I certainly hope he and the whole Democratic apparatus have some contingency plans in store designed to tackle any possible sequels to the present moment, regardless of how outraegeous those sequels may be. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

People All Over the World Reacted Like the US had Overthrown a Dictatorship. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 10th, 2020. All the people I have met over the past couple of years and, particularly, over the past nine months, agreed with me that there were very few words more fit to describe Donald Trump’s performance as president of the United States than "a perfect Son of a Bitch". Scotts, English, Welsh, Polish, Germans, Spaniards, Greeks, Swedes, French, Bulgarian, Swiss, Czechs, Italians, all of them expressed utter dismay and disbelief at the things that were happening in the United States under Donald Trump’s leadership. There was only one time, a couple of weeks ago, while I was living in the village of Stomio, on the island of Evia, when a Greek guy named Dimitris asked me that if Trump was such a bad leader, how come some of his Greek friends, who were intelligent, financially successful people, sympathized with him? To which I replied that there were thousands of very intelligent German people who willfully joined the Nazi party in the 1930s, but that didn’t make Adolf Hitler a better person in the least. Voting Trump out of office a few days ago did feel like a heavy, pernicious burden was lifted off the world’s shoulders. Serious hurdles still lie ahead on the road to begin healing the nation, not least of them the fact that the leadership of the Republican Party still refuses to accept defeat (see commentary below) But the first decisive step has already been taken, Donald Trump has been kicked out of the White House and the United States has a brand-new President-Elect. To see a video that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

OK GOP, Give it a Try, Look for a Needle of Fraudulent Electoral Evidence in a Haystack of Legal Votes. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 10th, 2020. Mail-in votes counted in Philadelphia were not properly vetted, or so says the GOP, which is why they are suing the state of Pennsylvania’s District Attorney and others alleging voting fraud and corruption (see here) OK Republicans, give it a shot, it is your constitutional right to do so. Go ahead, throw political tantrums, display the throes of your dying, four-year, catastrophic, anti-Democracy reign. After all, whether the rest of us like it or not, you are Americans too and you have a right to be heard. Thus far nothing points to any hard, undeniable evidence of voting fraud anywhere in the nation. There may have been here and there some voting irregularities and even some attempts to rig the system in favor of one party or the other, most likely obscure attempts undertaken by Republicans who lately have been trying by any possible means to keep the majority of Americans from voting. But such electoral anomalies can be found in almost any election that has taken place in the United States since forever and would not be widespread enough as to swing the final outcome of the election from Joe Biden to Donald Trump. But, still, go ahead, try to delay acknowledging the inevitable. Your tantrums only come to show how morally weak you guys really are. Depending on what the courts decide, legality may be on your side this time around, but legality doesn’t always go hand in hand with being right. Trying to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election by demanding ballot recounts here and there may be a perfectly legal thing for you to do, but it will never make it right to throw mud at the face of American Democracy simply because your candidate lost, with no evidence thus far of any electoral fraud or corruption whatsoever. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Rejoice America! The SOB in Chief Will Soon Be Gone! But if Democrats Don’t Veer Leftward, 2024 May Well Be a 2016 Reprise. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 8th, 2020. No more American politics as usual. Those days are long past and gone. In toeing Donald Trump’s racist, authoritarian, anti-Democracy line, American Conservatism has utterly discredited itself. The Republican Party no longer presents any option for bringing about a more perfect union in the United States. The GOP has already unmasked itself to reveal its true racist, undemocratic, callous face and there’s no turning back. We cannot go back to not-knowing what we already know. American conservatism is in its death throes and its demise has been averted only by the deep flaws that tilt, sometimes heavily, our presidential electoral system rightward. Republicans are clearly in the minority now. It is high time a true leftist political party surfaced in the United States, by which I mean a party that will stand for the rights and the wellbeing of the great majority of Americans, not those of the elites at the top. We need a true, active progressive party that will see that the American people stop being exploited by the powerful cabal formed by the insurance-company coalitions, the pharmaceutical companies and the medical profession. We need a truly liberal political party that will bring the cost of education down to zero, or near zero, for those Americans with limited financial resources and make it highly affordable for those well-off. We need administrations that will do the best they can to eliminate once and for all the scourge of racism that has plagued the nation since its inception, including bringing police brutality against minorities to their lowest possible level. In other words, America needs a true left-wing party, and one sure way to get it is to reform the campaign finance laws, so that political candidates won’t need to cater obsequiously to the moneyed elites for their electoral success. In a nutshell, America needs a real political makeover if it wants to avoid the recurrent arrival of demagogues a la Trump to the White House. I wouldn't expect the Biden administration to accomplish much, or even hardly any, of those reforms, but if they fail to show their clear intentions to set the nation in that direction, don’t complain if the past four years don’t turn out to be a one-off aberration, but a recurrent, destructive phenomenon in American politics. To see a video of Bernie Sanders congratulating Biden and Harris on their electoral win, please click here.

The Democrats’ Lackluster Victory is Worth Celebrating but It Is Also a Win for the Authoritarian Forces of America. Almyrida, Crete Island, Greece, November 7th, 2020. Over the past four years, over 330 million Americans had enough time to realize that Donald Trump is a consummated liar, a racist, a supporter of white supremacism, a conman, a detractor of our own governmental institutions, a detractor of our own democratic system, a callous would-be dictator and other revolting things of that sort. Yet, over 70 million Americans voted for him in this election. That number basically speaks for half the population of the United States. Just take the time to assimilate that fact. Close to 50% of Americans wanted to have a corrupt, amoral, openly dishonest man for 4 more years at the helm of the country. What kind and depth of resentment and confusion can be making the MAGA people feel such unjustified disdain for basic human decency on top of a totally uncalled-for despise for the values inscribed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution? Fortunately, the Republican Party didn’t win the presidency this time around, but the Democrats didn’t win the confidence of the American people either. The real loser in this election is not Donald Trump, the real loser is the United States. Biden’s win should have been a landslide. With Trump’s catastrophic handling of the pandemic and the dire financial consequences deriving from it, all that the Democrats needed to do was to present a clear alternative vision for the country. Yet, Biden ran on an empty platform based largely on the fact that he is not Donald Trump. Yes, he won and I celebrate his win, but he didn't present any new ideas, no distinctive policy proposals, just a promise to take the country back to pre-Trumpian times, which is exactly the times MAGA people rebelled against. As a result, Biden basically had to crawl up to the presidency. Not much pride in his victory. And it is all a consequence of the Democratic Party’s customary timorous approach to legislative proposals. As it stands today, American politics have stagnated left and right and the Democratic Party is largely to blame for the absence of meaningful, innovative ideas in its policies and electoral platforms. As I have mentioned before in these commentaries, there is NO real left-wing politics in America and that may be the main reason that millions of Americans who feel disenfranchised, particularly blue-collar workers, have no choice but to gravitate toward the extreme right where demagogues like Donald Trump make use of them for their nefarious, self-serving purposes. Republicans have abandoned their principles and morals, but Democrats don’t seem to have much of those either. Democrats too often stand for the interests of Wall Street and the financial elites over those of the workers and minorities and that's not workng for the country as a whole. If the Democrats don’t move over the next four years to implement significant changes in favor of their natural constituencies, like making healthcare and education much more affordable for the majorities, don’t be amazed if the country elects for president another demagogue like Donald Trump Jr., or somebody else of equal lunacy, in 2024. For the moment, however, let's celebrate the fact that, as of January 20th, 2021, Donald Trump will no longer be the President of the United States. Good riddance. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

One More Warning - Complacency is Unacceptable – Either We All Participate or Democracy Will Perish. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, November 2nd, 2020. It’s been four years since some of us began warning that American Democracy was in danger (see here) The dire scenario that some of us foresaw in 2016 is actually true today and now we are facing the possibility of digging ourselves deeper into the present Republican authoritarian chaos, particularly as the GOP continues adopting tactics aligned with those of some European autocratic parties (see here) To open your eyes to our serious pre-electoral quandary, just check out how those MAGA gangs and militias are going around disrupting traffic (see here) and even harassing and slowing down Joe Biden’s campaign buses on the freeways (see here) Where there’s smoke there’s fire and better safe than sorry, so it would be very irresponsible of us not to read the writings on the wall. Street violence is in the offing and we should all get ready for it. If ever such ominous prospect fails to materialize in any dangerous or even deadly manner, well, good for all of us. But if it does, don’t complain later that nobody saw it coming, because there are warnings about it written all over the mainstream media. American Democracy is immediately at stake in this election and it will continue to be threatened for many years to come, as Trump and his idolaters won’t be quitting the political scene anytime soon. Such scenario is troubling enough to deserve our fullest attention but, unfortunately, the problem is not contained solely within our borders. This is now a worldwide phenomenon. Democracy is now threatened everywhere it exists and everywhere other governments and peoples are thinking of going the democratic way. This is now a matter of serious International concern. But let’s worry about the rest of the world sometime later. For the moment, let’s just take care of VOTING Donald Trump out of the White House and as many Republicans out of Congress as possible. Then we can deal with whatever consequences result from the election, including keeping a cool but alert mind if and when Trump’s militias engage in acts of street violence. Complacency is no longer acceptable. Either we all adopt a hands-on approach in defense of our Democracy, or we will all regret it sometime soon. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The American Dream Gone Sadly Awry Even in the “Liberal” State of Oregon. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, November 1st, 2020. Should I just hunker down in my studio here on Evia island, Greece, and lament all by myself the steady vanishing of the American Dream, or should I keep dropping my tiny grain of patriotic gold on these digital pages and hope that my words may encourage other Americans to VOTE Democrat or maybe even flip a couple of MAGA minds toward Biden? Whatever the chances, I go for the second option. No use in giving up. There’s nowhere else to go anyway. We all live on the same planet and there’s no way out of it, except for those few of us who have managed to take a stroll on the moon or circle around the Earth on a few different space vehicles. Regardless of whatever differing points of view we might have, there’s no way to escape reality, even if we tried as hard as those MAGA people keep uselessly trying to. The truth is things are NOT getting any better in the United States and we need to find a way to stop the bleeding. Reading the first-hand recount of a British family’s experiences in Portland, Oregon, after they settled down there five years ago, felt once again like tearing off my eyes a thick veil that had shrouded my vision. The state of Oregon, after all, was famous up to now for its promise that a harmonious, liberal, egalitarian society was attainable in the Western United States. But, alas! That place over the rainbow where “the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true” didn’t turn out to be Oregon, at least not for the British family in question, and an aggravating factor in their real-life story is the fact that the lady in that family does not have white skin and neither does her daughter. Hers is an interracial marriage where the husband is white, even as the three of them are British. They went to Oregon hoping to pursue the American dream and they did get to enjoy the marvelous beauty of the Oregon landscapes, but they also met face to face with the ugly consequences that Donald Trump’s racist, anti-science, conspiracy-theorist rhetoric has had upon the nation in general and upon Oregon state in particular, where the city of Portland has been the focus of repeated Trump-instigated violence. But in spite of that British family’s disenchantment with their hopes, somewhere over the rainbow the American dream is still alive, even if for the moment it is sadly hidden behind the thick, dark clouds that the Trump administration has cast upon the American skies. Hang in there and fasten your seatbelts, America, we’re all in for a rough ride, but there’s a spark of hope somewhere in the horizon. To read the story of the British family in question, please click here.

Hey Americans, Let’s Hope We Won't Make This Huge Mistake Ever Again. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, November 1st, 2020. “Gonna take a lot’a love, to change the way things are”, sang Nicolette Larson back in 1978 and, boy, do those words apply to America’s present circumstances. We are all sailing on a ship to nowhere, or at least to nowhere good, as the irrational guy at the helm keeps leading us toward destruction. It is really going to take a lot of love to straighten things up. A lot of love for the country, for America, or at least for the America we thought we had before 2016. We will have to somehow bring back and embrace again the high ideals we thought were guiding the destiny of our country before that electoral super blunder. These past four years have removed America’s saccharine façade and have shown us the cancer-infested innards of the nation. We have intentionally been looking at the portrait of a Dorian Gray-like America, purposely refusing to see how the rot of racism, white-supremacism, elitism and political degeneracy was creeping up the nation’s living heart. The present state of affairs in the United States is not a pretty sight to see. America’s face has been badly disfigured, mostly in the eyes of the rest of the world. Does a Biden presidency offer us at least a glimmer of hope that things might get better? Yes, it does, as faint as that glimmer may be, it represents the possibility that at least some of the damage inflicted on the nation may be mended. If I thought that praying day and night would shore up America’s predicament, I would do it. As it is, however, I’ll leave the praying to my religious brethren. Meanwhile, I’ll just hope these past four years have awoken the flame of true patriotism in the heart of the majority of the electorate and that, on November 3rd, their VOTE will show that undeserving fool the way out of the White House. Once he’s out, that’s when the labor of love to rebuild the moral pillars of the country will begin. And that’s going to take a lot, a real lot of love. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

US Prospects for November 4th: Post-Election Armed Insurrection? Chaos in the Streets? A Constitutional Crisis? Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 31st, 2020. Yehp! Those are some of the pits that American Democracy risks falling into after all votes are cast on November 3rd. This is where the longest-standing Democracy in the world stands today: Looking down a sociopolitical abyss of its own digging. How did it all come to this? How did one of the most technologically-advanced societies in the history of the world turned out to have tens of millions of ill-informed, delusional, self-obsessed people among its members? How did a demagogue charlatan like Trump manage to awaken the vilest, most self-destructive instincts in millions of Americans? It is mindboggling, but no doubt this phenomenon has been decades in the making. No way we can attribute this disastrous mess solely to the unexpected arrival of a consummated conman to the White House. There will be time in the future for analyzing this alarming situation and elucidating its root causes, but for the moment America should concentrate on averting a chaotic post-electoral outcome of unpredictable proportions. Conceivably, Trump could try to take as many of our democratic institutions down with him if he loses and he would have over two long months to do it before Biden’s inauguration on January 20th. Trump’s default position at this point is to destroy anything that opposes him, just check out the increasing lunacy of his accusations even against the American medical profession (see here) To top it all, legions among his MAGA idolaters are armed and willing to follow whatever orders he may give them. Just think of the Proud Boys and their ilk. Expecting Trump to behave as a decent human being if the electorate throws him out of office would be highly irresponsible of us. Watch out America. This is very serious business. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

America Is Now Disfigured Beyond Recognition and the Real Culprit is not Trump. It Is the Millions of Americans Who Support Him. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 30th, 2020. No use in trying to scapegoat this unfolding sociopolitical catastrophe. Blaming Trump for the dangerous, yet sad predicament our country is presently in is no longer a sustainable proposition. Too much mud has already gone under the bridge to pretend we cannot see the undeniable, blaring reality before us: Americans are no longer the good guys we may have thought we were. Sadly, the Greatest Generation who liberated Europe didn’t beget in our contemporaries an offspring worthy of their valor and ideals. Somewhere along the way we lost our moral compass and are now embarked on a rudderless ship of absurd fools, running away from rationality and decency, on our way to an uncertain, ominous destiny. Want to fool yourself? Keep thinking that everything is fine. Keep thinking that once Trump is gone things will go back to “normal”. How can anything go back to normal now that we know that millions of Americans still give Trump their unconditional support, even after he has overtly shown his racism, his corruption, his disdain for truths and facts, his contempt for International treaties and alliances, his complete disregard for our own governmental institutions, his degradation of our democratic norms, his insults to many of our fellow Americans, many of them respectable characters, how can anything go back to normal in the United States now that we know that the people who most despise the ideals inscribed in our Declaration of Independence and in our Constitution are none other than our own fellow citizens and that they number in the tens of millions? Understandably, a good number of Americans may not be able to see what some of us can see from abroad. The fog of partisanship, misinformation and conspiracy theories that abound everywhere in the US probably clouds their vision to a point where they miss the forest for the trees. But the damage that has been done to our country over the past four years is very deep and it is not solely sociopolitical, it is essentially cultural, and Donald Trump is only the tip of the iceberg. Somehow, sometime over the past 70 years or so, America’s heartland lost its way. As the millions of MAGA people have repeatedly shown the world, principles, morality, decency, the rule of law, respect for our friends and allies, constitutionality, Democracy, are all things of the past that no longer form an indispensable part of their belief system. Those are all disposable, ancillary items easily burnt as sacrificial offerings to their Führer, Donald Trump. Unbelievable. Incredibly sad, but true. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The US: A Democracy that Barely Is. Hanging on to the Mirage Glories of the Past Won’t Lessen Our Problems of the Future. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 29th, 2020. The American electoral system is rigged, but not in the way Donald Trump keeps falsely shouting to the four winds. It is not rigged against “poor little old, innocent him”, as he often claims. It is rigged against American ethnic and economic minorities. And this is particularly so for the porous nature of the laws and regulations that govern it, which allow the Democracy-averse Republican Party to place obstacles and barriers designed to keep minority and poor people from voting. Unfortunately, this is a trick they often pull with the overt support of the Supreme Court, which counts with a majority of reactionary judges usually prone to stop, or at least slow down, much sociopolitical progress in the country. We can expect more damaging, backward, against-majority rulings now that the “Conservative” numbers in SCOTUS were enlarged by one to constitute a 6 to 3 majority (the Supreme Morons). But the shambles often seen in our Electoral System don’t stem solely from the Supreme Court or from our highly undemocratic Electoral College. Our campaign-finance system bears plenty of blame too. As salient among the culprits, however, is the absence of specificity as to the minimum of ballot boxes needed according to the size of the population in each state and where and when can votes actually be cast. The question of mail-in ballots is also a highly-contentious matter, which only comes to add confusion to the whole process. As it happens today, each state, even each county has the power to decide the number of ballot boxes made available to the electorate and it is them that determine the time and dates for voters to exercise their democratic duty. This makes it that American voters are, to a good extent, at the mercy of the political whims of whatever party may be in control at the time of the elections. This electoral flaw lends itself to manipulation from the part of partisan-motivated actors. By now Republicans know for sure that their constituents don’t comprise a majority of the electorate, so they feel the need to suppress the vote as much as possible. And this is not just a rumor. It is a fact that even Donald Trump corroborated in public on March 30th of this year when he said that Republicans would never be elected again if it were easier for Americans to vote (see here) Republicans know for sure they are the minority party. They know their ideas and policy proposals don’t add up with the majority of Americans, so they know with absolute certainty that their only sure way to win elections is to cheat. But their fault in such recurring undemocratic situation is only partial. In the view of many of us, the highest culprit in all of this is our own electoral system that is decidedly imprecise and defective and, to top it all, can even be clearly biased against the general American Electorate. In the long run, however, and just as the saying goes, “opportunity makes a thief”, so that if our electoral system weren’t so faulty, Republicans wouldn’t have that much chance to cheat. Americans pride ourselves in living in the longest-standing Democracy in the history of the world, but those are glories that have recently come to show how unfounded they may actually be. Our electoral system needs to be reformed and it needs it badly. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Hey, Democrats, You Still Feel Bipartisan After the GOP Shoved Judge Barrett Down America’s Throat? LEARN! Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 28th, 2020. The real difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits, or so goes the saying. Frankly speaking, is there any political party in the whole world more reluctant to learn from the lessons their adversaries keep teaching them than the American Democratic Party? Will the Democrats ever learn that you don’t keep extending a friendly hand to a rabid dog that bites you every time you do so? Will they ever understand that the only way to deal with such kind of rabid beasts is to clobber them as hard as possible with the biggest, thickest stick you can get a hold of every time they misbehave? I’m talking to you, Joe Biden. You still want to promote bipartisanship in government and include Republicans in your administration after Barrett’s barefaced, abusive confirmation in the Republican Senate? Are you stupid or something? Are you blind? Don't you know that inviting Republicans to your administration is like inviting a Trojan Horse into your city? Haven’t you figured out yet that Republicans already realized they are in the minority and that their only means to cling to some power is by cheating as much as they can and by flouting as many traditions, rules and regulations as possible? The more you let them off the hook after each transgression, the more they think they can get away with anything they want. So, don’t fool yourselves, Democrats. Judge Barrett’s confirmation is a deliberate spit on your face. It is a clear and loud “up yours, Democrats! We don’t give a single damn about you! We don’t have the tiniest speck of respect for you or your stupid, utopian, bipartisan ideas!”. Democrats need to regain majority status in the Senate in November so that Joe Biden can start packing the Supreme Court with liberal judges as soon as he wins the presidency. If possible, Biden should enlarge SCOTUS from 9 to 13 judges, so that there will be a majority of 7 liberals for some years to come. Democrats need to do that with a complete, total disregard for whatever objections the Republican Party might have. Up theirs! In confirming Barrett in such a flagrant, partisan manner, Republicans forfeited their right to be heard in the Senate once Democrats are in the majority. The time for extending olive branches to those ill-willed, reactionary guys is now long past and gone. The GOP stopped playing nice a long time ago and now the time has come for the Democrats to retaliate and to retaliate as hard as possible. And if Democrats don’t show they have political guts this time around, they might as well just throw in the towel, give up politics and go open a pretzel shop or something in their own hometowns. So, wake up! Stupid, wishy-washy, often-self-defeating Democrats! It is high time for you to do something highly significant for America! Let’s help Joe Biden pack the Supreme Court with liberal judges as soon as he becomes president and the hell with the Republicans! If sometime in the future they show they are willing to participate in the political game in a fair and square manner, then you guys may try dealing with them in a fair way again, but not one single second before. The hell wth them! Let's VOTE as many Republicans as possible out of office next Tuesday, pack the Supreme Court with liberal judges and don't let any Republican get anywhere inside the Biden Administration. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Conspiracy Theories Are LIke a Virus that May Already Be Spreading as Fast as Covid-19. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 27th, 2020. Covid-19 is a hoax, some people say, fatality rates are grossly exaggerated, say some others, the virus was deliberately created and spread, say a few more, all of them looking for ways to feel like victims of some dark, evil cabals bent on controlling their lives. A good number of them believe their governments are involved in the pandemic ruse and there are those who think 5G technology is just a vehicle to spread the disease. And, of course, the time is ripe and fitting to dig up that old conspiracy theory that claims there is a supersecret, all-powerful, worldwide government always keen on pulling all kinds of strings to manipulate us all. Some of those conspiracy theories sound quite ludicrous to some of us, but some others can actually be harmful, like those embraced by the Anti Vaxxers, meaning people who for religious or other reasons refuse to be inoculated. Some others fear being injected believing vaccines cannot actually immunize them but, on the contrary, can produce harmful side effects on them. Part of the blame for the spread of such theories at a world scale can be placed at the feet of world leaders like Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil or Donald Trump in the United States, whose mixed and inconsistent signals have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths in their own countries. Trump is particularly culpable on this count, as he often uses the bully pulpit to add credence to some of those nutty theories. According to some estimates, here in Greece, where I have lived for close to eight months now, 46% of the population think the number of Covid fatalities is being largely exaggerated. This I can partially corroborate at a personal level, as during the three months I recently lived in Athens, I met a few people who didn’t believe there were as many Covid-related deaths as the news outlets claimed. In Great Britain, the percentage of people who don’t believe in the official Covid fatality numbers is 22%, while in the US that number is close to 40%. Nigeria has the highest number of fatality non-believers, with 59%. For its part, with a count of 57%, South Africa has the largest number of people who have serious doubts about the efficacity of vaccines, while in the United States we have around 32% of anti Vaxxers. None of this is any flattering to the international community as far as our ability to disseminate and assimilate fact-based scientific information is concerned, but there's really not much that we can do about it, as humanity’s propensity for superstition, fantasy, delusion and other similar self-induced mental trickeries seems to be as old as the human race itself. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Covid-19: Many Mistakes Were Made in the US But in the End the Buck Stops at the White House. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 26th, 2020. “The Captain goes down with the ship”, says an age-old maritime tradition, meaning a sea Captain holds the first and final responsibility for whatever happens on the ship he commands. Other officers and sailors may make mistakes in discharging their duties, but if anything goes seriously wrong on the ship, it is the Captain who is responsible for it. And in case of a catastrophic disaster that may render the ship unsalvageable, the Captain is supposed to be the last to abandon ship, after he has sent his crew and passengers to safety. Ultimately, if the ship is doomed to go down with its crew, the Captain is expected to go down with it too. That was the case of Captain Edward Smith, the guy who commanded the Titanic on its first and final voyage. Speculation has it that Smith could have averted the disaster by slowing down the ship, as it didn’t need to be going that fast, particularly after he had been warned there might be icebergs in its path. In the end, however, Smith assumed the entire responsibility for the tragedy and went down with the Titanic to the bottom of the sea. Similarly, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the CDC, the WHO and others, made fundamental mistakes during the initial phases of the Covid-19 pandemic, but they all eventually corrected course and began presenting the situation in all its gravity. The White House, on the other hand, to this day hasn’t yet entirely corrected their initial mistaken, dismissive approach, even after the pandemic has killed over 225,000 Americans, the President himself has contracted the virus and there are, as we speak, contaminated people in the Vice President’s inner circle. Actually, Donald Trump is still going around saying the virus may eventually disappear, as if by magic. In contrast, the previous two administrations took pandemics much more seriously than Trump’s ever has. The George W. Bush administration came up with a 17-page playbook called the “National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza” (see here) and the Obama Administration came up with their own 69-page playbook called “Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents” (see here) Those two playbooks were put together by responsible, authoritative people who had enough basic wisdom as to foresee the possibility of such deadly event actually unfolding in our country. Yet, the Trump administration seems to have grabbed those recommendations and guidelines and thrown them out the window the moment Trump came to power. Yes, mistakes were made at all levels by many people everywhere in the world during the first stages of the pandemic, particularly in the United States, and some responsibility for this deadly disaster has to be assigned to them, but the Captain of the USA Vessel is still the President and in our country the buck is supposed to stop there, at the Resolute Desk, in the Oval Office of the White House. Fortunately, my allegory of the Titanic doesn’t have to fully apply to our country and its present circumstances. Unlike the case of that doomed ship, we can still make sure that our country’s present corrupt and undeserving “Captain” doesn’t take the whole country down with him, and the immediate way to do it is to VOTE him out of office on November 3rd. To read an article and see a video that elaborate on the subject, please click here.

What Do We Do Now that We Know the GOP is Just a Gang of Racist Pro-Authoritarian Reactionary Americans? Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 25th, 2020. No easy way out of this one. The cat is out of the hat. We cannot go back to not-knowing what we already know. The naked facts revealed to us over the past four years show us that a significant portion of the American population no longer believes our Constitutional Checks and Balances should be respected. Their shameless support of a racist president shows us they no longer believe, if they ever did, “that all men [and women] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights”. Their constant efforts to suppress the vote show us they no longer believe, if they ever did, that a Democratic system of Government is the right system to select our leaders. They only believe in grabbing as much power as possible and by all possible means. They no longer believe, if they ever did, that our political system should be a market of ideas where the majority of the electorate can select the ones they consider best for them. They believe that any American who disagrees with them should be demonized and ostracized from the political realm and any ideas that disagree with theirs should be obliterated. Is there any meaningful dialogue possible between them and the rest of the non-Trumpian population? It doesn’t seem so. So, what do we do now that we know that our nation’s worst enemy resides in the heart of millions of our own sisters and brothers? What do we do now that we know some members of our very own family wish to destroy the very same house that we all live in? We cannot go back to not-knowing what we already know. The Republican Party no longer believes in the United States that the rest of us believe in. Yet, Joe Biden has been going around saying he would like to invite some Republicans to join his administration if he wins the presidency. How wise would that be? How wise is it to invite your deadliest enemy into your own home and ask him to sit at the family table to share your meal? Shouldn’t he be thinking of leaving the Republicans completely out in the cold, depriving them as much as possible of any political influence, so that maybe, and just maybe, in time they would learn a rightly-deserved lesson? No easy way out of this existential imbroglio. No clear blue skies in the horizon either. And the saddest of things is that all of our problems, all of our wounds, present and future, will have been inflicted on ourselves by none other than our own selves. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Racism: The Real Reason Behind American Hostility Toward the Welfare State and Further Ethnic Plurality in Government. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 24th, 2020. Americans placed at the bottom of the social scale have for decades been of African or Hispanic ethnicity, along with Asians and other ethnic minorities. According to some studies (see one here) that is the main reason that any income-redistributing programs like Universal Health Care and others have never gotten much traction in American politics. Both mainstream political parties are largely populated by mostly men from white non-Hispanic races, which are representative of the 59.7% “white” majority today. Thus, most elected officials see any wealth-redistributing governmental program as a handout to people they don’t ethnically identify with, which is the reason they don't show much enthusiasm to approve them. That is why white Americans think more than twice before voting for any candidate belonging to any ethnic minorities, as they fear any minority officials may look to enact laws and regulations that promote equality of rights across ethnic lines, thereby supposedly curtailing theirs. At the same time, that is also the reason that many Americans like me saw a bright ray of hope when Barack Obama was twice elected president. Real change is in the offing, many of us thought, and deep in my heart I rejoiced and celebrated the optimistic promise that such massive sociopolitical awakening represented for the United States. But, Alas! Such hopes were destined to come crashing down on their face in 2016, when the highly undemocratic Electoral College handed the presidency to a declared racist, an amoral authoritarian individual who lost the popular vote by nearly three million votes. Now, America is once again ruled by a party that constitutes a minority of the electorate, but represents an aggressive, vociferous, resentful sector of the population that embraces with zeal that old white supremacist tradition they think had been repressed during the Obama years. Trump’s obsession with destroying Obama’s legacy to the largest possible extent is also symbolic of the Trumpers’ desire to erase from the history of the country the obvious tendency toward racial equality that Obama’s eight years in power represent. Trump’s followers, whether entirely conscious of it or not, are at the bottom, a group of selfish, racial bigots standing in the way of the country’s inexorable path towards sociopolitical evolution. Racial equality may be the light at the end of this dark Trumpian tunnel our nation is presently going though. Let’s just hope the price we will all have to pay to carry the nation toward that end won’t be too high. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Dye Was Cast Weeks Before the Final Debate - Neither Candidate Stood to Change the Voters’ Minds. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 23rd, 2020. I woke up this morning around 4:30 Greece time (21:30, Oct 22nd in Nashville, Tenn.) to watch live the final US presidential debate on my computer. A few minutes into it, it all looked like the same annoying story: Trump desperately trying to whitewash his near-criminal handling of the pandemic, his callous treatment of the over 500 children he ordered separated from their parents and the rest of his presidential failures, while Joe Biden displayed his usual, tamed, near-meek, sometimes tired-looking performance. So, I watched that highly overrated show for approximately 30 minutes, got bored with it, turned off my computer and went back to sleep. Was Biden making me in any way feel I was wrong in having voted for him? No. Was Trump making me reconsider my decision to want him dumped out of the White House as soon as possible? No way. Do you think their eventless performance may have managed to switch voters from one camp to the other? I sincerely doubt it. Close to 40 million votes have already been cast, including mine and, according to some counts, at this point in time only 5% of the electorate is still undecided, basically meaning that the dye has already been cast as well. In consequence, whatever changes the final debate may have exerted on the election results may barely amount to some icing on the cake. No doubt about it, the present sociopolitical situation in the United States is indeed mindboggling. I, for one, frankly cannot see what Trump’s followers see in him. It is all as if they and I lived in separate realities, in separate worlds. Could the primal cause for such deep difference of perception reside in the fact that I am not Anglosaxon and, therefore, I don’t long for a time in which my ethnicity reigned supreme over all the other ethnicities that populate the American society? If an affirmative answer to that question explained the basis to the Trumpian phenomenon, it would have to be only in a partial manner, as there are probably millions of American Anglosaxons that don’t support Trump. So, there has to be a persuasive element of social resentment from the part of most Trumpers, a feeling of having been wronged by the government and other influential sectors of our society, hinting at grievances of the social class kind. Maybe someday some historians and Political Scientists will find a clear explanation for this dire American phenomenon. In the meantime, let’s start putting a stop to it by VOTING that presidential aberration out of power on November 3rd. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

True to Capitalism the American Electoral System is Super Rigged Against the Middle and Lower Classes. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 22nd, 2020. The Electoral College is not the only, not even the main, factor rigging the American electoral system against the interests of the American masses. It is essentially the Campaign Finance system that, even before the elections take place, gnaws at the dreams and hopes of the great majority of Americans. Just picture a candidate like Joe Biden, whose electoral campaign has been receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions from billionaires and millionaires, how could he refuse to give in to his donors’ demands once he becomes president knowing that, if he did, he would be betraying them and they would turn against him with anger in the midterm elections? Actually, how could the Democratic Party as a whole fail to promote policies that favor mostly the upper 1% when those are the people that finance the Party’s political campaigns to begin with? The American campaign finance system is designed so that the middle and lower classes always get a much shorter end of the stick in the nation’s political bargainings. Ever wondered why there is no serious movement to reform it? As it stands today, most American political candidates depend largely on whatever financial support they might get from the moneyed classes, firstly to be elected and later to remain in power. That makes it that there is no real mainstream political left in the United States. After all, if this were not so, the United States wouldn’t be the world’s capitalist society by excellence. The few leftist ideologues that occasionally reach to positions in Congress, like Bernie Sanders in the Senate and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and perhaps the other three members of “The Squad” in the House, hardly ever manage to nudge the party anywhere as much toward the left as they would like to. In consequence, if the left has no real representation in the American mainstream political spectrum, what is there left for the Democratic party but to embrace a weak, inconsistent, coreless, center-right platform? This means that, once Trump is defeated and the Anti-Trump enthusiasm presently unifying the Democraic Party dissipates, Joe Biden will face a very steep uphill road if he is elected President. Even if the Democrats were to gain a majority of seats in the Senate, Biden's hardships would stem, not from any Republican opposition to his policies, but from the internal divisions of all kinds that always plague the Democratic Party. In the end, the most likely conclusion of such troubling scenario would be the usual betrayal the Democrats inflict on the middle and lower classes for the benefit of the upper ones. In any case, regardless of any post-electoral outcome, I didn't vote Democrat expecting them to exert any revolutionary changes on the American Political system. I voted for Biden with the specific, imperative intention of getting rid of Trump. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Is the Unimaginable About to Happen? Is a Coup d’État in the United States Really Possible? Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 21st, 2020. Better safe than sorry, goes the saying. In other words, if we see dark clouds gathering in the sky, along with lightning, high winds and thunder, shouldn’t we get ready for a storm? Similarly, if the president of the United States, an undeniably authoritarian guy widely known for disrespecting the rule of law and breaking most norms and protocols of American governance, goes around claiming out loud that he will NOT accept the results of the November elections unless he’s the winner, shouldn’t we get ready for a serious political storm? Joe Biden, among others, has already warned us of the possibility that Trump may refuse to leave the White House if he loses and we would all be fools if we failed to see the writings on the wall: Donald Trump might actually try to stage another Coup d’État in America, second only to, but on a much larger scale than, the white supremacist insurrection that occurred in Wilmington, North Carolina, back in 1898. Once again, there’s no doubt that right wing, white supremacist militias of the Proud Boys kind would be quite willing to go to any extent of violence to keep Trump in power if he asked them to. But the question is, would today’s military betray the American people and help put in place a dictatorship in the United States? I frankly don’t think so, but nobody in this world can predict the future with much certainty and I’m no exception. The thing is that such previously unimaginable scenario has a good majority of Americans thinking it could never take place in our country, and therein lies the danger. There is a two-month period of transition before the incoming President is sworn-in on January 20th and that’s more than enough time for Trump, his minions and his idolaters to raise havoc across the nation. Does the unimaginable stand a chance to happen? Is a Coup d’État in the United States really possible? To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

An Editorial Worthy of The New York Times. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 19th, 2020. I have been mildly disappointed in some of the Editorials that have appeared in recent weeks in the New York Times on the subject of Donald Trump and his disastrous administration, to the point of sometimes thinking that The Guardian, that trustworthy British news outlet, was much bolder with its realistic, unsweetened reporting on US politics. Better late than never, goes the saying, and the Times has finally come up with an Editorial worthy of its high reputation that leaves no room for misinterpretation. The Times’ Editorial Board is finally telling it exactly like it is: The overall Damage Donald Trump has inflicted on our nation is so serious that it might take years to reverse it and the ominous consequences of granting four more years to that amoral, unscrupulous, perverted individual are, for the moment, immeasurable. The Editorial in question is part of a weeks-long effort the Times has undertaken to shed as much light as possible on the reasons why Donald Trump should be forever banned from gaining the United States’ presidency ever again. In addition, as part of that laudable, patriotic effort, some other editors and columninsts have also written exposes of the Trump administration’s rotten doings from different angles. Thus, Michelle Cottle, Jeneen Interlandi, Jesse Wegman, Farah Stockman and Serge Schmemann, all part of the Times' team, have their analyses also available through the same link. To read the Editorial in question, please click here.

Donald Trump: A consequence of the Democrats’ Betrayal of the American Labor Force. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 18th, 2020. I am NOT a Democrat. I vote Democrat because I don’t have a choice. In my view, a good number of elected Democrats don’t wear a true-blue Democratic heart. At the core, some of them are Violet, the mix closest to Democratic Blue, others are Purple, midway between Blue and Red, and some of them are even Magenta, the mix closest to Republican Red. Not many Democrats are full-blown Blue and that’s because a true “Left” doesn’t exist in America’s mainstream politics. The real American left is represented by Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but those two individuals are considered “extreme left” by the American mainstream media or outright “communists” by extreme-right commentators like those at Fox News and their ilk. In reality, the Democratic Party doesn’t always stand firm in indorsing or increasing the workers’ rights or those of the lower 50% of the population. During the 60s yes, there were very important progressive, leftward steps taken, like the Civil Rights Acts of 1960-64-68, or the Voting Rights Act of 1965. There may have been other instances when Democrats stood for the rights of the majority of Americans over those of Wall Street, but things really started going wrong under Bill Clinton and the Neoliberal policies he so strongly promoted. That is when American jobs began a massive exodus toward China and Mexico and it is when the American worker began losing faith in the American Government in general and the Democratic Party in particular. None of that can be denied and any level of resentment the American workers may feel today is justified. But to claim that disenchantment with the so-called American Left, the Democrats, is reason enough for some 40 million Americans to blindly follow a lunatic demagogue seriously bent on destroying the whole American democratic apparatus, is in line with quite a farfetched irrational logic. There is much more to this than meets the eye. Such virulent antiestablishment reaction is laced with heavy ethnic resentment from the part of the Anglosaxon sector of the population that perceives as an outright afront to their racial prejudices the fact that other ethnic groups may be getting ahead while they are left behind. Such deeply ingrained biases tell them they should always be on top of the racial pyramid, regardless of any external intervening factors, hence the Make America White Again slogan. There is no easy explanation for such complex sociopolitical issue, but there is no reason to whitewash it as acceptable either. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Jacinda Ardern, the Small-Town Store Worker Whose Labor Party Just Showered Kiwis with Grace. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 17th, 2020. Well, surprise, surprise. The world has NOT gone totally mad after all. A few million people way down in the Southern Hemisphere just showed us they still have their heads on their shoulders. They just showed the world they still know how to think and they still know what’s good for them. New Zealand may have been hit by the deadly Corona virus as much as the rest of the world, but they haven’t been bitten by the equally contagious virus of stupidity that is presently plaguing the so-called greatest country in history, the United States. Hats off to Jacinda. You did it again and this time you did it really big. By landslide. Donald Trump is not even worthy to untie the straps of your sandals. And did you see the remarkable civility that the whole electoral process unfolded with over there? Is it in any way comparable to the unpredictable situation we have in America just 17 days before the presidential elections? No way. Hats off to the Kiwis. Thank you, guys, for being such an inspiring example to the world. To watch a video showing Jacinda thanking her people for their support, please click here. To read a short biography of Jacinda, please click here.

The Republicans: A Pack of Deaf Blind Able Corrupt Fools Setting the US on the Road to Ruin. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 16th, 2020. Is there any use in continuing to denounce the dangerous path to perdition the Republicans keep succeeding in setting the nation on? Is there anything gained in sounding an alarm that is already ringing loud in the mind of a good number of Americans? Are all of us clear-eyed Americans who keep warning our fellow citizens about the crooked, perverted path the Republicans are leading our nation into, just a bunch of Cassandras destined to be ignored, so that we are forced to end up saying “I told you so” just a few years down the line? The ancient Greek Priestess Cassandra was granted by Apollo the gift to prophesize with accuracy, but when she later refused to give in to Apollo’s amorous advances, he cast a curse on her so that no one would believe her prophesies. Will all of us Americans who can clearly see the direness of the road that awaits in the country’s immediate future end up playing the role of Cassandras, being ignored until we all realize it is too late? Hopefully not. Hopefully some of our compatriots will react accordingly and will take a first but important step in trying to stem the serious bleeding that America’s Democracy is presently suffering from. Hopefully, in these coming elections, a clear majority of Americans will VOTE as many Republicans as possible out of power, starting with the most amoral of them all, the “President” of the United States. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.  

When Will Most American Voters Get Tired of Being the Electoral Suckers of the World? Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 15th, 2020. We have heard it all before. The Electoral College is an archaic, ill-conceived, biased instrument for preserving a no-longer-existent resemblance of a conservative majority in the United States. The Senate’s two-senators-per-state rule gives the smaller populations of smaller states a highly disproportionate representation in government that is insulting to the larger populations of larger states. Any issue that may plague larger states like California, i.e., forest fires, poverty, etc., is virtually ignored by presidential candidates who concentrate mainly on matters that may affect battleground states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania or Florida. Most Americans know all of that very well. And yet we still call all of it equal governmental representation for all Americans? What kind of suckers are we the majority of Americans turning out to be? Particularly those of us voters from larger states? For how long will voters from the West Coast states and others stand the slap on the face we get in every national election when the vote of any individual in much less populous states like Wyoming weighs 70 times more than that of any of us Californians? What is it that stultifies the American people to the point of making them not give a single damn about these glaring national inequities? What keeps them from waking up and standing up to our highly-undemocratic electoral system and the abusive, highly unequal system of representation we have in the Senate? Complacency can be destructive to Democracies. Where there is no sociopolitical effervescence, the rot of negligence may easily settle in. Rivers whose waters no longer run stagnate and may simply give in to putrefaction. America has become a very traditional country and traditions can often be very difficult to modify or overcome. Our electoral system and our system of representation in the senate keep granting the nation’s conservative forces a power that in reality they no longer possess. What will it take for Americans to finally wakeup, react and stand up for their rights? Hopefully NOT a catastrophe of apocalyptic magnitude, for such a destructive event wouldn’t spare anyone in the world. So, let’s just keep trucking, keep muddling through, keep denouncing such blatant national inequities, VOTE as many Republicans out of power as we can and hope for the best. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

While Neo-Nazi Militias Are Convicted in Greece, White Supremacists Get Presidential Support in America. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 15th, 2020. That’s the way it goes these days. Up is down, yellow is blue, West is East and not much else seems to be the way it’s been for the past few decades. In our day and age, the longest-standing Democracy in Western history, the United States, is allowing far-right, proto-fascist militias to bask under the dark light of the president of the country, while the cradle of Democracy and Western Civilization, Greece, just sentenced to 13 years in prison the leaders of their own home-grown neo-Nazi party, the Golden Dawn. Athens, Greece, was the place where the idea of Democracy first saw the light, but shortly after the Athenians first experimented with that kind of electoral system, the city fell under the rule of oligarchs, tyrants and military commanders (strategoi) Later, all of Greece fell under the authority of the Ottoman Empire and through the 20th century it was a kingdom, a Nazi-occupied country, a kingdom again, a nation ruled by a military junta and finally, starting around 1975, a Democracy again. In other words, Democracy hasn’t had a good track record in the land of its birth. In the United States, on the other hand, and in spite of the country’s brushes with its own right-wing authoritarian tendencies, our version of (sometimes-unreliable) Democracy has remained standing since the inception of the country 230 years ago. Unfortunately, as the saying goes, everyone has their own day of reckoning, and such day could well be approaching to America’s Democratic system. May the universal forces never will such fate for our country, but the unbelievable is no longer farfetched or unheard of. While in Greece a panel of judges sentences 57 right-wing militia defendants to prison terms adding up to 500 years behind bars, in the United States the President of the Republic remains silent after a group of far-right militias is caught plotting to kidnap some Democrat State Governors that stood up to him regarding his probably-criminal pandemic directives. And that’s the way it goes these days. Up is down, north is east and only the devil (if it ever existed) may know where all of these unpredictable events will lead. To read an article that elaborates on the subject of the Golden Dawn convictions, please click here.

In These Elections Democrats and Other Never-Trumpers Have to Kick the GOP Really Hard in the Groin. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 13th, 2020. There only seem to be a couple of ways to neutralize a vicious dog that has acquired destructive Pavlovian responses: One is to put the beast to sleep and another is through intense carrot-and-stick stimuli. Unfortunately, we cannot put the Republican rabid dog to sleep, so the only available means to save the American Democratic Republic from its vicious attacks is through the second one. But, unfortunately again, carrots no longer entice the GOP to modify its behavior so that it stops rabidly biting on the foundations of our Democratic Republic. So, the only obvious choice available to us is to kick them as hard as we can in the groin, where it hurts the most. Meaning to kick as many of them as possible out of office in November, thereby clearly chastising the rest of them so that from then on they will think more than twice before engaging in their despicable anti-Democracy behavior again. There is an increasingly bright silver lining in the cloudy American horizon showing that the Democracy-loving section of the electorate may have understood the seriousness of the country’s predicament and seems to be taking the appropriate measures to save it from ruin: They are turning out to vote in droves. In some states where early voting is legal, Americans are standing for over 10 hours in long lines to cast their vote. Hats-off to all of them. I cast my vote via Fax from Athens, Greece, on September 25th and I’m only one among 9.4 million Americans who thus far have already voted. Did you cast your vote already? This is no time for complacency. The time for hesitation is through. If early voting is allowed in your state, please vote today, by whatever legal means possible, in person, by mail or by Fax. It is imperative that we get that amoral conman out of the White House and as many of his corrupt idol-worshipping Republican Senators out of power in November. The choice cannot be clearer: America has to vote for Joe Biden or the consequences will be ominously unpredictable. To read an article describing the encouraging voting situation in the state of Georgia, please click here.

Are You Still Undecided About Whom to Vote for in November? Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 11th, 2020. If you are still undecided about your November vote, I have an urgent suggestion for you: Quick! Wherever it is you’ve been living for the past four years, come back to planet Earth! Immediately! Once you’ve done that, make sure you come to the United States of America! Because lately there have been some very serious events taking place there. Once you’ve settled down in the United States again, make sure you check out what’s been going on since the Summer of 2015. Things have really changed in our country, guys and girls. The social unity we always thought we had has turned out to be just an ephemeral mirage. Right now, there are people insulting each other everywhere simply because some of them refuse to wear a protective mask against a deadly virus that has killed over 214,000 Americans and counting. There are even people killing each other for that very same ridiculous reason. As it is plain to see, now we have a president who openly supports white supremacist groups and stays silent when right-wing militias are caught plotting to kidnap a Democratic Governor. At this moment, the president of the United States is the guy who most insults our own institutions of government and is the guy who most denigrates on a regular basis our own electoral processes. So, once you have come back to the reality that envelopes our nation, once you have realized that out democratic institutions are increasingly in danger of disappearing, once you have learnt that our sociopolitical problems have been greatly exacerbated by a lunatic, proto-fascist, amoral narcissist who presently serves as president of the United States, please tell me whether you are still undecided about whom to vote in November. For if after realizing the damage that amoral conman has inflicted on our nation you still cannot make up your mind as to whom to vote for in the coming elections, you better just go back to living in that far-away, fantasy-planet that you came from and just accept it once and for all that you don’t belong in the reality that most of the world lives in. If you are still just another undecided voter, just please get out of this planet and accept it that you’re just another helpless American moron. Let’s face it, come November, the majority of the American electorate will have to prove whether our country is pro-Democracy or against it. Pro-dictatorship or against it. Pro-deifying an unscrupulous presidential conman or against it. Pro-fascism or against it. Pro-racism or against it. Pro-a Darwinist-Plutocratic society or against it. Simply put, pro our own Declaration of Independence or against it. Any other choice would just be another sheer wishy-washy copout. Just in case you need some help making up your mind, please click here.

The Damage Trump Has Already Inflicted on America’s Standing in the World is Considerable. It Could Get Much Worse. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 10th, 2020. Given the shame Trump has smeared the United States with and the damage he has retched over the whole world during his first, and hopefully only, presidential term, a considerable number of people fear some very detrimental consequences could be expected if he were reelected: The Climate Change crisis would certainly deepen. America’s already ailing relationship with our allies would be further weakened. The threat of a nuclear-weapons miscalculation would again creep up to the fore. China’s ascendance to the position of Superpower No.1 would stand better chances to come true. World trade might be disrupted even further and authoritarian leaders around the world would be further emboldened. All those issues have already been negatively affected over the past four years because of Trump’s blind foreign policies, but they could be affected even more over the next four if he were to win in November. To read an article that presents a sober, dispassionate picture of the dire repercussions the world may suffer if Trump gets a second term, please click here.

Emboldened by Trump Some Republicans Now Openly Say the US Does NOT Have to Be a Democracy. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 9th, 2020. Such is the sad state of affairs in the United States today, and it may only be getting worse. Just give Republicans a little more time and many more of them may gradually gather enough courage to show in public their true Racist, Fascist colors. Give Trump four more years at the White House and our government will for sure develop into a full-blown authoritarian regime: The United Tyrannical States of America. You think this is just another farfetched warning? Open your eyes and observe with serious intent the country’s dire predicament, for the unbelievable may be about to happen. There was a time when a US Senator uttering clear pro-authoritarian statements would prompt immediate condemnation from all corners of the American mainstream political spectrum, but not now. Not in the times of Trump. To hear such kind of propositions from a serving US Senator is no longer unthinkable or unimaginable. It is just another postulate that fits well within the realm of realistic possibilities for the country. There may not even be one instance where the noun “Democracy” is mentioned in the constitution, but is the idea of America conceivable without its essential Democratic character? Would America have gotten this far, meaning to be the number one country in the world, using any undemocratic means to select its leaders? (Yes, the Electoral College is highly undemocratic, but let's put that sad fact aside for the moment) What alternatives are there for Democratic systems nowadays? Kingdoms with hereditary succession of power, Authoritarian one-party systems where leaders are selected by secretive cabals and outright Dictatorships, either of the secular or the religious kind, whose leaders usually, but not necessarily, come to power by military force. Any other type of undemocratic system would have to be a slightly different version of those four, or a combination there of. So, when a US Senator proposes that America does NOT need to be a Democracy, he is proposing to put in place one of those undemocratic alternatives. Would you like to be a citizen of such kind of America? How happy would you feel living under a China-style or a Russia-style kind of government? How about living under a North Korea-style kind of regime? If having any kind of undemocratic government does not fit your idea of the United States, you better vote for Joe Biden, even if you don’t think much of him, as he is the only alternative to a power-drunk, proto-Fascist lunatic who promises to continue sowing havoc in America if he wins. To read an article that exposes Republican Senator Mike Lee openly stating his anti-Democracy ideas, please click here.

JP Morgan’s Chairman Affirms What We All Know: Racism and Sexism Are a Deep Structural Scourge in the United States. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 7th, 2020. At this point in time, maybe only some deaf and blind Americans would have failed to notice the obvious, widespread racism and sexism that exist in our country. As Jamie Simon, JP Morgan’s CEO observes, the ethnic groups that are usually affected the most during a recession, a natural catastrophe or a pandemic like Covid, are African-Americans and Latin-Americans. Which gender would you guess is disproportionally affected by the same kind of calamities? Women, of course. By some counts, this past September we had a 7% unemployment rate among “whites”, while we had a 10.3% and a 12.1% rate among Latinos and blacks respectively. The 13th amendment may have abolished slavery back in 1865 and the 14th may have largely granted equal rights to all the new citizens back in 1868, but numerous American Anglosaxons never accepted such constitutional resolutions in their hearts and they made sure their racist views were transferred to their offspring across the generations, all the way down to the present ones. Are you an American with enough melanin in your system to have a colored or slightly-colored skin? If your answer is yes, no matter what your ancestral origins may be, no matter how smart or generous you are, no matter how much you may wholeheartedly love America, just for the sheer fact of not having white skin, a good number of American Anglosaxons, although certainly NOT all, will quite likely find reasons to look at you as an outsider, if not something worse. And the sad thing about it is that many of them just cannot help it. That’s what a racist prejudice is all about. It’s a compelling Pavlovian reflex most often indoctrinated at home since birth that is later reinforced by American society in general and by certain populist leaders in particular. Donald Trump did not himself instill in the Proud Boys’ minds their racist instincts. He just validates them. The Proud Boys and their White Supremacist ilk, along with all those other Anglosaxons who are not supremacist activists but nevertheless acquiesce to any racism privately or openly professed by anyone, already had their racial prejudices ingrained in their minds long before Trump came to power. American racism is by no means a 21st century phenomenon. It’s been part of the American psyche for well over two hundred years, since the inception of the country, probably even well before that. JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon is absolutely right in denouncing out loud such persistent blemish festering at the heart of America. The tragedy of the Covid pandemic and the killing of George Floyd, Breona Taylor and other similar victims of state-sanctioned violence, therefore, may yet serve as a catalyst that precipitates a meaningful, groundbreaking awakening in American society. May the Universal Forces will it that way. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

David Attenborough’s “A Life on Our Planet”. An Ecological Work of Art with Revealing Visuals. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 6th, 2020. Attenborough’s body of work is widely known across the globe. His films portraying his first-hand research in natural history, which he has documented since the late 1970s, have won him constant accolades and recognition from governments and international organizations alike. I just finished watching his latest work, “A Life on Our Planet” and I can only express my admiration for such a well-done work of love for this beautiful, living blue marble that is our cosmic home. The documentary's narrative follows the changes our planet has undergone since the day Attenborough was born and includes footage from the early work he did in a few different parts of the world. Some of the things he says in this documentary that called my attention are: We need to rediscover how to live in a sustainable manner, to become a part of nature once again. We need to learn how to work with nature, rather than against it. If we take care of nature, nature will take care of us. To save our world will require more than intelligence, it will require wisdom. This is not about saving our planet, it's about saving ourselves. The documentary is about 1.5 hours long and it is a rather large file, so it would have been a bit difficult for me to share it wih you on this Website. Instead, I'm hereby including a link to a trailer shown on YouTube. To watch the trailer of the documentary, please click here.

Let Them Breath Covid - The Deadly Tragicomic Trumpian Show Goes On. Stomio, Evia Island, Greece, October 5th, 2020. The whole world knows Donald Trump is seriously infected with Covid-19, yet he still demanded to be taken for a totally unnecessary ride in the hermetically-sealed “Beast”, the presidential bullet-proof limousine, with a secret-service agent and others in it. Please picture that scene, a small group of healthy people sitting together in a small, securely-enclosed environment, breathing the same air that a highly contaminated individual is breathing, all of it just to momentarily satisfy the insatiable vanity of a power-drunk, deranged narcissist. “Who the hell cares if they get sick or they die”, thinks Donald Trump, “let them breath Covid”. For him, those folks' absolutely unnecessary exposure to a deadly virus is perfectly acceptable, as long as their exposure is done for the benefit of the president’s vanity. If they die in an effort to make the president look good, they won’t have died in vain, right? Wrong. But don’t tell any Trumpian idolater about this because they will just tell you it’s all a bunch of lies concocted by those hateful “liberals” who are always out to discredit their poor, saintly, innocent, no-wrong-doing messiah. Or even worse, a good number of them may tell you they wouldn’t mind risking contamination or even falling seriously sick, if it served to lift the image of their divine, American Cesar. Frankly, I don’t wish for Covid to take Donald Trump across the river Styx forever, but if it puts him out of commission long enough to ensure he loses the election, that would be just fine with me. To read a short comment written by a Walter Reed Physician who called that unnecessary limousine ride an “insanity”, please click here. To see a cartoon that illustrates that "insanity" and more, please click here.

No Malice Toward Trump. Just Get Him Forever the Hell Out of the White House. Athens, Greece, October 3rd, 2020. I don’t think I could have ever become a fan of Donald Trump. For whatever reason, I always got the impression he was just a conman that had figured out a way to stay afloat financially and as much under the limelight as possible. I actually never even took a glimpse at any episode of The Apprentice. In my eyes, there was always an aura of fakeness around him, so I don’t think I ever even read a full article about him anywhere, untill recently. To me, he was just another uninteresting, Kardashian-style individual. Then he announced he was running for president and the news about him became much more attention-grabbing. As time went by, after he became president and began to show the lunacy of his clear authoritarian traits, I no longer saw him as a joke. He increasingly became a danger to the Democratic system of the United States. Today, even as he has fallen sick with Covid-19, I still see him as the greatest threat to American Democracy. Even so, my wish today, which is the same wish I've had for the past few years, has never been for him to suffer any irreparable physical harm. I have never wished for his health to be seriously affected by Covid-19 or any other deadly disease. No. I just wish for him to no longer be the president of the United States. I just wish for him to get the hell out of the White House for good. And I frankly couldn’t care much about the number of people that may fall prey to his business scams. By now we all know he’s a consummated conman and we all know you only do busines with him at your own risk. I couldn’t care less about the level of amorality that may corrode his mind either. That’s his own life and if he wants to live it in any rotten way, that’s his own choice. I just wish for him to go back to spreading his corrupt instincts as far away from the US presidency as possible, as a private citizen. So, to Donald Trump I say: Get well, pack up and get out. Leave the US presidency and go vegetate the rest of your days at Mar a Lago, or some other place of that sort. As long as you keep your dirty crooked fingers away from the American Democratic system of government, millions of us will be quite happy to never even think of you again. And, by the way, now that they have you at Walter Reed, maybe they should move you to the psychiatric ward and put you under serious psychiatric treatment. The whole world would benefit if they decided to keep you there in a strait jacket for a few months, maybe even for a couple of years. Otherwise, good luck and see you never, you moron. On second thought, at this point in time, can anybody who is not a Trumpian idol worshipper really believe whatever anyone from the White House says? How do we really know this story about Trump being Covid-infected is not just a ruse, just another Trumpian hoax? To read an article that throws the expected, rational, appropriate, realistic doubts on this whole issue, please click here.

Biden Was Caught Off Guard During the Debate. He Was Not Ready for Trump’s Bullying. Athens, Greece, October 2nd, 2020. “Joe the good guy” went on stage this past Tuesday evening naively thinking American politics was still the same game he has played for 47 years. Surprise, buddy. You and your team really thought that in facing Trump you were dealing with a traditional, patriotic, civilized rival? You guys really thought Trump would let Joe present his case to the American people without interruptions? Yes, you obviously did. Well, you and your team better wake up to reality. All Democracy-loving Americans are sincerely hoping you guys learnt your lesson well. You don’t walk on the debate stage to say to Trump “How you doing man?” as if he were your buddy, like Joe did. That’s the way you greet a rational, civilized man, not Trump. You have to walk on stage ready to kick that raving maniac hard in the groin (figuratively) the moment he starts to misbehave. Give no quarters to that corrupt Democracy-hating lunatic. You have to take the gloves off, Joe. No more Mr. Nice Guy. Don’t try to give us that “look how nice I can be” stance anymore. For the sake of the country, you have to put those ideal attitudes in the back burner. When you become President, you can bring them back to the fore if you wish, but not now. You did well Tuesday night when you called Trump a clown and when you asked him to shut up, but you needed to do much more of that and much more forcefully too. Hopefully, the members of the Commission on Presidential Debates will have also learnt their lesson well and will see that the microphones are turned off for the candidate whose turn is to listen to the other, as there doesn’t seem to be any other solution when dealing with a madman like Trump. Of course, when it is time for both candidates to discuss any given topic, both microphones should be on, but perhaps only then. And such is the state of decay the country’s politics are in today. Such are some of the dire immediate consequences of having an amoral, proto-fascist narcissist at the helm of the country. Unfortunately, there’s much more to this than meets the eye, but only time will show us what the future has in store for us. To read an article that discusses the subject, please click here.

A Presidential Debate That Turned into Just Another Donald Trump Shitshow. Athens, Greece, October 1st, 2020. There are no two ways about it, the asshat in chief has really poisoned the air America breathes. I woke up shortly before 5:00 AM Athens time today Wednesday (10:00 PM ET Tuesday in the US) to watch the last 30 minutes of the debate only to see on my computer screen the deplorable spectacle of a raving madman lying left and right about most topics contemplated, interrupting his opponent like an unruly, disrespectful, spoiled infant, insulting and demeaning everyone in his presence, and basically spreading his fetid, usual mental waste upon the whole debate process, thereby once again mocking and ridiculing the Office of the Presidency of the United States. Later today I saw a video showing the debate from the beginning, but I only watched 10 or 15 minutes of it, as I didn’t think it was worth it watching the rest of it. What an embarrassment for America. It is no secret that Donald Trump is an amoral, seriously-deranged, would-be dictator, but the question many of us cannot cease to ponder upon is how can those millions of Americans who follow him, admire him? What kind of delusion can those brethren have fallen under? What kind of future can they imagine such treacherous lunatic may forge for the country? Often, the answer for some complex questions can be the simplest one. In the Trumpers’ case, it appears to be Anglosaxon resentment at finding themselves steadily losing the upper hand in a multi-ethnic American social landscape, so that they see in Donald Trump's overt racism their last chance at recovering their lost supremacy. Trouble is, there’s no way to turn back time. There are many articles across the national and International press calling the debate a mess and a humiliation for America, to read one of them, please click here.

I Just Voted for Joe Biden but If the Democratic Candidate Were Mickey Mouse I Would Had Voted for Him Too. Athens, Greece, September 25th, 2020. On September 22nd, my California County’s Registrar of Voters emailed me a series of documents that included my Official Ballot for the November General Elections. On the 23rd I read the instructions, selected all the Democratic candidates on the list and studied and selected the State Propositions and the sole City Measure listed there. Then I filled and signed the required Oath of Voter form and began searching for a shop that would have a Fax machine with International capabilities. Finding such a shop proved to be rather difficult, as Fax machines have all but disappeared here in Greece, casualties of the Digital Age. Finally, today, September 25th, I was able to fax my Ballot and Oath to the indicated fax number and now I consider it a done job. I had never even heard anything about some of the Democratic candidates I voted for. The sole criteria I used when selecting them was that they were NOT, Republicans. This time around, I had no choice but to embrace the so-called Cancel Culture, as these days there is NO way I could think of even the tiniest, most remote possibility of voting for ANY Republican for anything. In my eyes, those guys no longer have the most minimal degree of credibility as guardians of the American Democratic system. In my view, the Republicans have corrupted their moral principles to the point of transforming their political party into a quasi-religious cult of Donald Trump, all of it with the thinly-veiled intention of eventually putting in place a Darwinist, Plutocratic dictatorship in the United States. Regarding my statement in the title of this Commentary, I don’t mean it as an insult to Joe Biden. I think Joe is a decent, well-intentioned man, but I also think he is way too “centrist”, to the point of often wishy-washying his way around some very important issues. In fact, Joe’s well-known “bipartisan” stance may often concede too much political ground to some destructive Republican tendencies. However, since Joe is the only guy really running against that shameful, amoral individual that at the moment sits at the Oval Office, I am 1,000% for Joe. As stated above, however, if Mickey Mouse were running against Trump, without a single tinge of hesitation, I would most certainly vote for Mickey Mouse. Clarification: In case you didn’t know, right now it is already perfectly legal in California to fax absentee votes to your County’s Office of the Registrar. If you are an American reading this commentary, PLEASE VOTE, and please do it for Joe Biden. In so doing you will be contributing your invaluable grain of gold to safeguarding the Democratic system of our Republic. To see a copy of the first page of my Ballot and a copy of my Oath of Voter, please click here.

According to Donald Trump American Democracy Will Be at Its Best When We Get Rid of the Ballot. Athens, Greece, September 25th, 2020. Once again, the “President” of the United States makes it clear to the whole world what his intentions are regarding the November 3rd elections: “there won’t be a transfer [of power] there will be a continuation” he literally said a couple of days ago (read here). Now he’s doubling down on his totally baseless assertion that the elections will be rigged, so he’s not sure whether he would accept defeat if he loses. No wonder Donald Trump’s role models are none others than Vladimir Putin and Xi, Jing-ping, both of them “presidents for life”. There is no longer any way for any American to play the Ostrich and hide their head in the sands of willful ignorance. No more excuses of the kind some Trumpers used after 2016, claiming they didn’t know who they were really voting for. This time everything is clear for everyone to see. This time only a blindman can fail to read the writings on the wall. This time Trump is spreading his cards widely across the table for all of us to see. That shameless guy couldn’t give a lesser damn about American Democracy or the Constitution and he’s showing us at every turn that he really means it. And to top it all, the Republican Party, its elected officials as well as its rank and file, are pretty much aware of what is happening and yet they persist in their unconditional support for their “Messiah” even as some of them are saying that the election results will be respected. Make sure you know what you’re voting for when you vote for Donald Trump, because you will be voting for more division, more hatred, much more disinformation, many more lies, many more deaths because of the pandemic and further dismantling of our Democratic system. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Tired of Covid-19 Travel Restrictions? Maybe You Should Book a Flight to Nowhere. Athens, Greece, September 21st, 2020. You think I’m joking? Well, I’m not. Actually, there are flights to nowhere on sale right now, as we speak, and they seem to be the possible next global trend, at least while the pandemic lasts and particularly among the moneyed classes. But what is a Flight to Nowhere? Well, it is exactly that: A flight you take at your city’s airport, have a meal and a glass of Champagne while flying above your country for a couple of hours and then come back to the very same airport your plane took off from. In other words, you actually take a flight that takes you to no destination at all and brings you right back to exactly the same point of your departure. Sounds silly, doesn’t it? But what else could you expect from a world going half-crazy with boredom because of people having to stay put in their own hometowns, virtually unable to fly to some of their countries of preference? So now, believe it or not, there are people in a few ountries booking and taking such nowhere-bound flights. For the moment, this phenomenon is only happening in Taiwan, Japan, Australia and Brunei, but people are already paying attention to this new trend in other countries too. So, if you’re comfortable shelling out any amount ranging from US$575 to US$2,765 for one of such destination-less flights, this could be your next pastime. Royal Brunei Airlines even has a name for its trips to nowhere: “Dine and Fly”, while Taiwanese Airline EVA recently had a Father’s Day-themed flight bound straight back to Taoyuan International Airport, meaning exactly the spot that it took off from barely 90 minutes before. You still think I’m putting you on? To read an article that describes this new phenomenon in detail, please click here.

Will Democrats Ever Learn that When Republicans Go Low They Have to Kick Them Hard in the Groin? Athens, Greece, September 20th, 2020. I really like Michelle Obama, but enough of that prude, softhearted, idealistic hogwash about “going high” when Republicans go low. To do so is to keep handing power to those pseudo-Conservative GOP lunatics. Haven’t Democrats understood that, when pushing for any of their pro-elites, retrograde agendas, Republicans no longer give a single damn (if they ever did) about traditions, rules and regulations? Can’t Democrats tell by now that the idea of decency has all but disappeared from the Republican vocabulary? Whenever any government rule or regulation is ambiguous enough for Republicans to disregard it or bend it to their advantage, you can be sure they will. Will Democrats ever wake up? You cannot keep trying to be kind to a mad dog that bites you every time you’re nice to it. You have to clobber the rabid beast with the biggest, thickest stick you can get a hold of. Sorry, Democrats, but enough is enough. You let those rabid pseudo-conservative Republicans get away with picking another retrograde judge to the Supreme Court without pegging any serious political consequences on their backs and you and the whole country are going to seriously regret it for the next couple of decades. Now the question is whether the Democrats have at the moment the necessary tools to stop McConnell and his minions from soiling and debasing the future of America as much as they wish. And the answer is a resounding NO. This time around, the Democrats DON’T have any legal recourse to stop the Republicans. Do I trust that so-called “moderate” Republican Senators Collins, Murkowski and Romney will suddenly develop a patriotic consciousness and block the nomination of any RBG replacement before the elections? No way. Wake up Democrats! The time for Dilly-Dallying is way past and gone. It's time to take off the gloves and face the crude circumstances exactly as they are, DIRE. For the moment, nothing is cast in stone, but none of this is painting any blue skies for the future of America. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

You Love California? If You Love It Even Half as Much as I do, You should Check Out This Article. Athens, Greece, September 19th, 2020. The reasons for me to love California are just a few, but they’re all crucial to me. Excising the chunk of my life I lived in California from my existence would be like extirpating three full quarters of my heart. Really. And this I mean in more than an idealistic way. Yes, the Mamas and the Papas’ “California Dreaming” was quite an inspirational piece, yes, Scott McKenzie’s “If You’re Going to San Francisco” was all but a heartfelt picture of a particular idealist moment in time in that city and, yes, Eric Burdon’s “San Franciscan Nights” may have been like a walk down Height-Ashbury on a pleasant summer eve. But all of that, as beautiful and true as it might have been, and might still be, amounts only to a precious bag of good unforgettable memories. My reasons for loving California, however, are much deeper than that. They have to do with the variety of ideas that always circulate on its entrepreneurial streets, they have to do with the wide diversity of ethnicities that always populate its neighborhoods, shops, bars and restaurants, with the innumerable amount of ethnic music you’re exposed to while living there and, quite importantly so, with the number of philosophical schools and disciplines the State has to offer to those interested in them. California by itself is not only standing on its two independent feet as the 5th economy in the world. It is a jewel and a testimony to the idea that human beings from all ethnicities and from all walks of life and backgrounds can actually live together with a high degree of harmony between them. California is in NO way perfect. California is plagued with natural disasters on a yearly basis and there is always in the State a strong pushback from the forces of sociopolitical backwardness but, calamities and blind, destructive conservatism aside, Californians still strive forward with the idea that a more perfect union is always within reach for the state and that maybe, the Universal forces willing, such harmonious future is also within reach to the United States as a whole. The fact is nothing that anybody may say about California will ever make me fall out of love with the State. The article I am referring to here does not paint an idealist picture of California, but it does reflect the impressive resilience that has characterized its inhabitants for well over a century and a half now. To read the article in question, please click here.

Letter to Mr. Dan Coats, Director of National Intelligence from 2017 to 2019, in Response to His NYT Opinion. Athens, Greece, September 18th, 2020. The New York Times is doing an excellent job in keeping us informed about the affairs of the world in general and those of the United States in particular. The quality of their journalism is perhaps comparable only to that of The Guardian, that highly-reputable British source of information, although The Guardian’s political analyses are sometimes more incisive, less sugarcoated than those of the Times. The Times’ articles are usually top quality and the people who write Opinions and Op-Eds in its pages are usually characters of renown very much worthy of paying attention to. One of those prominent characters is Mr. Dan Coats, who served as Director of National Security Intelligence from 2017 to 2019 and reportedly left the Trump Administration because of clashes with the “President” over Russia meddling in the internal affairs of the United States. Mr. Coats wrote an opinion yesterday warning us of the danger our Democracy will be facing come November, but he utterly failed to place the burden of the present US chaotic situation at the feet of Donald Trump, so, in a letter I sent him, I asked him why doesn’t he tell it like it is? This is the text of my letter: “Dear Mr. Coats: Are you blind, Sir? Where have you been living over the past few years and particularly over the past few months? On the Moon? There’s no mention in your writing, Sir, of the highly noxious, Democracy-damaging regular interventions of the “President” of the United States in the public arena. You say that “our public discourse has been perverted by the news media and social networks riddled with prejudice, lies and ill will”. Excuse me? Are you blaming the news media, the social networks, etc., for the chaotic state of affairs in our country? In the eyes of millions of us, Sir, you, like many other individuals of your political stature who are in the know, only look like blind, craven, irresponsible people performing your duties as American citizens in the best interest of protecting your own high political status and with only a half-baked, almost-hypocritical interest in preserving our cherished Democratic system. Tell it like it is, Mr. Coats, right now, the highest, most dangerous existential threat to the American Democratic Experiment is NOT the media, the social networks, or anything else. It is none other than the “President” of the United States himself. And you, Sir, you know it much better than millions of us. Why don’t you say it out loud? Thank you for your attention. Salaroche”. This text I sent to letters@nytimes.com. To read the opinion written by Mr. Coats, please click here.

We Know Things Someday Will Get Better. But How Much Worse Can They Get Before They Start Getting Better? Athens, Greece, September 17th, 2020. Yes, yes, some friends tell me I’m some sort of Cassandra wasting my time raising alarms about imminent sociopolitical calamities in America while everybody else is worrying about the pandemic, the fires and the floods, and they're all quite uninterested in the subject of politics, simply looking the other way, refusing to see what’s coming. “Why should we worry?” some friends tell me, “the country’s been through worse upheavals in the past and in the end, everything turned out right. Why should we worry this time?” But I’m not asking anyone to worry about anything. I’m just kindly asking everyone to open their eyes and DO something about it like, for example, VOTE on November 3rd, as we’re facing a threat quite unlike any other we might have faced in the history of the country. The fracture between Trump-worshippers and those who don’t profess any idolatry to him is deep and promises to get much deeper as we approach Election day, not to mention in its aftermath. As we speak, there are strong, antagonizing, apparently-irreconcilable forces tugging on the fabric of American Democracy in a way comparable perhaps only to the Civil War, except this time the war is fought in the realm of ideas, that is, if we can make lies, deception and disinformation fit in the category of ideas. The language used to express the deepening polarization brewing between the rivaling factions is indeed acquiring apocalyptic hues, with each side presenting their case in “do or die” terms. All or nothing. Cancel culture in its most destructive, hideous version. In contemplating from abroad (I live in Athens, Greece) the dire sociopolitical situation presently facing the United States, one gets the impression that millions of Americans are not really aware of the serious threat the Democratic system of the country is under. The pandemic everywhere, the fires in the West, the floods in the Southeast, all of those are serious, deadly, devastating natural misfortunes plaguing the nation today, but, while we should do everything we can to minimize and alleviate the impact of those calamities, we must NOT lose sight of a much larger and important issue that is presently under threat: The Future of American Democracy. Let’s not get blinded and trapped in the bubble of our own local problems, as serious as those may be. Let’s NOT miss the forest for the trees. We must VOTE in November and we must do it against the destructive anti-Democracy forces of Donald Trump. To read an article that describes the American sociopolitical situation exactly as it looks today, please click here.

Americans See Their Political Problems Using a Partisan Lens. From Abroad It Seems the Whole Country is Headed for a Breakdown. Athens, Greece, September 16th, 2020. It’s been a little over four years since some of us began sounding the alarm as to the threat Donald Trump presents to our nation’s democratic system. Since before he was “elected”, he’s been sowing hatred and division across the whole sociopolitical spectrum and now we’re inevitably headed toward a very uncertain juncture that looks ominous to say the least. November 3rd is approaching and social turbulence of an extreme, unprecedented level may be in the offing. For the moment, such post-electoral violence is not a given, it is only a dangerous possibility, but the way things are going, it is a possibility with a considerable degree of probability. Donald Trump wants chaos, there’s no doubt about that. He would surely prefer to have deadly, violent clashes in the streets than to be democratically thrown out of office. He wants total power. He wants to put in place a dictatorship in the United Sates with himself at the helm. That individual does NOT have the slightest good intention for American Democracy. And this is NOT solely my own personal view of it all. I may be putting it to you in no uncertain terms, but most of the western world believes Trump is the least trusted leader in the world and believe the United States is having the world’s worst response to the Covid pandemic (to read about it, please cick here) And don’t even mention any of this to any Trump-worshipers, as they would only tell you they don’t give a single damn about it. But in the eyes of millions of people looking at us from outside our borders, the United States no longer is today the respectable nation it was barely 3 or 4 decades ago. The US reputation as “the leader of the free world” is rapidly disappearing into the fetid haze of lies, deception, corruption and incompetence oozing on a daily basis from the Trump administration. You think all I’m saying is just my personal opinion? You think the possibility of any post-electoral violence in America is just a figment of my imagination? Please disabuse yourself by reading Kim Darroch, the ex-UK Ambassador to the US, telling it in his own words, exactly as he sees it. To read Darroch’s warnings, please click here.

To Republicans If You’re a Worker You’re a Disposable Parasite. If You’re Rich You’re a Paragon of Virtue. Athens, Greece, September 15th, 2020. The annual rate of the US economy contracted by 32.9% in the second quarter of this year, making it the worst quarter ever. By some counts, the US economy is in free fall, although we don’t know for how long that trend will last. Lockdowns due to the pandemic have inflicted serious damage on US businesses and Jobs are no longer available in the needed numbers. Unemployed Americans are in financial trouble. They need assistance and they need it badly. But don’t ask Senate Republicans to consider the American worker’s plight, because they won’t give a single bloody hoot about it. They want to starve US workers so that they will take to the streets and demonstrate against Covid-19 security measures and ultimately go and risk their lives working anywhere under any unsafe conditions. All of it in the name of trying to improve Trump’s reelection chances. But the American worker is NOT lazy. The American worker does NOT deserve to be treated by those elitist, plutocratic Republicans with contempt. According to the UN’s International Labor Organization (ILO) “Americans work 137 more hours per year than Japanese workers, 260 more hours per year than British workers, and 499 more hours per year than French workers.” Yet Mitch McConnel and his Trump-worshiping minions look at today’s 31 million unemployed Americans with disdain, claiming that to hand them some decent, emergency financial relief will only encourage them to stay unemployed. For Senate Republicans, the US worker is only worthy of contempt. “Those lowly creatures need to be starved, so that they will have to look for any job at any wage under any conditions”. That’s probably what McConnel and Graham say to each other when they meet behind close doors. But the American workers are NOT indolent. They deserve a government that respects and appreciates them. A government that is ready to assist them in their hour of need, meaning today, right now. America needs to get rid of that shameful, shameless McConnel and the rest of his Senate henchmen and henchwomen. We need Americans who love America at the helm of this nation. Not pseudo-Americans who worship at the feet of Donald Trump at the expense of the rest of the country. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Trump’s Ultimate Reelection Strategy: The Insurrection Act of 1807 – Declaring Martial Law if He loses in November. Athens, Greece, September 13th, 2020. You think warning everyone that Trump intends to cite the Insurrection Act of 1807 if he loses the election is just another farfetched, ultra left-wing proposition? You think that having Trump legally and constitutionally declaring Martial Law if he loses in November is just another baseless, alarmist, Democrat, anti-Trump theory? Have you been asleep over the past few years and particularly over the past few months? Because, for your information, that possibility is no longer a marginal, farfetched proposition. By now such possibility is clearly spelled out in the national media, totally out in the open, right in your face. And it’s not exposed mainly by anti-Trump people like myself, but by friends of Trump's like Roger Stone. The possibility of declaring martial law after the election is even hinted at by Donald Trump himself, the guy who truly believes, and quite correctly so, that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and his followers wouldn’t turn against him. Make no mistake, by now Trump feels like some kind of god in the eyes of his loyalist idol-worshippers. Actually, at this point in time, Trump is so emboldened he no longer feels the need to hide any of his wrongdoings from the public eye. He even felt free to confess to Bob Woodward that he knew from the beginning the Covid virus was deadly and very easily transmissible, yet he lied to the whole country about it, thereby causing the unnecessary death of thousands of Americans. And, even so, no one in the Republican Party, Fox News or among his followers condemns him for it. Nothing Trump can say or do will turn his worshippers against him. No more subterfuge in conservative circles. Trump and his Republican henchmen are telling us exactly what they have done in the past and what they intend to do in the future and they believe they can get away with it. They don’t feel like hiding much from us anymore. When Trump goes on Fox News to say he can officially categorize any demonstration as insurrection, thereby authorizing himself to send American troops to quell it, you can be totally sure he means it. He has done similar things in the past and he is telling us all he might do even worse things in the future. And you can be sure that, with the unconditional support of AG Barr, the Republican Senate and the rest of those pro-Trump corrupted, unamerican officials, he will. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

A Slightly-Lighter Look at America’s Darkening Dark Side. Athens, Greece, September 12th, 2020. Crying is not fun. Sometimes it is unavoidable and occasionally it can do us some good to cry a little but, in general, I would always rather be attentive to someone or something, or just smile or laugh at something or someone who is pleasant or funny. Some people have a special talent for drawing caricatures or cartoons that make us smile or laugh and among them there are those who have the distinct gift to capture in one single humorous graphic some very important events that pertain to the whole country or even to the whole world. Most of the illustrations in the small collection you’re about to see are significant for the actuality of the facts or events they depict, which, in my view, should concern all of us citizens of the United States. The artists who drew those graphics show us that even the dark sociopolitical moment the country is presently going through can have a certain comic side to it. All the graphics in question were borrowed from Politico.com. To view them, please click here.

You Want to Give Trump a Free Pass for His Lying to the Nation About the Deadly Pandemic? OK. Athens, Greece, September 11th, 2020. If you’re one of those Americans who idolize Trump to the point of considering him your immaculate messiah, you probably have already convinced yourself he actually had the best intentions for the country when he deliberately and repeatedly told us everything would be OK about the Coronavirus, even as he knew for sure the opposite was true. If you’re one of those individuals who actually cherish Donald Trump as the savior of the poor, helpless, innocent, missappreciated, martyred, besieged and endangered American Anglo-Saxon population, you’re most likely already quite sure his deadly misleading statements were just innocent white lies intended to avoid panic in the population. But if that’s your case, the least you could do is ask yourself why, if he knew the virus was so deadly, why did he put political pressure on America’s Governors to open their economies prematurely? Why, if he knew the virus was so easily transmissible, did he try so hard to keep people from wearing masks and from keeping social distancing in public, at stores and even at his political rallies? Why was he so reluctant to implement a program for nationwide testing and contact tracing? If he really lied intending to avoid panic, he could have easily said “yes, the virus is going to disappear one day, so don't worry about it. But, for now, let’s wear masks and let’s keep social distancing just as a preventive measure”. But HE DIDN’T! He knew the virus was deadly and he knew it was easily transmissible, yet he actually stood for weeks at the time against putting in place the most basic measures that would have prevented thousands of American casualties. And he actually made things much worse by pressuring the Governors to hastily open their State economies. Such deliberate, irresponsible, possibly-criminal stance DOES NOT denote having a minimal degree of moral consciousness. And even if in his heart he really believed he could have magically wished the virus away, that belief in itself would denote having a seriously warped perception of reality that makes him perfectly unfit for governing anything, not to mention being the president of a country with 330 million people seriously affected by a deadly pandemic. I no longer give Donald Trump the slightest benefit of the doubt for any of the wrong asinine things he may say or do. I no longer see a single grain of goodness for the future of our country coming out of that perverted individual. By now I consider Donald Trump’s presidency the worst sociopolitical calamity to ever befall the United States of America in over one hundred and fifty years. To read an editorial that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Stephen Miller: Trump’s Joseph Goebbels and His Apocalypse-Mongering Strategy to Reelect Trump. Athens, Greece, September 10th, 2020. Our own Department of Homeland Security has labeled white supremacism as the most dangerous terrorist threat facing the United States today. Yet Donald Trump keeps overtly stoking hatred among white Americans using language that demonizes any and all of those ethnic groups who are normally targeted by white supremacists. Trump’s emotional, inbred racism is the right vehicle to disseminate and amplify the message of hatred and division that serves the purposes of American white supremacism, but Stephen Miller is the mastermind behind such dark, nefarious agenda. Trump is a clearly unscrupulous individual who just wants to be reelected by any means possible, Miller and his ultra-right-wing cabal want to cripple America as we know it and eventually replace our government with a racist, amoral, deformed and unrecognizable authoritarian version of it. And the amazing thing is that all of this is happening in broad daylight, as we speak, right under our noses. Just read any responsible, reputable news outlet these days and you’ll find the regular, almost-daily warnings in their editorial and opinion pages. By now it is widely known that the Republican Party no longer has any sociopolitical proposition for the future of our nation. As we head toward the November elections, the Republicans’ sole political platform is their servile, braindead, amoral, unconditional support for Trump. They have already abandoned their claim to any moral high ground or principles and have metamorphosed into the ReTrumpLican Party, basically placing themselves largely against the rule of law and at the service of racism, white supremacism and authoritarianism. But there’s much more to this than what I’ve said in this paragraph. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Are You Ready to See Your Vote Vanish into Thin Air Again? The Stupid Electoral College May Again See that It Does. Athens, Greece, September 9th, 2020. Myth has it that donkeys are stubborn and unintelligent animals, but the fact is sometimes they just stop on their tracks and refuse to go forward when they’re unsure of what lies ahead. Donkeys, therefore, are NOT as stupid as we may think they are. Homo Politicus Americanus, on the other hand, a.k.a. the American electorate, is often aware they’re headed toward a political precipice and yet they just keep blindly going forward in that direction. As inexplicably true as it may be, here we go again walking blindfolded toward another presidential election knowing that millions of valid, legally-cast votes may probably disappear into thin air while a rigged, biased, pro-Republican/Conservative electoral system selects a “President” that the American electorate never chose. In a few words, in spite of the collective willful ignorance millions of Americans have imposed on themselves, deep in our hearts we all know that American presidential elections often are not fair, are not equal and are not representative. Period. How many more institutionally-rigged presidential elections will we suffer before we decide it’s time for a total nationwide electoral overhaul at the presidential level? If even donkeys would stop and consider the situation when the path ahead is uncertain, why can't we Americans never even consider the possibility of drafting a Constitutional amendment that would correct once and for all the stupid, asinine, irrational electoral system that we have? Maybe because we Americans sometimes embrace behaviors that are much less intelligent than those of the donkeys. Or maybe because we all know that the system is, by design, inherently rigged, but that’s the way we want it to be. Of those two options, the second one is the most dangerous, as it may someday in the not too distant future cause the downfall of our frail Democracy. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Are Things Bad Enough Right Now? Give Trump 4 More Years and Watch How They Get Much Worse. Athens, Greece, September 7th, 2020. Are you a Social Security benefits recipient? Do you have friends or relatives who depend totally or largely on Social Security benefits for their living? Are you working right now thinking that when you reach your retirement age you will be able to count on Social Security benefits to live a decent old age? If you do, you better get on your feet and get ready to VOTE in any way you can against Donald Trump in November, as that lunatic could easily end up bankrupting Social Security in less than 4 years. And the alarming thing is not only that he has the power to do it, but that he has already made moves in that direction. How? Very simple. For now, it’s all in an Executive Memorandum Trump signed on August 8th, 2020, authorizing the Treasury Secretary to defer all payroll tax for the remaining months of 2020. The Memorandum already went into effect, although it hasn’t been implemented much. Included in it, however, are instructions for the Secretary to “explore avenues, including legislation, to eliminate the obligation to pay the taxes deferred pursuant to the implementation of this memorandum.” Have any idea what that means? First, payroll taxes are the financial bloodline that keeps Social Security alive. No payroll taxes, no Social Security funds. Second, if there ever were a Legislation passed pursuant to such memorandum, by 2023 Social Security might be defunded to the point of being perfectly incapable of paying any benefits to anyone. What a brilliant idea to make America great again, right? Wrong. What will it take for the majority of Americans to realize their “President” is a right-wing racist, white supremacist lunatic, heavily bent on putting in place a Darwinist, Plutocratic government in the United States? To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Are 42% of Americans Going Totally Insane? Their Idolatry for Trump is 100% Anti-Democratic. Athens, Greece, September 5th, 2020. Let’s tell it exactly like it is: If those Trump idol-worshipers succeed in granting their dark lord four more years at the White House, we better all start saying goodbye to American Democracy. The blind idolatry those people profess to their god can eventually lead to only one single type of government in the United States: Dictatorship. You think that’s a farfetched scenario? Think again, as not even Social Security would survive the onslaught of deregulations of all kinds that Trump would unleash on the nation, alongside the dismantling of governmental agencies and even the elimination of important Cabinet positions whose absence would seriously cripple the well-functioning of the US government. Give that megalomaniac, self-absorbed, narcissistic lunatic four more years at the helm of the country and the sociopolitical situation we may find ourselves in by the end of 2024 would very likely be a Darwinian Plutocracy of a heavy Authoritarian kind. You still think that’s an implausible scenario? Open your eyes. The unthinkable is no longer such. The unbelievable may well be about to happen. All it can take for it to come true is for you and I and every other American whose head rests firmly on their shoulders not to VOTE in November against that existential menace that Donald Trump represents to the United States. Open your eyes. No time to hesitate. What was once highly improbable no longer is. The choice no longer is between Democrats and Republicans, it is between those who beleive in Democracy and those who don't. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

With No Shared Social Trust and No Common View of Reality, Can America Be a Real Country? Athens, Greece, September 3rd, 2020. Democratic backsliding, that’s how many observers describe America’s ongoing situation, meaning that Democratic principles are presently in retreat in the United States. With a Senate entirely servile to the President, the separation of governmental powers is in danger of disappearing; with a lackey, undemocratic Postmaster General, voting by mail is in serious jeopardy; with an Attorney General serving as the President’s personal defense lawyer, the Department of Justice is no longer at the service of the best interests of the country; with the President of the United States basically inciting his followers to violence and declaring that the press is “the enemy of the people”, the country is basically rudderless, etc. Yet, despite all that, many Americans say that we have gone through similar serious sociopolitical upheavals in the past and that we will muddle through again this time around. And I would say their optimism is praiseworthy, if it weren’t for the fact that they fail to see how much worse our present circumstances are as opposed to any previous ones. Namely, Fox News and the right-wing media didn’t exist in their present form during any previous crises, neither did Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any of those other media where anti-democracy propaganda and disinformation is, even as we speak, so widely and constantly disseminated. Up to a few years ago, the only source of information Americans had was the main stream media, which was mostly responsible and considerably fact-based. Not anymore. There is now a separate, pernicious, anti-Democracy reality permeating large sectors of the American population. And that pernicious "reality" is NOT going away anytime soon, not even after Trump is gone. Democratic backsliding? To some of us that sounds like a euphemism. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Let’s Draft the 28th Amendment Abolishing the Highly-Undemocratic Electoral College for Good. Athens, Greece, September 2nd, 2020. There have already been 5 times in American history when the winner of the popular vote didn’t win the Presidency. The first one was back in 1824, when there were 4 candidates and none of them got the majority of Electoral College votes either. That time, it was the House of Representatives who selected John Quincy Adams as President. But the other 4 times when the loser of the popular vote was sent to the White House, it was the Electoral College who sent him there. 1) In 1876 Rutherford Hayes won the Presidency having lost the popular vote to Samuel J. Tilden. 2) In 1888 it was Benjamin Harrison who was granted the presidency by the Electoral College over Grover Cleveland, against the will of the majority of the electorate. 3) In 2000 the Electoral College handed the presidency to George W. Bush, who had lost the popular vote to Al Gore. And, 4) in 2016 it was Donald Trump who was selected President by the Electoral College, clearly against the will of the American people who had handed a clean victory to Hillary Clinton. How many more years or decades will we have to suffer again the uncertainty of the same totally-undemocratic electoral system in the United States? Will we ever understand that Electoral-College Democracy is clearly undemocratic at its very core? For how long will we cling to the stubborn, blockhead idea that “well, that’s who we Americans are and that’s how we’ll forever be”? Enough of such sham electoral system. Can’t we see that the Electoral College has a deep-seated, in-built bias in favor of conservative tendencies and against progressive ideas? Or maybe that’s precisely the reason why most right-wing politicians don’t want to get rid of it. For the benefit of the country, however, it is high time we drafted the 28th Amendment to the Constitution abolishing the archaic, shameful, highly-undemocratic Electoral College once and for all. To read an article that explains in detail the reasons that the Electoral College is a biased, totally Undemocratic electoral system, please click here.

Don’t Underestimate the Stupidity of Millions of Americans: Trump Could Be Reelected. Athens, Greece, August 30th, 2020. Trumpism is a cult. It is a mass movement based on the blind belief that Donald Trump is the only individual in the world who can keep the United States from ever becoming a more perfect union. Trumpers firmly believe Donald Trump can put a definitive halt to social progress in America. They would like to freeze the status quo in its present form so that henceforth they can gradually bring the American Government down to a state of plutocracy where the white man sits at the top. And to accomplish their aims, they know they can always rely on cooperation from the customary useful idiots from other ethnicities. This is NOT a joke. Donald Trump could actually be reelected in November and who knows what depths of authoritarian darkness the country would plunge into under four more years of Trumpian-Republican retrograde madness. To read an article warning Americans to VOTE Democrat or face the dire consequences, please click here.

It Would All Be Very Laughable if It Weren’t Such an Insult to American Intelligence and Ideals. Athens, Greece, August 29th, 2020. Could you have imagined back in the 1960s and 70s, or even in the 80s and 90s, that one day the Republican Party would be marching in lockstep, even in goose step, to the anti-Democracy, anti-Republic, proto-fascist, racist, white supremacist, narcissistic lunacies of a notorious New York real estate conman masquerading as "President" of the United States? Could you have imagined back in those years that millions of Americans would one day be eager to submit their wills to the whims of such an American Führer whose only interest is to glorify himself in every possible way at the expense of any Democratic principles that may have prevailed in the country before and up to his advent to power? Wouldn’t you have laughed out loud back in those days had anyone presented you with such ominous hypothetical scenario? I don’t know about you, but I, along with tens of millions of other Americans, would have definitely laughed about it. Well, wake up, for that hypothetical situation is no longer hypothetical nor laughable. It is the barefaced, undeniable reality that saturates the sociopolitical life of the United States as we speak. You still want to laugh about it? Go ahead. Be my guest. But keep in mind that there is still something we can all do to keep such scourge from expanding to even more dangerous proportions: VOTE Democrat in the coming elections. To check out some humorous cartoons that illustrate the shameless, amoral depths to which the Republican Party has fallen, please click here.

A GOP Platform? A Statement of Principles? What for? Why Plan? Plans Are Dumb! Athens, Greece, August 28th, 2020. Yehp! That’s what the GOP’s vision for the future of the United States has come down to: Nothing! Why plan for the future, they say, when there’s nothing wrong with America? What pandemic? What economic downturn? What 10.2% unemployment rate? Who needs plans for the future when the future looks bright ahead? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? That’s in a nutshell the platform the Republican Party presented to us during the convention: No vision! No plans! Just, trust the Führer! Because he is “the bodyguard of western civilization” and “the guardian of America”. Sieg heil! Heil Trump! To watch a video-parody of the Republican Party’s platform, please click here.

They Say Democracies Die in Darkness, but American Democracy Could Be Dying in Plain Sight. Athens, Greece, August 27th, 2020. The Republican Party has no political platform for the coming elections. The governing principles they propose for a Trumpian second term are all embodied in the person of Donald Trump, meaning Donald Trump is himself his Party’s platform. Under that light, the GOP is no longer the traditional American political party it was once supposed to be, it gradually became a quasi-religious cult starting in 2015. If any guiding governing pseudo-ideals, as expounded by Trump himself, could be gleaned from the Republican behavior over the past four years they would be “authoritarianism, corruption, egocentrism, nativism and populism” laced with clear and open touches of racist overtones, all of them in perfect contraposition to Democratic principles. You think I’m exaggerating when I say this? Wake up. These warnings are no longer a joke, if they ever were. The Republican Party is betting all its chips on Donald Trump and whatever Democratic principles they may have held in the past be damned! As things stand today, GOP politics only means power or bust, and if in the process American Democracy is heavily and irreparably crippled, well, so be it! That's today the only discernible Republican Platform. Totally stupid, however, Republicans are not, so that if Trump were to lose in November they could always come back and claim they never really shared in Trump’s deranged lunacies. Afetr all, blatant hypocrisy has never been absent from American politics, particularly on the Republican side. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

The Unquestionable is Now Quite Questionable: Are We Reaching the End of US Democracy? Athens, Greece, August 26th, 2020. When political polarization is extreme, or is at least at the alarming levels we presently have in the US, partisan gains become the main goal in the minds of the incumbent president’s followers and any pro-Democracy principles they may have previously embraced are thrown out the window. When a leader has dug up a wide and deep fissure between his sociopolitical stance on that of his opponents like Trump has dug between himself and the Democrats, his supporters have no choice but to follow him no matter what no matter where and have no option but to get rid of their beliefs in American Democracy. The patent, overt racism that is part of the magnetism Trump exerts over his supporters which, added to his White Supremacism and the Anglo-Saxons’ fear of losing their ethnic majority status, form the foundations for the MAGA movement, are matters that cannot be reconciled with the idea of a Democratic United States. Hence the validity of the question, have we reached the end of American Democracy? To read an article that elaborates on the subject with excellent clarity, please click here.

In Their Hearts, White Supremacists Didn’t Lose the Civil War. They Only Signed a Truce. Athens, Greece, August 24th, 2020. Many southerners actually thought their fight to perpetuate slavery was a noble cause. In their view, the institutional structure of slavery that granted them unconditional supremacy over the Negro population was their god-given right. Then, in spite of the Confederate surrender at Appomattox in 1865, most of them never consented that the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments would fully apply to the Negro population. Many of them actually swore to themselves to prolong their fight against emancipation for as long as they lived. Would it be fair to say that many white supremacists are today still fighting the Civil War, except that now they have transferred that fight to the realm of politics and ideologies? Considering the affirmative, enthusiastic way MAGA people respond to Trump’s racist dog whistles, the answer is absolutely yes. At this point in the year 2020, it is perfectly impossible to deny that racism and white-supremacism are two essential, sine qua non structural elements in Trump’s version of authoritarianism. In the view of some us, white supremacism constitutes one of the fundamental pillars propping up Trump to the level of chieftain of the MAGA tribe. Trump’s finding moral equivalence in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, between white supremacists and those who opposed them harks back to a Civil War novel written in 1912 by a southern writer where one of the characters finds moral equivalence between the Confederate pro-slavery forces and the Unionist pro-emancipation forces. As some of us have mentioned before, there seems to be a clear line tying the reasons behind the Civil War with Trump’s appeal to his MAGA followers. To read an article written by an American historian of renown that elaborates on the subject of the Civil War and white supremacism as its undying essential cause, please click here.

The Sad State of American Democracy as We Head Towards the November Elections. Athens, Greece, August 23rd, 2020. A margin of close to three million votes was NOT enough to grant Hillary Clinton the presidency in 2016. What margin do you think would be necessary this time around to have Joe Biden declared the winner in November? 5 million? 8 million? What margin do you think would be wide enough to have those MAGA people accept defeat and shut up? What margin would be enough to keep Donald Trump from crying foul? Whatever the case, it would have to be an uncontestable, irrefutable margin, nothing short of a landslide, for Republicans to accept it. Such is the sad state of our Democracy today. Such is the level of distrust we all have in our own electoral system. And even if the great majority of the electorate voted for Biden and Trumpers had no choice but to accept defeat, where do we go from there? What do we do when one of our two main political parties and their followers no longer believe in Democracy and believe only in being in power for being in power’s sake? What do we do when we know for certain that the President of the United States himself is openly plotting to cheat in the elections and the Republican Party backs him up every step of the way? American Democracy is slowly disintegrating right before our eyes and the only thing we can do is VOTE… and then hope that our vote will be counted. Such is the sad state of affairs in the United States today. Come what may, however, I will still mail my vote for Biden/Harris as soon as I can. To read a clear-minded article that elucidates the subject, please click here.

Taking Sides in the Ongoing American Moral War. Are We For or Against Democracy? Athens, Greece, August 22nd, 2020. The stark truth looking down on us from the heights of November 3rd: Give Trump and his idol-worshippers four more years in government and say goodbye to the rule of law and the separation of powers in America and, ultimately, say goodbye to Democracy in our beloved country. There are no two ways about it. The time to let everybody else decide the future of the nation is way past and gone. You and I and every other American we know have to take full responsibility in shaping our own destiny as citizens of this great country. We have to VOTE against the destructive anti-Democracy forces embodied in the person of Donald Trump, those who serve in his administration and all those other Republican elected officials who have lost their patriotic moral compass. America cannot afford four more catastrophic years. As Barack Obama told us just a few days ago, “Do not let them take away your power… don’t let them take away your Democracy”. We have to VOTE!!. And we have to do it as massively as possible. No more excuses for abstaining or anything of that sort. Each and every one of us who is eligible to VOTE has a moral obligation to pitch in our own grain of pro-Democracy, pro-America gold: OUR VOTE. No time for dilly-dallying. We have to oust this administration from power and we have to do it democratically. Lamenting won’t do us any good on the other side of November 3rd. We have to take charge of the destiny of our nation right now. We have to elect Joe Biden as President of the United States or regret not having voted for him for the rest of our lives. To read an article that elaborates on Barack Obama’s intervention during the Democratic National Convention, please click here.

Well Done Joe. The Best Speech You Have Given in Your Entire 48-Year Political Life. Athens, Greece, August 21st, 2020. It was around 05:00 AM here in Greece when Joe Biden appeared on my computer screen to accept his nomination for President. This is his third bid for the presidency and the first time he has been nominated. I had heard Joe speak a few times before and, frankly, I had always switched channels before he finished talking. He always seemed to me like a decent, sincere, good-hearted man, but his words never got my attention long enough, as they always seemed too bland for my taste. So, when the studio lights turned on him last night, I was just as skeptical about his performance as I had always been. But, as he gained momentum, I found myself agreeing with him out loud. There actually came a point where I did believe whole-heartedly that he really meant what he was saying, namely because he was reflecting with conviction a few of the basic thoughts I have been expressing over the past four years, i.e., that the present administration has been tearing apart the sociopolitical fabric of the country, that racism has to be finally uprooted from American culture, that the US Government has to stop catering to the financial elites, and others. The only thing Joe didn’t say that I feel needed to be highlighted is that the entire leadership of the Republican Party appears to be rotten to the core, corroded by the nation-smashing viruses of racism and elitism. But I doubt Joe would ever articulate the latter in so many words, as that kind of harsh truths about his fellow Americans don’t seem to be part of his vocabulary. As some of us see it, however, there is a genuine spark of hope floating in the air that come November we may once and for all get rid of that fetid sociopolitical disease contaminating the country from the Oval Office and that we may yet have time to heal the deep cultural wounds Americans have inflicted on each other under the ill-intentioned, anti-America, ultra-incompetent leadership of the Trump administration. To watch Joe Biden accept the nomination for President of the United States, please click here.

Obama Finally Rang the Alarm Some of Us Have Been Ringing Since September 2015. Athens, Greece, August 20th, 2020. Some of us saw it coming the day Donald Trump came down standing on the electric stairs at Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for President. That was June 16th, 2015. Just a couple of months later some of us had already perceived the ominous clouds gathering above the American political skies. We saw that such corrupt fool had the necessary potential to pose a serious threat to our Democracy. I, for one, wrote a Commentary on this Website on September 22nd of that year, showing how concerned I was at the prospect of having that narcissist lunatic in the White House (see here) Then, on November 4th, just four days before the election, I wrote another Commentary warning that Trump was already gearing up to declaring the elections fraudulent if he lost (see here) And on November 10th, I wrote yet another commentary showing how astonished I was, just as other millions of Americans, contemplating the gloomy future destiny had in store for us (see here). Since those days, I, along many other America-loving individuals, haven’t stopped warning anyone I have been able to reach of the serious threat that corrupt individual poses to our Democracy (there are many different postings on that subject on this Website). Now, finally, I was very glad to watch on my computer as Barack Obama warned us all that nothing less than the future of American Democracy is at stake this November. I bet Obama had the same ominous premonitions many of us had the day that fool won the 2016 election, but he had to restrain himself from expressing them out loud because of certain traditions whereby ex-presidents don’t usually criticize their successors. This time, however, we should all be glad he decided to break with such tradition. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

To QAnon Fans Trump is a Superhero Battling the Devil. Anything more Preposterous? Athens, Greece, August 20th, 2020. In the view of some of us, the idea of the devil is just one of the most ludicrous notions ever conceived. As some of us see it, the story of the “Devil” is just the oldest, widest, longest-standing conspiracy theory ever concocted. The concept of a spear-tailed, horned, red, cosmic super villain who is always out to get us all is something way too infantile, ridiculous and farfetched for some of us to include in our daily global perception of reality. But that is obviously NOT what followers of the QAnon phenomenon seem to think. QAnon guys and women believe there is a world-wide secret society of Devil-worshipping pedophiles led by Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks, the Dalai Lama and other celebrities whose only purpose in life is to gain control of the world. And that is just ONE of the many dingbat theories embraced by those fools. At the top of their pyramid of silliness, is the notion that Donald Trump was recruited by the US Military to dismantle such global cabal. Can you believe that? And to think there are hundreds of thousands of Americans who, as we speak, in the first quarter of the 21st century, still buy into such kind of obscurantist, dark ages-style kind of lunacies. But, hey, we are all Americans and it is our constitutional right to believe whatever we want, no? OK, but when the President of the United States starts giving his tacit approval to such conspiracy theories and giving his clear support to Marjorie Taylor Greene, a well-known QAnon advocate, in her bid for a Congressional seat for the state of Georgia in the US Congress, this whole thing ceases to be a laughable matter and becomes one more threat to the wellbeing of the United States. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

GET READY: Trump is Saying That the Only Way He Loses the Election is if It’s Rigged. Athens, Greece, August 18th, 2020. Remember November 2016? Trump didn’t think he would win and he actually didn’t, as he lost the popular vote by close to 3 million votes, but he was gearing up to sow chaos and discord claiming the elections would be rigged even before they were held. Then the highly-Undemocratic Electoral College handed him the presidency and four years later we are all suffering the consequences for that unmeasurable anti-democratic blunder. Now, as Ronald Reagan would say, “there he goes again”, Trump going around claiming that the only way he would lose in November is if the election is rigged. WARNING: Get ready America. At the moment, things are NOT looking up for a good number of us, but if you think things cannot get any worse, you’re wrong: Things CAN get much worse and they will if anything doesn't go as planned in November. And things could get even much, much worse if we get 4 more years of that criminal moron in the Oval Office. The only possible way out of this predicament is to have Trump suffer an ultra-evident, clearly uncontestable, humiliating defeat both at the ballot box AND at the Electoral College in November. Otherwise, if he loses by a small margin in any of those counts, he will cry foul as loud as he can and his followers may even rise up in arms if he commands them to. Democrats: This is no longer the time for intra-party squabbling. Intra-party differences are no longer a valid excuse for abstaining. Nothing less than the future of American Democracy is at stake. We don’t have a choice. All non-Trumpers have to vote for Joe Biden for President or bid goodbye to America as we know it. To see a video of Trump claiming the only way he loses in November is if the elections are rigged, please click here.

The GOP Takes Again the US to the Brink of Disaster with NO Consequences to Them? Athens, Greece, August 14th, 2020. When will we ever learn? Don´t we all know by now that when crimes go unpunished criminals feel emboldened to commit the same crimes again and again? The George W. Bush administration went to war based on blatant lies, legitimized torture, twisted policy to fit their political ends, largely substituted ideology for scientific, factual and legal knowledge, constantly exerted an overt misuse of power and left the economy in dire straits, yet most of those Republicans went scot free after serving, with hardly even a slight dent on their reputations. Now that we have a full scope of the damage the deeply corrupt Trump administration has inflicted on the Democratic System, the Rule of Law and the Separation of Powers of our nation, should we go along with Joe Biden when he says that prosecuting Trump and his Administration when they leave office would be “not very good for Democracy”? Should we let those corrupt individuals get away with bringing again the country to the brink of irreparable disaster and not hold even one of them accountable fot it? Should we tell the Republican Party one more time that it is OK to try to destroy our Democratic system in the name of partisanship because we won’t ever hold them accountable for it? We let those shameless Republicans get away with it this time around and you can be sure they will do it again, and again, and again… until they finally manage to destroy the United States of America. To read an article that elaborates on this subject, please click here.

Our Two Parties Now Resemble Religious Sects in A Zero-Sum Contest for Power. Athens, Greece, August 10th, 2020. These days, conceiving ourselves as Americans can be a very confusing and divisive thing to do. “If you wear a mask, you’re a liberal coward”, some Americans may say, “if you don’t wear a mask, you’re a lunatic fascist”, some Americans may reply. And thus, we have all glided down a pit of irrationality we thought only our Shiite and Sunni Muslim brethren could have ever fallen into. How did this happen to us? Well, basically, all it took was a leader who in the span of a few years injected facts, truth and reality with a constant, highly-noxious dose of fallacies and... Shazam! A common vision for our nation’s sociopolitical, financial and general-health reality vanished into thin air. In the American reality we inhabit today, there doesn’t seem to be a universally-shared idea of the common good. There have always been differences as to what Americans thought was the best for the country, but a great majority of us had always placed the wellbeing of the nation at the top of a common list. Not anymore. For one, these days there are millions of Americans in our midst who no longer believe in science and opt to put their trust in the whims and unfounded statements of a conman whose sole purpose in wielding the power of the highest bully pulpit in the land seems to be his own self-aggrandizement. Is there any certain way out of this dire predicament we’re in? Nobody knows for sure. But let’s first put a resounding stop to Trump’s destructive juggernaut in November, and then we’ll figure out what to do next. The title of this commentary was drawn from an article by Thomas Friedman, an opinion columnist for the New York Times. To read Thomas’ article, please click here.

Hatred Marches on in America. Where Has the Land of Milk & Honey Gone? Athens, Greece, August 7th, 2020. If he were alive, Pete Seeger would probably be singing “where have all the flowers gone… died at MAGA’s feet everyone…” What happened to that famous American pragmatism that for so long was supposed to identify the idea of Americanism? With 4,889,523 recorded Covid cases and 160,000 related deaths (and counting) the “President” of the United States goes on camera to openly try to minimize the pandemic catastrophe and divert responsibility for his botched handling of it, yet the American people continue to increase his warchest which, as of July 2020, amounted to US$300 million, while Joe Biden’s has been accumulating only up to US$250 million (see chart). What happened to the accountability Americans were supposed to demand from their governing ranks? What happened to American pragmatism? Died at MAGA’s feet everyone… Meanwhile, Trump supporters are going around sending death threats and harassing the families of reputable American scientists simply because they describe the present national predicament in practical, fact-based, pragmatic terms. “Cherish the Führer or die”, seems to be the message those MAGA men and women are sending to anyone who loves America for what it is supposed to be, a beacon of Democracy and pragmatism, and refuse to give up on reality for the benefit of the madman in chief. To read an article that talks about the subject, please click here.

There’s No Democracy Without Voting. That’s Why Trump & the GOP Try to Suppress It. Athens, Greece, August 4th, 2020. I have been voting for Presidential elections by mail from overseas for the past 16 years. Am I absolutely certain that my vote has been counted? I’ll never know for sure. Whatever the case, I’m going to cast my vote by mail again this time around. Yet, isn’t it absolutely absurd that in a country as technologically advanced as the United States the so-called “leader of the free world” (what a joke) maligns his country’s own Postal Services, which are known to many of us as perhaps the most efficient of them all, in order to keep as many Americans as possible from voting very likely against him? Can there be a more undemocratic wish from the part of any American than trying to keep as many of their compatriots as possible from casting their votes by mail? Particularly when there’s a deadly pandemic raging across the country that requires wearing masks and keeping social distancing? Instead of commissioning qualified technicians and individuals to enforce the efficiency and reliability of our postal services, Trump is openly bent on discrediting and undermining them, as if literally following the writings on a dictator’s playbook. And to aggravate the absurdity of it all, the GOP quite willingly continues to tow that wanna-be-dictator’s line and those millions of idol-worshiping Trumpers keep cheering him as a hero. Is there any foreseeable limit as to how low will those Republicans go? To read an article that discusses the vote-by-mail issue, please click here.

It’s Not a Farfetched Idea. Abolish the Republican Party or US Democracy Will Die. Athens, Greece, August 2nd, 2020. The Republican Party has by now deeply discredited the idea of American Conservatism. In cheering and being slavishly subservient to a white-supremacist proto-fascist President, Republicans have revealed to the world the truth laying at the heart of American conservatism: Racism. What kind of convoluted mind games can anyone be playing on themselves to convince themselves that the Republican Party may ever again represent the right way to lead the nation into the future? Some intellectuals of the right berate some American Universities for not having enough conservative professors in their Academic ranks. But the question is, why should we expose our youth to the stubborn idea that sociopolitical and economic progress shouldn’t be promoted in our nation? As Donald Trump, Mitch McConnel, Lyndsey Graham and other Republicans have shown us over the past few years, the American version of Conservatism has come to mean racism, socio-economic division and the ever-undeserved prevalence of the elites over the masses of Americans, in other words, Backwardness. The Republican Party has by now come to constitute the metastasizing pseudo-ideological cancer that keeps corroding the foundations of our Democracy. Burn the Republican Party to the ground and let a brand-new political party take its place. One that will keep changes in check so that they won’t head too much towards the extreme left, but that won’t include racism and the oppression of the American workers and, ultimately fascism, at the core of their ideals. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Ronald Reagan Said Freedom is Just One Generation from Extinguishing. Is It Our Generation? Athens, Greece, August 1st, 2020. The greatest threat American Democracy has faced over the past 75 years is not a foreign evil force, but a domestic one. There is an Authoritarian specter hiding in plain sight in the United States and the core whence emanates its destructive thrust, its center of power, festers at the highest office in the land: The Presidency. But that anti-Democracy force wouldn’t be gathering strength were it not for those hordes of resentful, confused, idol-worshipping Americans who feed it with their support. We are at a dangerous crossroads in the United States and the coming elections look filled with ominous uncertainty. To watch an ex-Republican Political Strategist telling it exactly like it is, please click here.

Trump: The Result of Decades-Long Republican Race-Baiting, Self-Deception and Anger. Athens, Greece, July 30th, 2020. Hardly anyone is better qualified to strip naked the heart of the Republican Party than a Republican Political Consultant. And Stuart Stevens has plenty of insights to share with us in that regard. In his own words, “it was all a lie”, all those “deeply held beliefs about character, personal responsibility, foreign policy and the national debt” were never true, they were always just a façade to cover the Party’s deeply embraced racism. “Racism is the original sin of the modern Republican Party”, says Stevens, and Trump personalizes that sin impeccably well, which is the reason he has all those millions of followers right at the heart of our beloved United States. To read the NYT opinion I borrowed those quotations from, please click here.

To Some of Us, Naked Athena is the Living Symbol of a Pained, yet Resilient American Democracy. Athens, Greece, July 27th, 2020. Hats off to beautiful Naked Athena. After a few days of having her on the news everywhere, a gest of recognition for her bravery is most in order from all corners of the world, particularly in my case, as for the moment I live in Athens, Greece, where Athena used to be a revered goddess during the late BC years. Famously, Naked Athena stood in front of Trump’s storm troopers and basically told them: “Look at me. This is what your Führer wants to destroy, the beauty of the American Democratic Republic”, and she basically danced before them in all her naked beauty. And yes, American Democracy is very imperfect. To prove it just look at the disastrous administration it brought to power in 2016, but it is nevertheless worth fighting for, every bit of the way. It is also worth noticing the intervention of the guy who stood in front of Naked Athena like trying to protect her from the storm troopers. His brave gest is worthy of appreciation, but she obviously didn't want to be protected, and some of us sincerely wish he would have left her alone. In any case, hats off to that beautiful and courageous naked American human being. To see a video of Naked Athena prancing around before the whole world, please click here.

The US Sociopolitical Environment Increasingly Reeks of Resentment, Fear and Hatred. Athens, Greece, July 26th, 2020. … and the festering cauldron where the foulest stench emanates from sits at the Oval Office in the White House. But resentment, fear and hatred seem to be very easily transmissible viruses between human beings, so that by now tens of millions of Americans are seriously infected with them. Not that many of them weren’t predisposed to shed the antibodies that would have rejected those viruses. Close to four years after that foul megaphone for social division undeservedly called “President” of the United States began vomiting his destructive gospel on the nation, we now have a clear assessment of the sociopolitical damage him and (mostly) his followers are inflicting on the country. Nothing that happens nowadays anywhere in America is immune to reaction or retaliation from one group or another, with the aggravation that, these days, any response to any controversial issue seems to be getting more strident and disproportionally ill-intentioned. As a result, the feelings of fear, hatred or resentment against one group or another are gathering mass within the American population, with the dangerous possibility that one of these days things might just blow up for the wrongest of reasons at the wrongest of times. With that in mind, do I blame African Americans for arming themselves today as much as white folks have been arming themselves across the decades? No way. On the contrary. Go ahead, guys. Arm yourselves to your teeth, just like those survivalist lunatics and their co-religionaries, the white supremacists, have been doing forever. After all, it is your constitutional right and, ultimately, you don’t want to end up being just a mass of defenseless George Floyds under the murderous knee of any deranged, idol-worshipping Trumpers (have you seen the movie "Rosewood", 1997?) To read an article that discusses how African Americans have been arming themselves lately, please click here.

You Think Voting Trump Out of Office Will Solve Our Problems? Ha! Just Check Out this Map. Athens, Greece, July 25th, 2020. It’s a matter of survival. America urgently needs to get rid of Trump. The whole world needs it. But let’s not fool ourselves. Getting rid of that moron will only alleviate the problem, NOT solve it. Just think about it, what would Trump be without the support of those millions of Americans who adore him? Nothing. He would be nothing but a high-stakes clown. The problem, therefore, is NOT Trump himself, but those unconscious (and other quite conscious) Americans who have either lost their moral compass or always had a warped one. Want some proof of it? Just check out this map that shows the distribution of pro-Trump donations for his 2020 presidential campaign. Please note that each red dot on the map represents hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans who are investing their own money in reelecting a racist, authoritarian, proto-fascist individual to the presidency. Had you ever come to think that such dire national predicament would one day become the glaring sociopolitical reality of the United States? To see the map in question, please click here.

Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV. The Moron in Chief Ridicules Himself Once Again. Athens, Greece, July 24th, 2020. It’s all coming down to this, if you sort of pass a test showing you probably don’t have any cognitive impairments you are a genius and you are qualified to be the president of the United States. At least that’s what the actual Commander in Chief of the world’s most powerful Military forces thinks. And if he thinks so, close to one third of the American electorate by now think so too. The question is who is more stupid, Donald Trump, the elected members of the Republican Party, or the Republican electorate? And the answer is: They’re all equally so, except that Trump is the generator of stupidities and the other guys are just the idol-worshipping, enthralled consumers of stupidities. Want to be astounded at the self-insulting simple-mindedness of the US President? Please click here.

The United States of Fear and Hatred. Athens, Greece, July 22nd, 2020. Picture that a huge boulder is about to fall from a cliff right on a house where a whole family lives. Picture that you have witnessed how other boulders have recently fallen on other nearby houses with disastrous, deadly consequences. Picture that you work for a powerful stone mason apprentice who thinks he could use that boulder to make a huge statue of himself, so he publicly minimizes the danger the boulder presents to that family and keeps you from talking about it in public. Picture that you are helping that family in a few other ways, so you prefer to keep helping them the best you can rather than be fired by your boss and be silenced. On top of that, the friends and followers of your apprentice boss keep slandering you trying to discredit you in the media and the apprentice’s millions of followers keep flooding your email inbox with hate mail. Now picture that you are Dr. Anthony Fauci, the huge boulder is Covid-19, the family in the threatened house is the American people and the criminal apprentice is, well... you know who it is. To read a recent interview with Dr. Fauci where he directly or indirectly states he cannot talk openly about the matter because, if he did, he would have to contradict the “President” of the United States and the latter would fire him, please click here.

Tom Tomorrow Gives Us a Clear Illustration of the Trumpian Tribe's Warped Reality. Athens, Greece, July 18th, 2020. Regarding the Coronavirus, on February 28, 2020, the “President” of the United States said: “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.” On March 10, the same guy said “And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.” Then, on March 17 he said "I've always known this is a real — this is a pandemic. I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic." Now, in the middle of July, after over 138,000 Covid-19 fatalities and no end in sight for the pandemic, the same guy, along with his Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos, are threatening schools to open up in the fall or else… They just want parents to go back to work no matter what. They just refuse to see the hole they keep digging themselves into, and they don’t give a single hoot as to whether the country falls down that deadly pit along with them. To see Tom Tomorrow’s drawing on the subject, please click here.

Useless American Passports and the Specter of America’s Downward Trend. Athens, Greece, July 17th, 2020. After travelling around 4 continents for the past 16 years, I’m very much aware of the advantages an American passport bestows on its bearers. Tax exemptions in some countries, prolonged stays in some others, no visa requirements in a good number of them, and a few other prerogatives more. But in these Covid-19 times, most, if not all, of those privileges have been put on hold, as Americans are not welcome in most of the world, thanks to the utterly irresponsible performance of those Covidiot Republican elected officials and their followers who apparently never reached a state of emotional and intellectual maturity. But now it is all of us who are tainted with those idiots’ arrested development. According to some counts, there are even signs in some countries saying Americans should be accompanied by an adult at all times. Not many people could put this to us in clearer terms than that ex-Republican patriot named Steve Schmidt. To watch him telling it like it is, please click here.

Ideological and Partisan Interfering will Only Make the Ongoing Recession Much Harder. Athens, Greece, July 16th, 2020. The moron in chief’s message to the 50 States during the pandemic has thus far been “save yourselves if you can”. Actually, it has been worse than that. To the mayors and governors of America, the asshat in chief has basically said “center all your efforts in reelecting me, meaning ‘open your cities and states to business’, regardless of how many Americans may die in the process”. Meanwhile, Moscow Mitch (McConnel) and his turd-headed co-religionary pseudo-ideologues in the senate keep hesitating as to the amounts of stimulus money needed to avoid the on-coming hard recession most American economists are warning us about. Are there any America-loving responsible individuals left at the higher ranks of the Republican Party? No doubt about it. The only way we may (possibly) ever get the country back on its feet is by flushing the government of those way-too-influential turd-headed Republicans. It seems that today there are no worse enemies of the American Republic than the Trumps, McConnels and Grahams and their shameless pseudo-ideologic ilk. To read an article that describes in very sober terms the dire financial slump that awaits us if the US government doesn’t intervene wisely and soon, please click here.

Where is Happiness in the Land of the Free? Where is Valor in the Home of the Brave? Athens, Greece, July 12th, 2020. Where there is hatred there is no happiness. Where there is spinelessness there is no bravery. How can Trumpers claim to be happy when all they do is vomit hatred against anyone who doesn’t worship at the clay feet of their god Trump? Where is the bravery in the Trump cult ranks when all their god-leader does is complain like a crybaby whenever a female reporter asks him any straight-forward question? “Oh no! Those Nasty female reporters don’t love me”. So says the unmanly self-anointed “brave” ninny living in the White House. No, friends. Trumpers are not happy. Trumpers are not brave. They are only resentful, frustrated, whining little twerps willing to hide their weakness behind the megaphone for hatred which has come to be FOX News, using their machineguns and bazookas as security blanket. Perhaps the main reason why many Americans living abroad today, including myself, don’t have the slightest intention of going back to living in the United States is precisely that. There is way too much hatred circulating in the country’s blood system. Hatred is the glue that keeps the Trumper movement together. From the very “President” of the country down to those blue-collar workers who support him, hatred is the common denominator. Hatred against any non-Anglo Americans who stand their ground and hatred against anyone or anything their god-leader Trump tells them to hate. Is that the America awaiting any expat wishing to go back? Is such hostile sociopolitical environment worthy of planning to go back to? No, thank you very much. Good luck America. I hope your total fall from grace doesn’t happen during my lifetime, as it would be a true pity to witness such a promising sociopolitical and economic experiment die of its own self-inflicted wounds. To read an article that talks about the reasons some influential Republicans have abandoned the Trumptanic, please cick here.

NYC Mayor Bill De Blasio Helps Give Trump a Well-Deserved Moral Slap in the Face. Athens, Greece, July 10th, 2020. I have a Postgraduate degree in Political Science, but I have never been a fan of any politician. Maybe the reason for the latter is precisely the former. The only exception would perhaps be Barack Obama, the only presidential candidate whose campaign I have ever actually supported financially (some US$300 in total). But every now and then there are some elected officials that surprise me by performing one or another act that shows they don’t only engage in stunts designed to further their chances for reelection, that is, they sometimes show they have at least some resemblance of spine. Bill De Blasio, the Mayor of New York City, has never impressed me as someone particularly principled, but he is married to a black woman and with her he has fathered children who are black too, which adds some weight and legitimacy to whatever he might say or do in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. De Blasio’s performance in front of Trump Tower on Manhattan’s 5th Avenue yesterday, therefore, is laced with symbolism and, possibly, with good omens for the country as well. To see a video that illustrates De Blasio’s latest symbolic political exploits, please click here.

Is the United States a Country Doomed to Self-Destruct? Unfortunately, so It Seems. Athens, Greece, July 9th, 2020. Even if Donald Trump were to suffer a humiliating defeat in November, there is NO chance the country will ever go back to any previous sociopolitical condition, primarily because all previous conditions were largely a mirage, a very convenient lie we had all been telling ourselves for our own sake. The fact is the American Civil War never came to an end. Lincoln only managed to put in place a truce, not between the North and the South, but between white supremacists and true believers in the Declaration of Independence, meaning those Americans who really believe that all men are created equal. But now it is too late. The racist cat is clearly out of the hat. The hat of hypocrisy and convenient self-induced delusion that had made millions of us think we could all work together to form a more perfect union. Alas! Such was never the case. Those hordes of white supremacists, proto-white supremacists, fascist and proto-fascist Americans that follow Donald Trump are the progeny of a racist tradition that has persisted in the country up to our day because it is deeply ingrained in American culture and has been so since the nation’s inception. Donald Trump may be voted out of the White House come November, or kicked out by force should he refuse to accept the will of the electorate, but what will we do with those millions of anti-America Americans who follow him? Those guys will not suddenly disappear into thin air, as if by magic. The anti-democracy racism that energizes them is a living cancer that will continue to corrode the Democratic heart of the country for as long as those guys live. What can Democracy-loving Americans do to keep those guys from destroying the country? One way would be to abolish for good the Republican Party, but, then again, those guys would soon enough form another party, one even more racist still, so, you tell me. To view a series of articles that contemplate the possible demise of the nation, please click here.

The Supreme Morons of the Supreme Court Further Undermine Democracy Again. Athens, Greece, July 7th, 2020. When the US Constitution was drafted and ratified in 1787, the emerging nation did not have any political parties. The Electors who were supposed to elect the president of the country were supposed to exercise their own free judgement to do so. That was the main purpose of having an Electoral College. But the electors’ freedom of judgement started to wane when political parties started to form, so that eventually, by the force of tradition, it became the norm for electors to be loyal to their party’s candidate, which was NOT Alexander Hamilton’s and the rest of the constitutional framers’ intention. The means for states to allocate electors was never specified by the founders either, so that the idea of “winner takes all” that prevails today is a convenient fabrication that empowers the will of the political parties over the will of the people. Now, with the Uniform Faithful Presidential Electors Act, which allows the States to punish electors who don’t toe the party line, the Supreme Morons of the Supreme Court are further pressing their legal knee on the neck of American Democracy. Solution: Let Democracy run free in the United States. Abolish the Electoral College system. Let’s have direct popular vote for presidential elections in America. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

Facts and Truth No Longer Matter to the Trumpers But It Is Still Worth Telling Them. Athens, Greece, July 6th, 2020. Facts are lies and lies are facts. Authoritarian Trump and his henchmen and henchwomen are not fascists, pro-Democracy Trump critics are. Up is down and green is brown… or whatever Trump may say it is. Such is the “great” state of affairs in the United States today. The “Great America” Trump and the Republicans have thus far made. To view a video that shows yet another “Great” statement uttered by the “President” of the United States, please click here.

That Old Strain of American Ignorance is Much More Harmful to the Country than Covid. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, July 3rd, 2020. If you think that, as an American, I find fun in writing commentaries about the disappointing, disheartening news coming out of the US these days, please think again, as if you thought so you would be very wrong. There is no fun in contemplating on a daily basis the degree of disarray and absence of coordination the Unites States has thus far shown in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic. Much more deplorable than that, however, is the reaction some blatantly unaware Americans continue to arrogantly show when trying to intimidate other fellow citizens who wear masks to protect themselves and other people too. Can you picture that some Americans think abiding by a govermnet directive to wear masks equals to living in a communist country? The ignorance and the arrogance those anti-mask individuals demonstrate runs deep in the soul of America and it is the source whence springs all possible support for the authoritarian lunacies the demagogue in chief, a.k.a., the "President"of the United States, keeps vomiting on all of us almost on a daily basis. To read an article that contemplates the subject, please click here.

It Seems Trump Would Get Rid of his Mother to Please his Tyrannical Idols or for Profit. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, July 1st, 2020. A meeting between a hawk and a rat. That’s what it looks like whenever Putin and Trump appear together. And as far as the latest news is concerned, the rat actually agrees with the hawk when the latter offers bounties to anyone who kills American soldiers in Afghanistan. Actually, after facing such intelligence concerns, the rat is willing to reward the hawk by asking the G7 members to admit the hawk’s country back into the group. But the rat wouldn’t be able to do any of that all by its stinking self. It needs the open consent of its admirers and other spineless Republicans who are willing to let it do as it pleases, whether it be selling its country’s foreign policies to the highest bidder or offering bounties to any Taliban militants who kill Americans. As the situation unfolds, it's getting clearer by the day that the worst, most dangerous enemy America has is none other than the “President” of the United States himself. And in the view of all those delusional rat-worshipping Trumpians, all of it is happening in the name of making America great again. Go figure. To read an article exposing in some detail the present situation, please click here. To read an opinion piece on the subject by Susan Rice, National Security Adviser to Barack Obama, please click here.

For Russian-American Journalist Masha Gessen Trump is Worse than Putin. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, June 28th, 2020. In Masha’s view, both those authoritarian individuals disregard any high qualities anyone else might have and both of them hold their own governments in deep contempt, but Putin is not as cynical as Trump. Putin at least has the delusion that in doing whatever he does he is keeping his country together, while Trump only has his own megalomaniac, narcissistic and financial interests in mind. Masha also shares some clear insights into the present US national sociopolitical crossroads and warns of the perils of trying to go back to any pre-Trumpian kind of status quo. To read a very recent interview with Masha Gessen, please click here.

The Amoral Imbecil in Chief to America: “Please Slow the (Covid-19) Testing Down”. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, July 27th, 2020. That “the most deceptive lying President in History” uttered such shameful words is already a 4-day-old news, but it’s still worth hearing it again with our own ears, so that we won’t easily forget it before the coming elections. It is absolutely imperative to throw that dangerous, disgusting moron out of the White House ASAP. Let’s vote that SOB out of office come November. To watch a video showing Donald Trump unveiling his shameless, corrupt true self once again, please click here.

Contrary to my Earlier Thinking, Free Speech Has to Be Limited: No More Hate Speech. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, July 24th, 2020. Back in 2009, while living in the small town of Niihama, on the island of Shikoku, Japan, I wrote a commentary stating I would rather put up with the anti-American treasonable speech spewing out of Rush Limbaugh’s snout than have someone in government censoring him or any other of his seditious ilk (to read that commentary, please click here) But that was 11 years ago and, as you know, things in the US have changed rather drastically since then, which is the reason I no longer agree 100% with my previous statements on the matter. The seditious fool we’re dealing with now is no longer that racist creature named Rush, but non other than the “President” of the United States himself. This beast is a totally different kind of animal. This Trump fool is actually sitting at the top of the American pyramids of power. This guy embodies a clear and present threat to the present and future wellbeing of the American Democratic Republic. This guy and his minions, spread across the whole spectrum of the Republican party and beyond, should no longer be allowed to continue spewing in public their racist, anti-Democracy, anti-Republic hatred against our country and its people. What this fool and his henchmen in his administration say and do can and will inflict irreparable damage to the country. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and all other similar social media have to ban any kind of hate speech posted on their media, be it that of any common person or that of the “President” of the United States himself. To read an article that presents some news on the subject, please click here.

Fooling Trump Using Trumpist Tricks – Foreign Intervention Against the Clown in Chief. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, June 22nd, 2020. You’ve read about it: K-Pop and TikTok users stuck it to Trump where it hurts the most, in his well-known, rotten narcissism. They managed to book hundreds of tickets for Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, this past Saturday the 20th, and then didn’t show up at the rally, which may be partially the reason there were hundreds of empty seats at BOK center, where the rally took place. The point being that many of those users were Korean youngsters ganging up on Trump. Thank you, guys. Many others were American, but most of them were youngsters as well. Thank you too. The move was smart enough to garner public recognition and thanks from Alexandria Ocasio Cortes (AOC), the promising young congresswoman from the State of New York. To read an article that explains what those smart youngsters did, please click here. To read an article that briefly explains what K-Pop and TikTok are all about, please click here.

The Poor Whining Little Bitch of the US President and His Crybaby Little GOP Idolaters. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, June 21st, 2020. The whiner in Chief, a.k.a. the “President” of the United States, is at it once again. Poor sorry, victimized little bitch. Those mean, bad boys and girls of the mainstream media don’t love poor little him and those nasty, nonexistent “liberal” protesters ruined his lovely rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Those horrifying left-wing demonstrators frightened his poor defenseless idolaters and kept them from coming to worship at his feet. For the whiner in chief, the fact that there were hundreds, if not thousands, of empty seats at the BOK center can only mean his “warriors” were scared crapless by those inexistent hordes of frightening, horrible liberals. In no way could it mean his popularity is seriously waning or that even thousands of his idolaters take the threat of the Covid-19 seriously. Nothing that goes wrong can ever be HIS fault. Never. Poor whining little bitch. Poor ninny little crybaby. That gutless moron is indeed just another fraudulent Wizard of Oz. To read an article that elaborates around the subject, please click here.

“We Need to Find a Cure so that America can go Back to Being America” They Say. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, June 12th, 2020. A large number of Americans are tired and weary. After almost four years of deepening sociopolitical divisions, added to a deadly pandemic that has claimed more than 110,000 American lives, nationwide weeks-long anti-racism protests, millions of unemployed people, a looming recession and an uncertain future, Americans are nostalgic for a pre-Trump America, believing that the real United States is the one we had in the past. Too many faults, failures and injustices in the American socioeconomic and political systems have been revealed before our eyes, so they want to go back to a time when all those inconvenient facts were hidden. But such wish is a chimera, as those unpleasant American traits we now see have always been there, except that, either we weren’t able to see them, or we simply refused to do it. But now it is too late, as we cannot go back to not-knowing what we already know. Wanting to go back to a time when those unpleasant American truths were hidden is like wanting to go back to a time when the whole world thought the Sun turned around the Earth. In both cases, we cannot go back to believing in something that we now know was never true. To read an article that elaborates on the subject, please click here.

There is no Glory in Accepting Crumbs on the Floor When there is Food on the Table. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, June 11th, 2020. Great. The Black Lives Matter movement has finally gained plenty of currency in the US. It was about time. But the loud question now blaring in our minds is where do we go from here? The optics have been highly encouraging these past few days, as we saw on our computer and TV screens people from many ethnic backgrounds joining the protests in the streets but, what now? It is good for the country to have some states rein in or ban acts of police brutality against American minority groups and to have transgressors liable to prosecution, but what about the whole traditional structure of repression that still lurks around in the corridors of power in Washington DC and in state gubernatorial and city mayoral capitols? Will some real changes be effected there? Or will the present BLM movement turn out to bring only cosmetic changes to the system? To read Charles Blow elaborating on the subject, please click here.

At Long Last: Black Lives Finally Begin to Matter in America and the World Joins In. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, June 7th 2020. It seems like a long time, but it was barely four years ago, on September 1st, 2016, that the San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, kneeled for the first time in public while the national anthem played over the speakers, right before the preseason game. He, along with millions of other Americans, could no longer stand the killings and abuse the African American Community was suffering. Not long after that, then-candidate Donald Trump referred to any player who kneeled as a “son of a bitch” and Roger Goodell, the NFL Commissioner, didn’t express much support for the kneeling players. No realistic American should expect the asshat in chief to apologize for any of the dozens of insults he has vomited against his own people, but Goodell has already apologized for not fully supporting the NFL players' grievances in 2016 (see here). Three years before Kaepernick’s first kneeling, Alicia Garza had already had enough of it too, and as a result she coined the phrase “Black Lives Matter”. Now, seven years after Garza’s personal awakening, the whole country seems to be awakening and so is the rest of the world along with us.

The Clearest Most Present Danger to America: The Republican Party. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, June 5th, 2020. The Republican Party no longer believes Democracy is the best political system for the country. That’s the truth not many Americans dare to look in the face, but no Republican can walk back the political harm they have inflicted on themselves and on the country. They have finally unmasked themselves and are revealing to the entire world their disfigured, undemocratic true face. The only question that remains unanswered is whether we have reached a point of no return. It seems that the only way to put the country back on track would be to dissolve the Republican Party in a way similar to the way the National Socialist Party was abolished in Germany in October of 1945. Would that be a too harsh, draconian measure? The way things are going, no one knows what those shameless, amoral Republicans will do come November and beyond. To read an article that in my view is too lenient on the Republicans, please click here.

Thank You, Mr. Wannabe Dictator, Never Before Has America Been This Great (ha) (Cartoon) Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, June 3rd, 2020. This cartoon by M. Wuerker speaks for itself.

When Fascism Comes to America, it will be Wrapped in the Flag and Carrying a Bible. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, June 3rd, 2020. The title of this commentary is a variation of a somewhat-known popular saying that seems ominously applicable to the would-be Despot in Chief’s latest public intervention in front of the TV cameras in which he threatened his own people with brute force, quite the way Chile’s dictator Augusto Pinochet would do in the past or the Philippines dictator Rodrigo Duterte would do today. The Insurrection Act of 1807 is a Federal Law that gives the president of the United States the authority to order the US Military and the National Guard to intervene in the streets in the event of civil disorder, rebellion or insurrection against the US Government. That is the Act the Dictator in Chief is threatening to invoke against his own people. I don’t support the looting and the vandalism recently perpetrated by lawless individuals in a good number of American cities, but after watching the videos showing the sadistic way in which George Floyd was killed by a policeman in Minneapolis, Minnesota, I wholly support most other kinds of non-violent demonstrations and I forcefully reject Trump’s clearly dictator-like speeches. To see two videos of those speeches and read an article that elaborates on them, please click here.

The Preacher of Madness and His Deranged Delusional MAGA Worshippers (Cartoon) Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, May 29th, 2020. No bigger fools than those who long to be fooled. And their delusional yearnings wouldn’t matter much if in their foolery they weren’t dragging the whole country down a lies-infested deadly mud.

American Exceptionalism in 2020: Over 100,000 Covid-19 Deaths and Counting. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, May 28th, 2020. The US claim to exceptionality has been proven valid across decades, if not centuries. Its unique revolution, its unique declaration of independence, its constitution, its unique persistent cling to democratic ideals, its perennial technological and artistic innovative thrust, etc. But, alas! The year 2020 has revealed to the world a much deeper level of American uniqueness: How exceptionally broken its sociopolitical system really is. To read a fact-based article that enumerates some of the broken aspects of the US system as unmasked by the Coronavirus pandemic, please click here.

The American Dream Under Trump: “One Day, it’s Like a Miracle, it will Disappear”. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, May 24th, 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic is turning out to be much more consequential than just the ongoing decimation of the world’s population. There’s talk of post-pandemic “New World Orders” in the editorial pages of the most reputable newspapers, globalist ideological structures are crumbling and domestic political divisions are increasing in some of the most influential countries. A recent article in The Guardian analyzes “Trumpocalypse”, a recent book by David Frum, a Canadian-American speech writer for George W. Bush, whose view on the present times is an indictment of 21st century conservatism. Frum is no “liberal lefty”, so we cannot expect a litany of ideological platitudes from him. According to the article’s author, Frum’s thinking, as expressed in his book, includes premises that may sound contradictory to some of us, which, in a sense, ads certain validity to most of his criticism. To read the book analysis in question, please click here.

Gun Up, Rational Americans, or Trumpers will Wreck for Good the US as We Know it. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, May 17th, 2020. Just some five years ago I couldn’t have imagined that asking rational Americans to gun up would be a responsible thing to say. What a difference a few years make. Things have really changed in a very short span of time. Now it seems normal in America to hear the “President” say that if we didn’t have as many Coronavirus tests, we wouldn’t have as many cases (can the US “President” actually be THAT stupid?) Worse still, in spite of such recurring, outrageously asinine “presidential” stance, which has thus far seriously contributed to close to 90,000 deaths in the country, the so-called “President” still enjoys a nationwide 49% approval rating. Does that make any sense? According to those polls, there are some 162 million Americans who cannot or do not want to admit that the country is in the hands of a dangerous, self-absorbed, even criminal idiot.

Idiots are Not Difficult to Mock, Particularly when the Idiot in Question is the US “President” (Video) Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, May 15th, 2020. Folks, whatever you may do, please take with a good dose of skepticism whatever Donald Trump, a.k.a. “The Idiot in Chief” might ever say. Most of the time, it is best to just switch channels and watch something else, as even watching some old Bugs Bunny cartoons may end up being more instructive than listening to that "presidential" bozo’s self-congratulatory, delusional rants. Ah, and please, under no circumstances should you ever inject any disinfectant into your body (can you believe that idiot actually proposed that?) To see a short, but funny, fact-based video by Sarah Cooper on the subject of Trump’s stupidity, please click here.

The “Stable Genius” is an Ignorant, Obtuse, Self-Serving, Criminal, Egomaniac Conman (Video) Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, May 12th, 2020. Believe it or not, Joe Biden and the Democrats are still alive and kicking, at least Biden’s political campaign is. In a political ad soon to be broadcast through a few news outlets, Biden’s campaign lays bare the blind incompetence Donald Trump has shown since January of this year, incompetence that has thus far contributed in a determinant manner to the death of over 80,000 Americans. But don’t take my word for it. See it with your own eyes and hear it with your own ears by clicking here.                                                                                  
1945 Gave us the Greatest Generation. 2020 Gave us the Spoiled-Brat Generation (Photos) Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, May 11th, 2020. Sadly, what we have right now in the US is a generation of Americans who grew up mistakenly believing in the mythic indestructibility of the United States, simply because 75 years ago we emerged, quite rightly so, out of WWII as the dominant world superpower. We have a generation undeservingly standing tall on the shoulders of the Greatest Generation, forgetting the resounding military defeat the country suffered in Vietnam and uselessly trying to hide the deep moral wound inflicted on the nation by Bush’s shameless invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. A generation who now supports by the millions a series of corrupt government officials such as the “President” and other anti-Democracy, anti-Republic pseudo-Americans like William Barr, Mitch McConnel and Lindsey Graham. There’s nothing great in the present generation. What greatness can there be in a nation whose citizens feel compelled to walk around the streets armed with Bazookas and Machineguns simply because they disagree with a government directive designed to protect the general population from a deadly virus? There's no greatness in madness. No doubt about it. The US is increasingly driven by an undeserving, irresponsible, broken-moral-compass generation. To see a few eye-opening photos taken this past weekend in Raleigh, North Carolina, please click here. To read the NBC News full report on the subject, please click here.

The US and the UK Have the World’s Deadliest Rightwing Demagogue Administrations. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, May 10th, 2020. The sour fruits of Anglo-Saxon nationalism in 2020 are death, hunger and despair in the US and the UK. The true face of Trump’s and Johnson’s demagoguery is disaster at all levels in the life of their peoples. The consummated conman at the White House and the jokeless clown at No. 10 Downing Street have brought their two countries to the top of the list in terms of death numbers because of their criminally negligent mishandling of the Covid-19 crisis. The one called the pandemic “a hoax” when he should have been looking for ways to control the spread, the other advocated “herd immunity” when he should have been telling his people to keep social distancing and isolate. Trump and Johnson: A couple of highly-dishonest, self-infatuated, criminal, Anglo-Saxon fools. To read about this indictment in detail, please click here.

Will Supreme Judicial Stupidity Open Wide the Gates to Dictatorship in the United States? Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, May 9th, 2020. "When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total. And that's the way it's got to be. It's total." So said Donald Trump on April 13th, 2020, thereby publicly anointing himself emperor of the United States, if only, for the moment, in his feverish, authoritarian, delusional mind. Back in July, 2019, he had already claimed that “… I have an Article Two, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president" and there have been other occasions where he has stated his claim to absolute power. Next Tuesday, May 12th, the often-supremely-stupid Supreme Court is to hear the case of Trump v. Vance, in which lawyers for Trump will argue Trump has absolute immunity while president. In these pages I have strongly criticized SCOTUS’ backward thinking before, once in 2013 regarding voter suppression in Texas and North Carolina (see here) and previously in 2012 regarding the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newton, Connecticut (see here) Will SCOTUS behave wisely on Tuesday? Or will they once again show the whole world their high degree of irresponsible, backward stupidity? To read a detailed account of the Trump v. Vance situation, please click here.

Happy 75th Anniversary of VE Day (Photos) Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, May 8th, 2020. Shortly before midnight on May 8th, 1945, in the city of Reims, Northeastern France, Nazi Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl signed the terms of cease fire whereby the Third Reich officially surrendered to the allied forces. There were still a few months to go before the Japanese turn to surrender on September 2nd, but the celebrations on May 8th were a worldwide event. About one and a half years after those celebrations, Col. Gen Jodl was hanged in Nuremberg, along with Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel and others, both of them found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Good riddance. Happy anniversary.

Mourning in America by The Lincoln Project - A Rare GOP Group of True Americans (Video) Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, May 5th, 2020. Steve Schmidt is one of a few well-known ex-Republicans fortunate enough to have broken away from the idolatry spell cast on the GOP by their corrupt amoral pseudo “god”, today’s actual shameful “President” of the United States. George Conway (Kellyanne’s unfortunate husband) and Rick Wilson are two other public figures who have joined Schmidt in their crusade to save the country from the nefarious consequences that the Republican Party’s abdication of their duties is and will keep having on the nation. John Weaver is the fourth among the founding members of the Lincoln Project and is the least known to me, but millions of Americans should be cheering those guys and the rest of the members of that group for their true patriotic efforts in trying to keep the United States from sinking to the shameful levels of irrationality that the Trump administration and their Republican idol-worshippers keep trying to drown it in. A million cheers to The Lincoln Project. To watch the Lincoln Project video please click here.

Goodbye to Mimi the Cat – A Charming, Funny Feline Friend. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, May 2nd, 2020. I have never been a pet kind of guy, but over the past three months here in Parikia I have befriended some feral cats that I have become somewhat attached to, namely: Mimi, Groucho, Quincy and Birdie. Unfortunately, this morning the vet doctors had to put Mimi to sleep. She had a level-four, almost total kidney failure and they said the reason she wasn’t eating anything is that she was in too much pain. She was around 10 years old. Farewell, my amusing feline friend. Thank you for the fun times we shared together.

Trump and the Coronavirus: Into the Jaws of “The Hoax”. (Collage) Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 30th, 2020. The presidency of the S.O.B. in chief appears to be finally cracking. It will soon be up to the electorate to decide whether the present un-American trend unleashed by the amoral madman sitting at the Oval Office will continue to gain ground across the nation over the next four years or not. But don’t expect that kook to self-implode. That’s what Hillary expected and look at the sad way her political career ended. Trump’s equally deranged enablers at FOX News et al and the rest of his hallucinating, idol-worshipping followers will do whatever they can, legal or illegal, to keep that dangerous lunatic in power. The only way to neutralize the Trumpian virus is to have the majority of the American electorate push that S.O.B. off the political cliff come November. I don’t really care who the candidate for the Democratic party will be. Even if it were Mickey Mouse, I would still vote for him a million times against that ignorant, corrupt, dishonest, disgraceful, shameless, anti-Democracy, anti-Republic, amoral creature presently masquerading as president of the United States. To view a collage I came up with today, please click here.

One of the Lessons of the 1918 Pandemic: Masks and Social Distancing Works. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 29th, 2020. According to some records, the 1918 pandemic hit the world in 3 waves, the last of which came around in 1920. In its wake, the pandemic left between 50 to 100 million dead across the world, including 675,000 in the US. Protests against shutting down businesses and schools were widespread and plenty, but the cities whose citizens abided by those and other preventive measures fared better in the long run. To read a short but clear recount of those events please click here.

Warning About the Documentary “Planet of the Humans”. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 28th, 2020. As you can see below on this page, two days ago, on April 26th, I entered a short commentary about the documentary Planet of the Humans, written and directed by Jeff Gibbs and produced by Michael Moore. I also included a link to that film as shown on YouTube. Turns out there’s now a backlash to that documentary from the part of some climate scientists and others, denouncing it as misleading and inaccurate and actually asking for it to be taken down. Like most of us, I cannot be totally sure what side of this controversial issue is right or wrong, so I’ll leave it to each of us to decide. To read an article that appeared today on The Guardian that explains what the reaction against that documentary is all about, please click here.

I’m Not King Odysseus from Greek Mythology, but I’m Having an Odyssey in Greece. (Photos) Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 28th, 2020. Having heard and read about Homer’s “Odyssey” since my High School years and having even watched a couple of movies that brought that epic story to the large screen, I never imagined I could one day actually get to experience with my own senses anything related to King Odysseus adventures. But I was wrong. As it turns out, here on the island of Paros I can have an Odyssey anytime I want. Just check out these photos and you’ll see.

Planet of the Humans – Jeff Gibbs. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 26th, 2020. (Video) I'm not a climate change denier, but this eye-opening documentary by Jeff Gibbs and promoted by Michael Moore, released this past April 21st, 2020, shows through illustrated facts and video interviews the sad state of the renewable energy movement. Among other things, the film contemplates the following issues: Is Green Energy an illusion? We're using fossil fuels to create renewable energy sources. Excessive population growth is an undeniable factor. The only freedom from the chains of consumerism is coming to terms with our own mortality. The only solution to the Climate Change problem is reducing our energy consumption = A Radical change to our way of life. Environmental Groups have been hiding truths that are inconvenient to them. Going green by burning trees = Biomas and Biofuel = Depleting forests. The fallacy that Climate change + Renewables = "We're saved" is guided by the profit motive. Billionaires, Bankers and Corporations profit from the Climate Change movement. The reason we don't talk about overpopulation is that slowing down consumption and economic growth is bad for business. Environmentalists and businessmen are all in the same boat, even Al Gore is. The Union of Concerned Scientists has become the Union of Concerned Salesmen. The merger of environmentalism and capitalism is now complete. Is NOT CO2 that is destroying the planet. It's us. - This video is very much worth the 1hr 40 min. it takes to watch it all the way through.

The Way it Is – Bruce Hornsby. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 24th, 2020. (Video) Worker protection has come a long way since the 1848 cut-throat industrialist times when Marx and Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto, but not everywhere. The US still lags considerably and disgracefully behind its European counterparts in terms of labor rights, not to mention universal health care, which is practically nonexistent. But social and economic upheavals can often trigger profound sociopolitical changes, think of WWII and Roosevelt’s New Deal as a clear example. Will the inefficient, irresponsible, deadly way the Trump administration has reacted to the Coronavirus pandemic be the catalyst that generates the sociopolitical changes so badly needed in the United States? Will the already record-breaking unemployment numbers be the necessary wake-up call for the nation? Or will Bruce Hornsby’s words “that’s just the way it is, some things will never change” turn out to be always true once the pandemic crisis abates? In other words, will Republicans ever realize and accept that cut-throat capitalism American style is no longer tenable?

America Once Told a Story of Hope - Now that Story is in Serious Trouble. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 23rd, 2020. History tells us loud and clear that after a certain period of time all empires decline and fall, which is the reason we have all been hearing over the past few decades that the American Empire’s demise is next in line. Yet, in spite of all the cracks increasingly evident in its foundations, America is still the most powerful country in the world. The question now is, how long before those cracks prove irreparable and cause the empire to finally crumble and fall. The Trump administration is to many of us the most damaging wrecking ball ever to undertake the demolition of the Democratic Republic of the United States and its reckless senseless behavior may yet prove to be the sad beginning of the end. The article referenced in this short commentary tells of the disappointment and disillusionment felt across Europe and the rest of the world over the absence of leadership shown by the US over the past few years in general and since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic in particular.

Just Follow the Yellow Brick Road.... (Collage) Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 23rd, 2020. If a picture says a thousand words, a collage can say even more.

*Mr. Sandman – A Song Recorded by the Chordettes in 1954 Still On my Mind in 2020. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 21st, 2020. Some childhood memories seem to never go away and many of them are brought back to mind through songs. Mr. Sandman is a song that evokes in my mind the memory of a sunny Sunday morning when the song was playing on the radio and my mom was singing along with it, gently swaying to its rhythm in the living room, with a happy smile on her face. The memory of one song can also trigger the memory of other pieces released around the same time. A few more songs I remember that were released between 1953 and 1954 were “Sh-Boom”, by The Crew Cuts, “Three Coins in the Fountain”, by Frank Sinatra, “Stranger in Paradise”, by Tony Bennet and “That’s Amore” by Dean Martin. Each of them is like a fountain that evokes a number of then-unidentifiable emotions and expectations, some of which actually came through later in life. To listen to “Mr. Sandman” please click here. To listen to any of the other songs please click on the colored song titles.

BBQ Lamb and other Orthodox Easter Sunday Surprises. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 19th, 2020. Easter Sunday is not celebrated on the same day in Orthodox countries as in Catholic or Protestant ones. It is also not celebrated in the same way, difference that provided me with a couple of very pleasant surprises today. To read about it, please click here.

Ex-Republican Strategist Steve Schmidt Indicts Trump’s Presidency in no Uncertain Terms. (Video) Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 17th, 2020. Steve Schmidt was involved in the political campaigns of George W. Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger and John McCain. He is a lifetime Republican who only left the party in June 2018 disgusted by Donald Trump’s decision to separate migrant children from their parents. Since his departure, he has admonished all Americans “…to understand that you have a lawless president, a vile president, a corrupt president, a mean, cruel president, who is seeking to remake the world order”, saying that the Republican Party is now “filled with feckless cowards who disgrace and dishonor the legacies of the party's greatest leaders”, adding that “the GOP has become a danger to our democracy and our values”, which are all statements that miillions of Americans like me entirely agree with. In a few words, Steve Schmidt is one more valuable voice whose clear warnings the country needs to heed during these dangerous times. To watch Schmidt’s video please click here.

US Healthcare: A Broken For-Profit System that Continues Prioritizing Cost Over Care. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 16th, 2020. Given the cost-driven, insurance-company-centered healthcare system we have in the US, can you picture what will be the fate of those over 20 million Americans (and counting) that have lost their jobs because of the pandemic when insurance companies start cancelling their health coverage? Can you picture yourself living in the middle of a deadly pandemic with no job and no health insurance to speak of? As things stand today, in a few months those will no longer be rhetorical questions for millions of Americans. To read an article on the subject that appeared today in The Guardian, please click here.

House Speaker Pelosi: Americans Must Ignore Lies and Start to Listen to Scientists. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 15th, 2020. In a fact based letter to the members of the House of Representatives dated April 14th, Speaker Nancy Pelosi enumerates Donald Trump’s mendacity and failures in addressing the pandemic and calls for a science-centered response to the crisis from here on. To read the letter please click here.

Andrew Cuomo is a Lucid New York Politician with a Thinking Head on His Shoulders. (Video) Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 14th, 2020. Cuomo is definitely not a saint or anything of that sort. He is well known for his domineering, adamant, even hard-headed style of governing, but when it comes to steering the ship of New York during these pandemic times he has been doing a professional, total no-nonsense job. While watching this video, kindly notice Cuomo’s clarity of expression and obvious presence of mind and compare it to the near-total absence of both those characteristics in Trump’s interventions at every turn. The following video link shows Cuomo as he was interviewed today on CNN. Link

Is Trump’s Incompetence and Dishonesty in Handling the Pandemic a Bridge too Far? Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 13th, 2020. Stephen Walt is a guy whose writings and theories we used to contemplate during some graduate seminars back at UCSB, just a few decades ago. In a piece by Simon Tisdall published in The Guardian yesterday, Walt agrees with a good number of us that, since taking office, “Trump has insulted America’s friends, undermined multilateral alliances and chosen confrontation over cooperation”, and he agrees with us that Trump’s “Sanctions, embargoes and boycotts aimed at China, Iran and Europe have been globally divisive”. As far as I recall, Walt has never been a sensationalist in his assessment of International Relations and he is not what you might call a “liberal” either. He has actually authored or contributed to some well-accepted neorealist theories like the balance of threat theory and others. His analysis of the present standing of the United States at the international level, therefore, carries plenty of weight in the view of many of us, particularly since we have been sharing in his assessments on the matter since a couple of years back. To read Tisdall’s piece, please click here.

The Warnings the Inept Negligent (Criminal?) Trump Administration Refused to Heed. (Video) Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 10th, 2020. This Morning Joe video shows Susan Rice, former US Ambassador to the United Nations and National Security Advisor under President Obama from 2013 to 2017, serenely and eloquently indicting President Trump and his administration for their total negligence in handling the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in the US, particularly for their irresponsible disregard for the 69-page guideline they inherited from the Obama administration. Before Susan Rice’s intervention, you can also watch President Obama warning the general public on December 2nd, 2014, about a possible deadly air-borne disease hitting the US 5 to 10 years after, which basically turned out to be a prediction for the situation we are living today.

We Are Much Closer to Losing Our Democracy than Many People Realize. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 10th, 2020. Those colored words are a quotation drawn from an opinion by Paul Krugman that appeared on April 9th in the New York Times. The warning echoes that of many of us who have been sounding the alarm for years saying one of the two main political parties in the US no longer believes (if they ever did) Democracy is the right system of government for the country. The shameful elections held in Wisconsin this past April 7th is yet another clear example of the Republican Party’s perverted ideology bent on leading the nation away from Democracy and right into authoritarianism, or even, ultimately, dictatorship. “Troubled waters, fishermen’s gain”, goes the saying. In these pandemic times, expect the Republicans to take advantage of the situation and do everything they can to suppress all possible pro-Democracy vote or pushback. To clarify a bit further the veracity of Krugman’s warning, you could also read this article that sheds plenty of light on the corrupt Republican intentions in holding elections in Wisconsin during these troubled, life-threatening times.

Racism Against Non-Whites: The Reason there is no Universal Health Care in the US. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 7th, 2020. An interesting premise for what probably is a very interesting critique of American society as exposed in a book titled “American Poison”, by Eduardo Porter. As the book’s title suggests, the author’s argument revolves around the idea that a deep-rooted racism is the reason social progress remains minimal in the US, particularly when compared to that of other industrialized nations. According to the author, it is the white (soon-not-to-be) majority who continues to emphatically reject any enhancing of the Welfare State in America, believing it would only benefit “all those other citizens of lesser standing”, i.e., mostly blacks and Hispanics, but other ethnic groups as well. I thought the book's argument carries enough plausibiity as to include a short commentary about it here. The following link leads to a review of Porter’s book as written by the Canadian scholar and writer Michael Ignatieff and published today in the New York Times. Link

The US President: A Delusional Fool Who Believes He Can Conjure Vaccines at Will. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 6th, 2020. Albert Einstein was totally right when he said that “the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits”. In our present days, the guy supposedly discharging the duties of the highest office in the land actually conflated those two nouns onto himself by claiming to be “a very stable genius”. That sounds like the words of an insane, irresponsible Forrest Gump dangerously claiming to be an intellectual prodigy.

The Screen Where all Religions are Projected (Revised) Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, April 2nd, 2020. This commentary is a revised version of a commentary I published on this Website on October 25th, 2014, which elaborates on the premise that nobody is born with their minds engraved with the specific tenets of any particular religion, meaning that all religions are, in one way or another, sheer indoctrinations overimposed upon our own individual consciousness. From this perspective, any “religious” interpretation of any higher levels of consciousness will always be a biased and distorted version of that experience.

Montana Gov. “We Need Test Kits” – Trump: “I Haven’t Heard of Any Testing Problems”. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, March 31st, 2020. Hey, you stupid Trump! The Governor of Montana just told you they need test kits and you dare to respond you haven’t heard of any such problem?! Hear with your own ears the surreal exchange between Steve Bullock, the Governor of the State of Montana, and Donald Trump, the Moron in Chief, by clicking here.

Some Collages. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, March 30th, 2020. Sometimes pictures can indeed tell a thousand words, some other times they serve only to clarify any possible confusion words may produce and some other times they are just fun to generate. This set of collages probably has examples of those three varieties. Whatever they may be, however, these collages are definitely NOT pro-Trump.

The US President: A Consummated Conman Who Has Duped Millions of Americans. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, March 28th, 2020. There was a fact-based article in The Guardian today that compares with factual clarity the efficient manner in which the South Korean administration reacted to the first news of Coronavirus infections within their borders and the inferior, inefficient, even shameful manner in which the Trump administration failed to react. To read the article, please click here. You might also be interested in reading the next commentary, "Hiding in Plain Sight...", as it is entirely related to this one.

Hiding in Plain Sight: What Donald Trump and the Republicans Don’t Want you to See. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, March 28th, 2020. The Trump pattern of conduct: 1) Vomit hatred and ignorance on a daily basis, 2) Deny having ever spewed any hatred and ignorance, 3) Threaten to punish anyone or any institution daring to stand up to the hatred and ignorance he vomits on a daily basis. Donald Trump has grossly and utra-irresponsibly tried to downplay the threat Coronavirus has for months presented to the United States. At one point, a few weeks ago, he actually said "One day, it's like a miracle, it will disappear". As a result, as of today, March 28th, 2020, at 03:44 A.M. E.T., there are 102,636 reported cases in the United States, with 1,646 deaths among them. Now, Trump and the Republicans do not want you to be aware of the times he has so widely, arrogantly and irresponsibly uttered his ignorance on the matter. To hear it with your own ears, please click here.

Living the Life of Cats and a Paros Island Update. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, March 24th, 2020. Things are changing a bit here on Paros island, but perhaps not much when compared to other parts of the world, like Northern Italy, Madrid or the New York area. In spite of it all, however, our existence does not stop pushing forward with all its travails and surprises and, fortunately, with all its wonder and its beauty too. Being in constant touch with our feline friends can be a daily saucerful of fun.

As Serious as the Pandemic May Be, Today I just Want to Celebrate. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, March 21st, 2020. Except for those of our friends who live in Russia, who carelessly keep moving around and socializing as if nothing were happening, the rest of us are more or less confined to the communities we live in. Such constraint can have its advantages and disadvantages. Among the advantages there is the extra time we now have to sit around and contemplate the natural beauty that surrounds us. In my case, that calls for a celebration.

Could Authoritarian Trump use Covid-19 as Excuse to Cancel the November Elections? Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, March 19th, 2020. The uncertain, highly unexpected reality presently enveloping the world was perfectly unimaginable only a few months ago. Just think of the easygoing freedom of movement we all enjoyed this past summer of 2019. Now, in the space of a little over a dozen weeks, the whole thing has changed. The problem, however, is not what has already happened, but what may be waiting for us in the weeks ahead. And this warning does not apply to health matters only, but to financial and political ones as well. “Troubled waters, fishermen’s gain”, goes the saying. You think Trump, that shameless opportunist, would not try to pull any of his authoritarian tricks to ensure staying longer in power if the present situation persists?

The Bay Area is Right - Home Lockdown is Thus Far the Best Containment Measure. Parikia, Paros Island, March 17th, 2020. Who could have thought last December that in March of this year we would be facing a global health threat of the magnitude of Covid-19? In the recent past, there have been some warnings that a pandemic could eventually happen, like Bill Gates telling Trump two years ago about that possibility (see here) There was even a movie called “Contagion” that came out in 2011 in which an American woman (Gwyneth Paltrow) returning from Hong Kong unintentionally contributed to contaminate the whole world with a deadly virus. But those were all either references to scientific probabilities or outright cinematic speculation and fantasizing. What we have right now is the real thing.

The Double-Edged Sword of Living in a Small Greek Island in the Times of Coronavirus. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, March 14th, 2020. Weighing the advantages and disadvantages of any given situation is not an extraordinary thing to do. Actually, it is an activity in which our minds engage in an almost daily fashion and in an almost instinctive manner. Contemplating life on the island of Paros is no exception, particularly as we watch the COVID-19 pandemic extend its dark wings across the planet.

Why Jnana Yoga Does NOT Necessarily Have to Be Associated with Hindu Religion. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, March 10th, 2020. On March 9th, there appeared an article in the New York Times that talks about the ongoing three-year ban against teaching Yoga in the state of Alabama's public schools on the basis that such practices promote “non-Christian” beliefs. (To read the article click here) The article also talks about the possibility that such ban may soon be lifted if the State Senators decided to do so. Yoga is indeed a cluster of disciplines deriving from Hindu religion, but exercises done solely for obtaining physical harmony and enhanced concentration capabilities, like the ones that could be imparted at public schools, do not necessarily have to involve mantras or any other Hindu orthodoxy of that sort. Furthermore, as a successful practitioner of Jnana Yoga, a transcendental discipline and one of the four main branches of Yoga, I can attest to the fact that such discipline does not even require devotion to any Hindu deity, saint or guru to obtain the desired results, even as Jnana Yoga is practiced explicitly for transcendental purposes. This commentary elaborates on the subject.

You Think Getting Rid of Trump will Solve America’s Problems? Think again. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, March 8th, 2020. Regarding American politics, have you been missing the forest for the trees? Maybe this commentary could help you elucidate that question.

Why Biden’s Chances in November will Depend Largely on the Anti-Trump Vote. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, March 7th, 2020. I often refer to the Democrats as wishy-washy or even as cowards, and sometimes I see them as naïve and deluded. The noteworthy performance some of them displayed during the recent Impeachment hearings and pseudo-trial, somehow modified my perception of the Party for the better, but not totally. I still think they need to develop much more guts. While we wait for that to happen, and since we do not have any other viable alternative to the Republicans, I will no doubt vote for the Democratic nominee in November.

I Voted for Biden and Would Vote for Mickey Mouse if He Were the Democratic Nominee. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, March 4th, 2020. Fables are well-known literary forms where animals and objects are used to convey moral observations about human conduct. Aesop, the Greek story-teller (620-564 BC), is the first fable-writer in western recorded history. I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a fable writer, but using some fictional animal characters to convey my deep disapproval of the current president of the United States should not require one to do it.

The Mythology in my Surroundings – Plain Greek People who Evoke Mythical Ones. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, March 2nd, 2020. Greece is not only known for the beauty of its islands and for that of its historical monuments like the Parthenon. For many of us, it is primarily known for being the cradle of Democracy and, within the western tradition, for being also the cradle of philosophy. In the view of some of us, Greek mythology is likewise the most outstanding, as it is the most comprehensive and detailed of them all.

Learning to Celebrate Life for Its Ephemeral Beauty, We Can Make Peace with Its End. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, February 26th, 2020. Geshe Dadul Namgyal is a Tibetan Buddhist monk whose reflections on dying appeared today in an opinion piece of the New York Times. Being an individual who spent some three years immersed in the practice of Jnana Yoga, and Jnana Yoga having a good number of elements in Common with some branches of Buddhism, the topic that that gentleman so eloquently talks about is of my utmost interest, and that of a few people I know as well. To read the opinion piece please click on the colored title of this paragraph.

I Doubt a Majority of Americans Would Elect a President Sanders – I hope I’m Wrong. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, February 24th, 2020. Some cultural traits are often ingrained in the people’s minds in a subconscious manner, so that there are circumstances in which we may automatically react to external stimuli with knee-jerk reflexes dictated by our own culture. All countries have their own political cultures as well, which are usually difficult to modify or to get rid of. The United States is no exception.

Warning Time is Over. This is No Longer a Threat. US Autocracy is Already Here with Us. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, February 22nd, 2020. Rachel Maddow hits the nail in the head again with her fact-based analysis of the dire path Republicans are setting the US upon. Using terms like “disturbing”, “shocking”, “inappropriate”, “troubling” or any other of those politically-correct ways presently used by the cowed liberal media to address the ongoing disintegration of the rule of law in the United States, is just a way to courteously  minimize the impact the damage the Trump administration is, perhaps irreparably, inflicting on the country. To hear it directly in Rachel’s words, please click on the title of this posting.

Clowns to the Left of Us, Jokers to the Right…Stuck in the Middle with these Democrats. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, February 20th, 2020. Jerry Rafferty couldn’t have described the present Democratic Party situation any better than with part of the lyrics to his 1972 song: “Stuck in the Middle with You”. Within the ideological spectrum of the Democratic Party, we have Sanders and Warren to the left and Bloomberg to the right. As Rafferty said, Clowns to the left of us, jokers to the right… Here we are… Stuck in the Middle with those Democrats.

A Candidate Who Can Kick Donald Trump Out of the White House in November. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, February 18th, 2020. There is no crystal ball in the known universe that may enable anyone to see the future. All we can do is speculate about it using logical patterns based on past experiences and on alert observations of the present circumstances. With that in mind, the Democrats better get really smart in designing their political strategy and selecting their candidate for this year's presidential elections, for nothing short of the fate of the American Democratic system will be at stake this coming November.

The Vessel of American Democracy in Danger of Shipwrecking in Authoritarian Storms. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, February 15th, 2020. Having lived in countries where military juntas used to regularly come and go (El Salvador), in countries where one-party authoritarian systems still reign free (China) and in countries where totalitarian “theocracies” are the only option people have (Saudi Arabia), has taught me an indelible lesson: Democracy, as imperfect as it may presently be, is the most valuable sociopolitical system the human race has ever come up with. This is the main reason that I am so concerned about the state of deterioration we are presently witnessing in the democratic system of the United States.

Does the Future of the US Deserve 28:08 Minutes of Your Attention? Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, February 14th, 2020. Some of us have been sounding the alarm against the dangers Donald Trump represent to the Democratic System of the United States since the day he came down standing on the electric stairs of Trump Tower to announce his candidacy to the presidency (June 16, 2015) “This guy has a deep authoritarian streak in his veins”, I for one said, “and he will try to do whatever he wants once he’s in power”. And, lo and behold, none of the undemocratic anti-American tricks he has pulled thus far has come as a surprise. Does the future of the United States deserve 28:08 minutes of your time? If it does, please listen to Rachel Maddow telling it exactly like it is, objectively, based on facts and with no emotions betraying any blind partisanship. To do so, please click on the colored title of this paragraph.

Authoritarianism, an Ominous Backlash to an Imperfect Neo-Liberal Globalism. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, February 11th, 2020. In the Midterm elections held on November 4th, 2014, the Republican Party retained control of the House of Representatives and gained control of the Senate. A few days later, on November 23rd, the Israeli Cabinet approved a legislation emphasizing Israel’s “Jewish character above its democratic nature”. Just a few months before, in March of the same year, Vladimir Putin had annexed Crimea to Russia and all through that year ISIS had largely consolidated its power over Iraq. Such turn of events didn’t go unnoticed to some of us Americans living abroad. I, for one, was at the time living in the seaside town of Sihanoukville, in Cambodia, where, on November 24th, I wrote a commentary about it all. I did, however, center my comment, first, on the broad subject of authoritarianism and, second, on Russian and Muslim conservatism, but I did also mention, almost as a footnote, the aforementioned American and Israeli political events. Since those days, global conservatism has only gained grounds across the western world (to read my November 2014 comment please click here: http://www.salaroche.com/Commentaries/21stCenturyConservatism.html)

Clear Blue Skies Don’t Guarantee a Safe Landing. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, February 7th, 2020. The sociopolitical situation in some countries of the world, including our beloved United States, is not getting any better lately. Then there is the concerning issue of a possible pandemic spreading out of the city of Wuhan, in Hebei Province, China, which is already affecting parts of Southeast Asia and may possibly spread out to other continents. Under such circumstances, the choice of countries for guys like me to visit, becomes limited to just a few, which includes Greece, so, about a week ago, I decided to come to the island of Paros once again.

A Friend from Hawaii Joins the Conversation. Varna, Bulgaria, February 4th, 2020. Some of the things we say or write sometimes find echo in other people’s minds enough to compel them to respond. This is an exchange I had yesterday with a friend who, like myself, used to live in the San Francisco Bay Area a few decades ago and now lives near Honolulu. It’s all about the question of the idolatry presently professed to Trump by the Republican Party and the resulting dangerous path to dictatorship that the US is being set upon.

A Response to my Previous Commentary and my Reply to that Response. Varna, Bulgaria, February 3rd, 2020. An old friend who lives in the state of Oregon, USA, sent me a reply to my commentary entitled “Setting the United States on the Road to Dictatorship”. His reply corroborated some impressions I already had and prompted me to elaborate a bit further on the topic.

Setting the United States on The Road to Dictatorship. Varna, Bulgaria, February 1st, 2020. Although I am presently centered mostly on making the smoothest possible transition from my present dwellings to my next, I still couldn’t help but taking repeated daily glimpses at the highly consequential events unfolding in Washington DC. Of course the dye is cast. It was always so, since before the beginning of the Impeachment farce. But it’s not game over yet. It never is. The next round will be decided at the ballot box and, even as the field of Democratic candidates doesn’t look exciting in the least to me, I intend to once again send my absentee vote for whoever the nominee turns out to be and from wherever I may find myself come November.

In 1792, Alexander Hamilton Warned us About Trump’s Ominous Advent to Power. Varna, Bulgaria, January 24th, 2020. The global means of communication are so widespread and efficient these days that the time when they were inexistent seems like a hundred years ago. As it is, sitting in front of my computer, in a top floor well-lighted studio, in the city of Varna, Bulgaria, some 8,170 kilometers (± 5,077 miles) away from Washington DC, I can watch live the drama presently unfolding at the US Senate with no noticeable signal delay. If not for the substantial implications of the Impeachment process, the trial should be highly interesting to anyone concerned with the history of the United States and the time-tested wisdom of its founders.

The Shameless, Immoral Farce of the Republican Senators. Varna, Bulgaria, January 19th, 2020. The reason that in the West we reject one-party political systems is that we know it is from the cauldron of ideas that emerge the best possible among them. The cauldron that contains all those varying ideas symbolizing the nation that all those ideas are supposed to be working to improve and protect. But what happens when some ideas intended to crack the foundations of the nation-cauldron insist in gaining the upper hand over the rest? What happens when some of those ideas blindly propose to break the nation-cauldron whose plurality of thought actually propitiated their birth in the first place?

A Clear Sign of the Times in America. Varna, Bulgaria, January 18th, 2020. To modify some of the lyrics written by that wise American folk singer, Pete Seeger: Where have all the truthful ones gone? Long time passing. Where have all the truth tellers gone? A long, long time ago. Where have all the truthful ones gone? Demagogues have picked them everyone. When will we ever learn? When will we ever learn?

Walking with My Neighbors, or How I Rediscovered My Feline Identity. Varna, Bulgaria, January 14th, 2020. Animals have been an important part in the culture of many ancient peoples. Some Native North-American tribes used to think each of us was connected to nine different animals. The Mayan peoples of Central America used to identify with the Jaguar and used to believe some people were Nahuals, or people who could transform themselves into animals. The Incas in South America used to believe animals like the Condor, the Puma and the Snake were sacred, while in Africa there is plenty of art symbolizing animals like the Lion, the Leopard, the Zebra and the Elephant. But it was the Egyptians who paid special attention to cats. Male cats they used to call “Miu” and female ones they used to call “Mii”. I have a good number of “Miu” and “Mii” neighbors here in Varna.

The House of Representatives to Trump: Stop Wagging the Dog. Varna, Bulgaria, January 10th, 2020. The American idiom “to wag the dog” is used when wanting to suggest that a lesser issue is influencing a greater one. For example, Bill Clinton’s desire to divert attention from his affair with Monika Lewinski obviously didn’t warrant sending American bombers to Sudan in a display of American military might, but he did order such bombing in an effort to quell the growing political noise against him. Similarly, the timing of Donald Trump’s order to assassinate Qassim Suleimani has all the appearances of just another wag the dog situation.

A Blatant Mockery of American Justice and a Crude Insult to the American People. Varna, Bulgaria, January 9th, 2020. Since the time of its inception, the United States has been considered by many as an exceptional nation, first for the ideals crystallized in its Declaration of Independence and later for those embossed in its Constitution. Across the past several decades, the US has also been considered as primus inter pares among nations primarily for the open pursuit of its ideals both at the domestic and at the international level. Yet, it is only a sad thing to see that when it comes to plunging deeper into decadence the United States has not shown to be an exceptional nation at all. It has turned out to be just another country seriously plagued by the destructive effects of moral corruption at the top echelons of government.

To Everything There is a Season. Varna, Bulgaria, January 6th, 2020. There is nothing new about the basics of life. We all see the light of day when we first open our eyes and we all see that same light extinguish itself when we close our eyes for good. Those are perfectly inevitable givens and nothing we may do or say will ever change them. The seasons we all care about are those that unfold between those two extremes. Those are the seasons of our lives. And, while the bodies of some of us have already crossed the threshold into winter, our hearts and minds are still colored with bright brushstrokes of spring and summer, which leaves open the possibility for a variety of different things, as it is precisely within each season that there is “a time for every purpose under heaven”.

The Real US Problem is NOT Trump – It is Something Much Deeper than That. Varna, Bulgaria, December 22nd, 2019. Often, there is plenty of truth in the saying that says “you cannot see the forest for the trees”, meaning that often we get so involved and confused by details and minutiae that we fail to see the whole height, width and depth of an issue, thereby failing to assess the future consequences of it all. That saying seems to apply quite well to the way the question of Impeachment is being contemplated in the US at the moment. Most Americans, but particularly those of the Republican persuasion, are so pettily engrossed in partisan issues that they fail to see the real consequences that their blind political stances may have upon the future of the institutions of government in the Democratic Republic of the United States of America.

An Illustration of the Main Event of 2019. Varna, Bulgaria, December 22nd, 2019. Just a Photoshop collage I made depicting the moment of partial reckoning that has finally come to that corrupt, amoral, anti-American traitor and absolutely shameless individual presently know as the “President” of the United States. And I say “partial” because the Majority Leader of the Senate, better known as “Moscow Mitch”, in a blatant violation of the oath he will have to take as a juror in the Impeachment trial, has openly declared before the TV cameras that he doesn’t intend to be impartial during the trial, warning everyone that he is already in direct talks with the White House counsels, taking directives from them as to how to conduct the trial. Shameless, traitorous, anti-American Republican Senators.

The Fate Donald Trump and His Gang of Traitors and Crooks Deserve (Video). Bar, Montenegro, July 4th, 2019. No comments. The video speaks for itself.

The Patent Racism in Central American Trumpists. Bar, Montenegro, May 28th, 2019. This is a video I uploaded to YouTube yesterday. In the first part of the video, the American Actor Jeff Daniels talks primarily about two things, a) the serious threat the Trump administration represents to American Democracy and, b) the obvious racism festering at the heart of Trumpism. In the second part, I express (in Spanish) some of my views on those two topics from the perspective of Latinamerica in general and Centralamerica in particular, with specific emphasis on the country of El Salvador. I’m an American citizen, but I also hold the French, the Nicaraguan and the Salvadoran citizenship.

Nancy Pelosi is a Stupid, Coward Speaker of the House. Bar, Montenegro, May 25th, 2019. In the Mueller Report, we have a few clear instances of obstruction of justice committed by Donald Trump, so, why does Nancy Pelosi need to “investigate” more before initiating Impeachment proceedings? Because she is way “over-cautious”, she is way "too prudent”, which in real terms means she is a coward, and cowardice is not a new feature characterizing the Democratic Party. Coward Democrats.

Skadarlija, Belgrade, Serbia. (video) Bar, Montenegro, May 3rd, 2019. (This is basically an audio-visual commentary) Something I instinctively have always looked for in most of the 44 countries I have been to is cultural identifiers such as local architecture, archeological sites, local cuisine and, of course, local music. Naturally, on my recent trip to Belgrade, Serbia, I repeatedly inquired with the locals as to where could I go have some typical local food and where could I go listen to some Serbian music. And everyone who had an opinion about it pointed me to the pedestrian zone of Skadarlija, both for the food and for the music. So, one night I went to have dinner there. The video you’re about to see shows a small group of diners surrounded by a group of musicians playing local music. In all frankness, some of the music those musicians were playing sounded quite similar to the music I’d heard a few times at Plaza Garibaldi, in Mexico City, a fw decades ago. I taped this little video with my photo camera on April 20th, 2019.

William Barr: On the Road to Dictatorship. (video) Bar, Montenegro, May 2nd, 2019. If the President thinks he's being falsley accused of any wrongdoing, he can fire the prosecutors accusing him, thereby terminating the investigation. That is basically what the United States Attorney General told the US Senate on May 1st, 2019. And who decides whether any accusation against the "President" is false? Well... the "President" of course. Unbelievable, isn't it? Trouble is, such "legal" thinking would put the country on a direct road to dictatorship. Very sad... but very true too. You can hear and see William Barr, the Attorney General of the United States, basically voicing such statement by clicking here.

Fox News’ Legal Analyst A. Napolitano Accuses Trump of Obstruction of Justice. Bar, Montenegro, April 26th, 2019. Not much left to add to this accusation made in the wide open against Donald Trump by one of his legal counselors and customary protectors. Donald Trump is guilty of Obstruction of Justice.

As Usual: The Spineless, Timid, American Democrats. Bar, Montenegro, April 25th, 2019. Just a short note to highlight once again the lack of political courage that afflicts many of those cowardly, elected officials for the American Democratic Party.

The Mueller Report. Bar, Monetenegro, April 22nd, 2019. Many of us thought the Mueller report would present us with some kind of definitive verdict as to the criminality of the wrongdoings the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Trump himself engaged in, pertaining to the influence Russia had in the 2016 elections. The report does condemn Trump and some of his associates for their actions, but leaves the question of weather those actions constitute criminal or impeachable offenses to the US Congress. The report has redactions amounting to ± 10% of the whole document, threby making it perfectly logical for Jerry Nadler, the present Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to subpoena from the Depertmenr of Justice the whole unredacted document. In the meantime, here's a downloadable copy of the redacted report. MuellerReport.

Xi, JingTrump. Beijing, China, February 28th, 2018. For various reasons, the US continues to lose its worldwide economic and political influence while other governments and powerful rulers like the Chinese continue to increase their domination both globally and domestically. Authoritarianism continues to gain ground around the world including in the US, a country whose image as an oasis of democratic hope is constantly muddied by the current administration. According to this trend, things will have to worsen before we see any trace of improvement. (collage)

The Stupid Anachronism of the American Second Constitutional Amendment. Beijing, China, February 26th, 2018. Your ancestors set up a rule for family conduct that overtime became obsolete and now keeps producing catastrophic results in your household. Yet you stubbornly refuse to modify or eliminate such rule for the simple reason that in the times of your ancestors it was considered wise, even as in your day and age it is clearly detrimental to your family. Would you not be blindly stupid not to do anything about it? (collage)

How Russian Bots and Trolls Invade US Elections. Beijing, China, February 18th, 2018. A simple but very clear exposure of the ways the Mueller-indicted Russians and their nefarious associations operate in the US and elsewhere. To see video please click here

Like a Freight Train running over a Stupid Cow Standing in the middle of the Railway. Beijing, China, February 17th, 2018. Robert Mueller is no joker. Even notable Republicans praised his professional integrity and diligence when Rod Rosenstein first appointed him Special Counsel in May 2017. Mueller is a methodical individual and his findings pertaining and related to the Russian intervention in the US elections of 2016 continue to produce indictments. Nowhere to run Donald. Mueller’s political Guillotine awaits you just a few more steps down the road (see collage) To Read/Download Mueller's Indictments please click here

The “Little Chinese” People of Yesteryear No More. Beijing, China, February 15th, 2018. Preconceived ideas, otherwise often known as “prejudices”, seem to be quite difficult to get rid of. The more people see evidence against their own prejudices the more they look for ways to bypass that evidence, overlook it, discredit it, or even claim it is all part of an orchestrated conspiracy against their preconceived beliefs. Some ideas about China fit well within such pattern (see collage)

The Political Eunuchs of the American Democratic Party. Beijing, China, 10 February, 2018. The proto-fascist tendencies always latent within the Republican Party are increasingly spreading their wings under the leadership of an irresponsible “President” who keeps demonstrating his contempt for the rule of law. Wake up, you foolish elected members of the Democratic Party, American Democracy is at stake in the timorous political game you are playing (See drawing)

Every Pig has its Butcher. Beijing, China, February 1st, 2018. Providing clear insights into human fate and conduct is one of the reasons that some sayings survive the test of time and remain relevant to the intended circumstances regardless of when they are applied. The saying used as title for this page is one of them (See collage)

We all Belong Somewhere. So does the President of the United States. Beijing, China, January 18th, 2018. This collage does not require any comment (See Collage)

An American Ideological Bankruptcy? Baku, Azerbaijan, September 16th, 2017. From the outset, the United States has always been a right-wing country with proto-fascist tonalities whose intensity has fluctuated from mild to strong according to time and circumstance. Present day America is once again threatened under the unsavory political designs of nationalist authoritarian forces. Perhaps the time has come to apply a good dose of "creative destruction" to US politics, but how could that possibly be done when the political classes of the country no longer seem to have any clear ideological lines to follow? (See collage)

American Culture: Where Do We Go From Here? Baku, Azerbaijan, July 22nd, 2017. All cultures go through different periods of crisis. Some cultures manage to emerge relatively intact from the detrimental effects of some of those periods and some others just fail to recover and fall down a spiral of decadence toward their demise. American Culture is no exception to such premise, except that thus far it has demonstrated to possess an incomparable resilience in managing to come out even stronger after each of those critical periods. Today the United States is once again afflicted by a crisis of the Cultural kind. The rise of Donald Trump to the Oval Office is not a simple political phenomenon, as it is rooted in shifting ideological plates whose foundations are evidently cultural. 9/11 marked the beginning of a series of considerable cultural swings whose effects only seem to be gaining momentum today. No doubt about it, American Culture is presently in turmoil. Will America look the same in the eyes of the world if and when the ongoing cultural storm subsides? (See Collage)

Countries I have Visited Thus Far. Baku, Azerbaijan, July 17th, 2017. I have been some sort of a Nomad over the past several years. The trail I've followed up to today has taken me to 39 different countries in 5 different Continents. Some of those countries I have just visited, some times more than once, and some others have been my place of residence for periods of time ranging from 3 months to 4 years. Here's a list of the countries in question: Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Djibouti, El Salvador, France, Georgia, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kosovo, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States of America, Vietnam. To see a map showing those countries click here. Obviously, my travels don’t cover the whole area of the countries shown in the map, but my proverbial sandals have actually stepped upon those grounds, sometimes more than once.

It is High Time to Invoke the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Baku, Azerbaijan, 17 May, 2017. Enough is enough. The traitor/lunatic Trump has to go. The sooner the better. The 25th Amendment to the Constitution was crafted with the idea of removing perfectly unfit individuals like Donald Trump from the Office of the Presidency. This is what Section 4 of the 25th Amendment says: "Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President." It is high time for the Vice-President and the Republicans in Congress and the Senate to put country over party and ideology. It is time to save the Republic. It is time for Donald Trump to go.

The Highly Unstable Infant in Chief. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, 19 March, 2017. Is this Making America Great Again? What a Joke. Have you seen the video of Angela Merkel and Donald Trump facing the media cameras at the Oval Office this past Friday? If you didn’t, please check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLfukuEutIU What a great performance, Donald, you really shone as the Resentful Infant in Chief. You are nothing but a real embarrassment to the United States of America, a clear and present shame to the nation. Why don’t you do the world a great favor and just resign and go back for good to that imagined world of narcissistic egotist megalomania that you stupidly mistake for greatness. You’re not making America great again, you pitiful imbecile, you’re just steadily debasing it every step of the way down your undeserved presidency. Stop shaming America, Donald, you’re getting battier by the day. Resign before the psychiatric nurses are forced to come to the White House, put you in a straitjacket, and take you away in a wailing ambulance to the nearest mental institution. Donald Trump Making America Great Again? What a cheap shameful Joke.

California Republic. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, February 19th, 2017. California secession from the Federation is not a farfetched proposition. Independence from the utter dysfunction of Washington DC may not be an easy quest to fulfill, but it’s feasible. The great majority of Californians don’t want any part in the Madness of King Trump. We refuse to share the same national flag with any Putin-loving, Trump-crazed, anti-democratic fools from the Midwest or any other Trump-cherishing area of the United States. California is the SIXTH economy in the world with a larger GDP than France. We could easily give a hard kick in the butt to the US Federation and go happily down our own independent progressive road. Either Washington straightens up its increasingly irrational ways or we’re out. To get more information and to sign the petition for secession please click here: http://www.yescalifornia.org/

Silence is Complicity. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, February 17th, 2017. (A few collages) Speak up America. History shows that some clearly disastrous events could have been averted had the concerned general public reacted to them sooner than they did. As our friend Albert Einstein used to say “The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it”. He also said that “The main difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits”. Trump supporters, are you listening?

Stephen Bannon: The Real Commander in Chief. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, February 10th, 2017. (collage) "We must specially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests". F.D.R.

Hats Off to Der Spiegel. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, February 5th, 2017. (collage) No apologies needed, Mr. Brinkbaeumer, Editor in Chief of Der Spiegel, these are very serious times and your Magazine’s recent intervention is perfectly appropriate for the disturbing circumstances of the moment. All freedom-loving, pro-democracy, free-thinkers of the world need to unite in relentlessly rejecting the overall reckless, bullying, authoritarian behavior of that deranged, narcissist egomaniac presently sitting in the Oval Office. No respite for America’s would-be dictator and his clique of lying, anti-American ruffians. Let’s denounce their every anti-democratic move by every means available and as forcefully as possible. Hats off to Der Spiegel!!

The Groper in Chief and the Rape of America. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, January 30th, 2017. (collage)

Tyranny Alert. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, January 30th, 2017. (collage) Delusion can be a real problem, not so much for the deluded individual who might not even be aware of his malady, but to those around him who have to put up with the annoying consequences of his lunacy. But what happens when a high degree of delusion afflicts one of the most powerful individuals on Earth? Well, as responsible citizens you just spread your antennas of rationality as wide as possible and present the highest possible level of resistance to the deranged propositions coming out of the lunatic’s desk. Keep up the good work America! Don’t let that Trumpian fool impose any of his shameful un-American madness on US soil.

California’s Ace up the Sleeve. Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, January 27th, 2017. So you think the declining curve lurking somewhere in America’s political future is unavoidable?  You think the bonds tying all fifty states together are unbreakable and can never be dissolved? Well, think again. These are times when the unthinkable can and does come true. Don’t let Trump push California too much toward the far right, for California has a mind truly of its own.

Bye-bye Miss American Pie? Parikia, Paros Island, Greece, January 25th, 2017. Agency-wide gag orders on US Government Agencies, felony charges on journalists reporting on anti-Trump demonstrations. What’s next? Wake up America. US-style Neo-fascism is already in your midst (see Collage)

The Fool in Chief. Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India, January 18th, 2017. Who would have thought this would ever be possible?  In a couple of days G. W. Bush will be divested of his award as worst president of the US ever, his unpopular dishonor eagerly snatched from his hands by the incoming incompetent fool in chief. Did you ever think such travesty could one day come true? (see collage)

The “Super Patriotic”, “Super America-Loving” President-Elect (what a lousy joke). Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India, January 12th, 2017. Hates American freedom of the Press, despises American Intelligence Services, praises foreign intervention in the American electoral process, laughs in the face of presidential ethics… can there be a guy more suitable for the US presidency than this deranged, egomaniac, narcissistic imbecile?

Jnana Yoga and Politics. Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India, December 22nd, 2016. Some people may see a contradiction between the practice of spiritual disciplines such as Yoga and any level of political activism from the part of any Yogi. The cause behind such obvious misunderstanding may easily be the absence of knowledge informing the mind of those who hold such misconstrued views. In fact, however, the discipline of Yoga is nowhere as linear and simple as some people may have thought it is.

The US: A Democracy that Barely Is. Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India, December 4th, 2016. Invest the people of any country with enough arrogance to believe that their national system of governance is the best in the world and they will refuse to see any flaws that may be afflicting their system regardless of how broken it may already be. Does this ring any bell America?

Fidel Castro. 1926 – 2016. Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India, November 26th, 2016. The Insignificant Island-David who Stood up to the Mightiest Continental Military Goliath. Liberator? Dictator? Criminal? Idealist? Regardless of it all, Fidel left a deep indelible footprint in the History of the World.

Not My President! Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India, November 24th, 2016. A Vulgar, Bigot, Racist Sexual Predator who lost the Election by over 2 million votes has no place in the White House.

Hey Trump! You Bully! There’s Freedom of speech in America! Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India, November 21st, 2016. The poor diffident whining little Trump is at it again. “Boohoo! The ‘Hamilton’ cast is harassing my VP”. “Boohoo! The cast of SNL is laughing again at me. Boo-hoo-hoo!”. Poor little helpless mega-bully mega-foulmouthed Donald Trump!  

Early Warnings for Democracy in America. Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India, November 19th, 2016. Few Historians and Political Scientists have been able to take a deeper and richer snapshot of the soul of America than Alexis de Tocqueville did back in the 1830’s. His insights were so clear that many of his observations are still applicable today (see collage)

Be Extremely Vigilant, America! Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India, November 15th, 2016. Now that the inconceivable has come to pass and the future of the United States is in serious danger of ruin, the time for testing the mettle of the American people is once again with us. This is no time for regretting or lamenting over the sad events of the past few days, for this may just be the beginning of a gloomier future unless we somehow nip that threat in the bud sometime soon. Wake up America! The time for political complacency and playing nice to the neo-Fascist lunatics is over (see collage)

The Persisting Undemocratic Electoral System in America. Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India, November 13th, 2016. Stupidity: To implement the same unreliable flawed process over and over again expecting it to always work out right. If your car kept randomly breaking down, wouldn’t you take it to the repair shop, try to fix it yourself or, ultimately, replace it with a new one? Wouldn’t it be stupid and irresponsible of you to do nothing about it and just cross your fingers and hope that next time you take it to the road it won’t break down? Electoral Systems can fit the same pattern too (see collage)

The America not many People Saw Before. Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India, November 10th, 2016. It was a ruthless reversal of fortune not many people around the world saw coming their way. The once-inconceivable became the blunt, raw reality of the day: Donald Trump is the next President of the United States. But, as threatening to Democracy as he may be, he is in a way just a symbol representing something much more ominous still: the fact that millions of Americans chose him to lead the country for the next four years and possibly beyond. Where does America go from here? Nobody knows exactly, but many of us just hope that four years from now we will still be able to recognize the country.

The Failing American Democracy: A good Idea that Has Gone Wrong. Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India, November 4th, 2016. The United States is still the longest lasting Democracy in the history of the world. The originators of the Democratic concept, the Greeks, fell under tyranny just a few years after their first Democratic experiment and later lost their autonomy under Alexander the Great and the Ottoman Empire. French Democracy quickly became a dictatorship followed by an Emperor, a restoration and other undemocratic systems. Germany’s Democracy is very young, just as that of Italy and Spain, and England’s Democracy is not as old as the American. But politics have been seriously souring up lately in the United States to the point where the foundations of the American Democratic system will be put to a severe test in the years to come. Will the American people stand up for the Democratic ideal and save the nation from the brink of political catastrophe where it presently stands?

The Unforgivable Americans. Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India, October 18th, 2016. I am not a real American Democrat. If I vote for Democratic candidates I do it only by default, because there aren’t any better options in the American political scene. I don’t believe that the Democratic Party is the center-left party that it claims to be. In my view, among the Democratic ranks there are many who are just Republicans in disguise. There don't seem to be many real leftists from top to bottom in the Democrat leadership. Some real leftwing individuals like Bernie Sanders run as Democrats because they know third-party candidates hardly ever stand a chance in US elections. But now, in the face of such outrageous anti-Americanist platform as the one presently displayed by the Republican Party, I have redoubled my efforts to send my pro-Democratic ballot from overseas so that I can make it count. (See collage)

Eternalism, Reincarnation, and the Big Bang. Yangon, Myanmar, September 13th, 2016. The Big Bang theory really sounds like a modern version of all those Genesis-like mythological stories about the “beginning of time” that the world has been hearing since times immemorial. Regardless of how sophisticated may be the jargon they use to present it, the Big Bang theory still looks like just another well-concocted imaginative creationist tale of the Mayan, Babylonian or Egyptian sort, except that this time they cleverly dressed it up in scientific garb. Still, regardless of whether the Big Bang theory makes sense to you or not, the question remains: why would beginning-of-time and end-of-days theories and stories be so fascinating to so many people? (See collage)

The Final Return of the Jedi. Yangon, Myanmar, September 5th, 2016. In this human tragicomedy reality often looks like a fantasy, no? (collage)

Make America WASP Again. Yangon, Myanmar, June 8th, 2016. IL Duce Donald’s open quest. (Flyer)

Rigged from the Beginning. Yangon, Myanmar, June 2nd, 2016. In contrast to direct democracies such as those of Europe, American Democracy is of the representative kind, meaning that the selection of US presidents is decided by electors whose choice of candidates is basically supposed to mirror the will of the people that sent them to the convention. Such concept of democracy wouldn’t be too flawed if it weren’t for the inclusion in the electoral process of some super electors who are better known as Superdelegates.

The Promissory Sanctity of the American Rich. Yangon, Myanmar, February 20th, 2016. Money is king in the land of the dollar bill and there should be nothing wrong about that, except that when the king’s influence bestows on one sector of the population powers that undermine the basic democratic principles of the nation, things start heading in the wrong direction. Worse still, when the American people acquiesce to such usurpation of powers and to their own detriment even praise the king as the country’s only possible savior, what kind of fate may await them?

Timeless Vagaries. Yangon, Myanmar, February 14th , 2016. This past Thursday, February 11th, I sent an email to some friends scattered across a couple of continents recounting, among other things, some impressions I got while engaged in a phone conversation with a software engineer residing in San Diego, California. I was calling the engineer from Yangon, the capital city of Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia located 14:30 hours ahead of San Diego. The relativity of time involved in the conversation tickled once again my interest and the result was the email text you may read by clicking on the link above.

The Disunited Nazi States of America. Yangon, Myanmar, December 1st, 2015. (Collage)

The Problem with Islam. Yangon, Myanmar, November 29th, 2015. The Paris terrorist attacks of November 13th have considerably deepened the fissure between Islam and the western world. The more Muslim extremists perpetrate such nihilist acts of terrorism the more Islam is stained with the blood of innocent victims and the more the Muslim communities in the West are demonized for it. Will Muslim extremists ever understand that there is no way to turn time back to the Middle Ages where committing mass murder in the name of religion was acceptable to their ancestors?

The Winds of Change. Yangon, Myanmar, November 14th, 2015. Mother Suu wins big in her country in the name of her people (click here to see collage)

UNFORTUNATELY, THE COMMENTARY "The Winds of Change" HAS LOST ANY VALIDITY AS "MOTHER SUU" DIDN'T LIFT A FINGER TO TRY TO STOP THE PERSECUTION OF THE ROHINGYA MUSLIM PEOPLE IN MYANMAR IN 2016-2017. ACCORDING TO EX-NEW MEXICO GOVERNOR BILL RICHARDSON, WHO SERVED IN THE ADVISORY BOARD FOR SUU KYI, SHE NOW HAS "AN ARROGANCE OF POWER". IT IS ALSO SAD TO KNOW THAT THE BUDDHIST MAJORITY IN MYANMAR ACQUIESCED TO AND EVEN INSTIGATED THE PERSECUTION OF THE ROHINGYA, OVER 700,000 OF WHICH HAVE NOW FLED TO NEIGHBORING BANGLADESH (Comment added on March 12th, 2018)

This is not About Donald Trump. Yangon, Myanmar, September 22nd, 2015. Political Circuses are nothing new in this day and age, some of them more comical than some others. The US Congress, for one, has a habit of calling our attention to some of their famous ludicrous performances in which they put the wellbeing of the country at the mercy of the callous whims of one obstinate elected ideologue or another. The ongoing election cycle has already shown great potential for becoming one more memorable spectacle. This time around, however, the cast of the Republican ensemble includes more seasoned showbusiness talent, namely the tactless entertainer Donald Trump. Who would have thought just a couple of years ago that the Donald would someday throw his hat in the national political circus ring? The question now is who will be willing to follow such flimflam Pied Piper down the unpredictable road of his instinctual vagaries? Not to worry. There is a wide-enough variety of Americans to supply any political madcap with abundant support. As Alexis de Tocqueville once observed, American Democracy is such that even some incompetent idiots may occasionally be elected. De Tocqueville’s predictions already came true once in the form of G. W. Bush. Has the time come for Alexis’ prophecies to double down in the form of the Donald?

Nazism American Style. Yangon, Myanmar, June 20th, 2015 (see collage here) Black people are to American white supremacists what Jewish people used to be to the Nazis. No doubt about it. Let’s once again tell it like it is. Any attempt at using different terms for describing the persisting shameful racial animosities felt and expressed by many white Americans towards African Americans would be an evasive and futile use of euphemisms. Let’s say it clear, American white supremacists are only comparable to Nazis and their criminal actions cannot be characterized as nothing else but racial terrorism.

Victory Day? Bac Lieu, Vietnam, May 9th, 2015. One of the great satisfactions for us humans in this life is to somehow become fully aware of the fact that we have somehow come up victorious in the face of obstacles, challenges, or rivalries. Unfortunately, the term “Victory” may not always imply the betterment of the “Victorious” people in question. How so?

The Problem with Homo Sapiens. Bac Lieu, Vietnam, April 6th, 2015. Since there is any recorded history the world has been plagued with problems and a good majority of them human beings have generated. Travel a bit around the world and behind the tourist attractions and the pleasant predisposition shown to different degrees by the locals towards foreigners you may find some ethnic, economic, political, or social problems that not all of them will be willing to talk about. And the US, Norway, Germany, France, or any other developed or underdeveloped country is no exception to it. Is this a fatalistic negative view of the Human Race? Certainly not, but it is not a hunky-dory one either.

Blown in the Wind. Mandalay, Myanmar, March 2nd, 2013. Time is said to be a relative concept. The importance we may ascribe to anything we do can also be of a variety of degrees and intensities as numerous as there are diverse human personalities, therefore relative as well. Thus, the relativity of things does not appear to be as exceptional as many of us may have previously thought. Have you ever stopped to contemplate your existence from a perspective of timelessness in mind?

All I Do is Walk this Highway. Mandalay, Myanmar, February 20th, 2015 (To see collage please click here) As of this date I have lived in or been to 33 countries in 4 different continents. That may certainly not be a traveling record, but it does feel good to look back over the path I have thus far followed and recall a few revealing moments among those I have experienced along my journey.

A Skeptical View on Religions. Mandalay, Myanmar, February 10th, 2015. There is no question as to the spiritual need the human race confirms to have when embracing religious beliefs. At one point or another in our lives we all feel inclined to wonder about the meaning and the purpose of our existence and most of us usually look for answers in the different religions of the world. But, are the existing religious doctrines written and explained in a clear-enough manner for the common men and women to draw transcendental understandings from them? Or are most of those scriptures so opaque and ambiguous as to serve only as instruments of mass domination in the hands of cunning manipulators?

It’s Hard to Let Old Grudges Go. Sihanoukville, Cambodia, December 27th, 2014. Communism is dead. China is now a Capitalist country ruled by an authoritarian regime, Russia is now a (failing) Capitalist nation ruled by a strongman bent on becoming the next Tsar, and North Korea is an openly-failed country ruled by an erratic egomaniac dictator. Cuba may fall in a category of its own, but its “Communist” days have already come to an end as well. Why should such reality be so difficult to accept to those Cuban-American folk demonstrating in the streets of Miami against Obama’s long-overdue opening to Cuba?

Remembrance of the Renaissance. Sihanoukville, Cambodia, December 14th, 2014. Once upon a time there was this historical epoch where the classic arts flourished as they had never done before and have never done ever since. Half jokingly half seriously I ask you, do you remember?

Criticism. Sihanoukville, Cambodia, December 12th, 2014. I criticize, you criticize, she criticizes… we all criticize. Very few things in this world aren’t subject to criticism of one sort or another. As long as there are different opinions on the same subject in this world there will always be criticism. You think you’re exempt from it or above it? Hmm… I doubt it.

The Socio-Historical Stain that Refuses to Go Away. Sihanoukville, Cambodia, December 5th, 2014. Look over your shoulder in almost any American city and you will very likely see a couple of people with ethnic characteristics different to yours. The American society is indeed a multiracial one, to the point where, in a couple of decades, no ethnic group will be majoritarian any more. Anglo-Saxons will only be the largest minority, followed by Latinos, Blacks, and Asians respectively. Yet, with the election of the first Black President a few years ago, racial tensions appear to have increased instead of the other way around. It seems that each time we think we have solved the racial problem in America, the racial beast creeps back to the fore as ugly and angry as ever.

The Winds of Existence. Sihanoukville, Cambodia, November 30th, 2014. Are you reading these words because you were meant to read them or because by chance you just happened to run into this Webpage? Is there a connection between the things we do today and those that will happen to us a few days, months, or years from now or not? Hard to say, no?

21st Century Conservatism. Sihanoukville, Cambodia, November 24th, 2014. Liberalism? Conservatism? Which of those political brands takes the upper hand in the political life of a country and at what point in time are questions whose answers appear contingent on a combination of sociopolitical and economic factors that hardly anyone seems to have any control of. For an individual to decide which of those two roads to walk on, though, that’s another story. Globally speaking, however, a few additional factors can be at play.

The Screen Where all Religions are Projected. Sihanoukville, Cambodia, October 25th, 2014. Are you religious? I am not. But if you are, have you ever delved a bit deep into what the source of all religions might be? Would you be ready to contemplate propositions that may run contrary to your religious persuasion? Is your faith founded on shaky or solid grounds? Whatever the case, maybe you should try giving this short Commentary a shot.

Endorsing the British Endorsement. Sihanoukville, Cambodia, October 15th, 2014. “Love and understanding go together”, sang Willie Nelson in one of his stints with the Highway Men, “ask too much of one and both will die”. As Israelis keep stretching the limits of understanding that for historical reasons the world has granted them, they should pay close attention to Willie’s lyrics, for they also keep gradually eroding whatever level of love the world still feels for them (To read a 2011 article on the same subject, please click on the following link: http://www.salaroche.com/Commentaries/America'sSpoiledChild.html)

American Hypocrisy. Sihanoukville, Cambodia, October 13th, 2014. The western world seems always ready to condemn Beijing’s authoritarianism whenever there’s any use of force against the Chinese population. But is it ready to openly condemn the US whenever there are comparable abuses on American soil?

Tiananmen 2.0? Sihanoukville, Cambodia, October 1st, 2014. It seems that those obstinate authoritarian loonies a la Xi, Jinping are never going to learn that the great majority of people don’t like living under the boot of militaristic megalomaniac leaders like them. They just refuse to accept that, given the choice between Democratic and Authoritarian regimes, 7 or 8 out of 10 people in the world would no doubt opt for Democracy. Any doubts about that? Just ask the people of Hong Kong.

The Hard Life and the Changing Landscape in Cambodia. Sihanoukville, Cambodia, September 30th, 2014. Living by the sea is not a difficult thing to do for some of us. I, for one, love it, and according to the way the expat community behaves here in Otres One, many people from the rest of the world love it as well. As I say, living in Sihanoukville is really living the Hard Life. (To see a related photo album please click here)

Human Asteroids. Sihanoukville, Cambodia, September 6th, 2014. Given the absence of resistance existing in outer space, give a celestial body, i.e., an Asteroid, some impulse and sheer inertia, which is the equivalent of Newton’s First Law of Motion, will keep it going at the same speed forever, that is, unless it encounters a larger celestial body that collides against it. In the absence of the latter, Asteroids remain free to roam unhindered around the Universe. But what about Human Asteroids? What qualities and limitations do they share with Celestial Asteroids?

From Laughs to Astonishment. Phnom Penh, Cambodia, August 13th, 2014. A performing character always capable of blowing your mind away with his onstage relentless natural wit, whose light of inspiration never seemed to diminish, willingly says goodbye to the world.

Of Soviet Backlashes. Sihanoukville, Cambodia, August 9th, 2014. What International circumstances are those that really warrant acts of retaliatory aggression? When is a country justified in the eyes of history when attacking another based on such rationale? Can irredentism by military force ever be justified? The answer to those questions may be as varied as the points of view of the different observers. This one is just my take on the recent Russian moves in and around Ukraine.

Holidays. Phnom Penh, Cambodia, July 28th, 2014. When I first determined to move to France back in 1979 I based my decision on the stories I heard from a couple of girl-friends who had just gotten back from Paris. Both those girls were in their own particular way quite pretty and witty, so I just followed their lead. Now, a few decades after those experiences, I still rely on destiny’s hints to choose what my next temporary abode will be. Is that kind of attitude towards the future a sign of irresponsibility, craziness, laziness, or even madness? Whatever it may be, who can actually know what tomorrow may bring?

The 4th of July. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, July 4th, 2014. The more you travel, the more you find contrast between the societies, traditions, and political systems that you find. This happens with pronounced intensity when comparing foreign cultures to the one you appreciate the most. In fact, in observing whatever deficiencies may affect the cultures that you visit, you may become more inclined to overlook the ones that affect yours.

Orientalism in the 21st Century. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, June 26th, 2014. The Age of Discovery began in 1415 with Portugal’s colonization of Ceuta in North Africa and the Azores archipelago in the Atlantic, and came to conclusion with the French colonization of Algeria in 1830. Such discoveries gave birth to a conception of the world as split between the West and the rest. Part of that “rest” was the Levant, better known for some time as the “Orient”, which in French means “The East”. That area of the world is nowadays known as the Middle East and the understanding that the West holds of the cultures that populate it has for some time been known as “Orientalism”.

Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, June 7th, 2014. Whether it was Thomas Paine, George Patton, or anybody else who coined that phrase, the strength of its validity still stands today as much as it did in the past and will do in the future. Circumstances, however, may often reduce those three choices down to two, or even one. Present geopolitical conditions have placed the United States face to face with that triad, although it’s very difficult for many of us to see how the world could afford having the US opt for anything but the first choice.

A Moment of Grief. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, May 28th, 2014. In which country of the world does the constitution allegedly equate gun-toting with patriotism?  In which democratic country of the world does a good number of citizens feel the urge to possess guns as a way to ensure their “freedom” against tyranny? In which country of the world do we have recurrent mass murders at schools and other places? Only in America. Will there ever be an end to such madness? Not as long as we have powerful associations like the
Nefarious Recalcitrant Assholes telling the corrupt sold-out American Congress what to do.

A Majority of Second-Class Netizens? Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, May 10th, 2014. (Click here to see collage) Freeway carpool lanes give certain privileges to groups of people who opt to travel in one single car rather than driving their own individual vehicles to work, namely that their users get to their destinations faster. The privilege of fast delivery, therefore, is one of the major incentives propelling people to use carpool lanes. To this day, no lane on the Internet Superhighway has provided exclusive faster speed of delivery to any of the content travelling on it, but now the FCC wants to create a two-tiered system that provides privileged speed to those companies who can afford to pay for it. That may sound like a good idea for all the ISPs involved, particularly the big ones, but wouldn’t that basically create an Internet environment populated by first-class and second-class netizens where a good majority of content-providers may fall under the second-class category?

A Tale of Two Johns. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, May 1st, 2014. (click here to see collage) In today’s super globalized world, information of all kinds flows across the different networks of communication in quantities as abundant as anyone may desire and may afford to get. Consequently different ideas and perceptions usually generate debate on the public forums about the different issues of the day. This fact makes it that seldom is anything that happens in the world devoid of historical and political context. The recent simultaneous canonization of two popes is certainly no exception.

Irredentist Russians at the Gates. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, April 27th, 2014. (Click here to see collage) The country of Italy first came into existence as we know it today in March of 1861, after fighting three wars of independence that finally led to the unification of the whole Italian peninsula under the leadership of Victor Emanuel II, the first king of Italy. Rome became the capital of the kingdom 10 years later. But there were still some territories that some Italians thought needed to be annexed to the kingdom, and here’s where the term defining the idea of irredentism was first conceived.

One Hundred Years of Gratitude. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China. Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 1927 - 2014. The Master of Magic Realism.

The Tsar’s Effective 5th Column. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, April 13th, 2014. Smart is as smart does, they say, and by that count the new Russian Tsar sits at the top of the heap. When it comes to manipulating International opportunities to your own advantage, no one thus far in the 21st century has done a better job than Vladimir the Great. Am I hereby praising the new Tsar’s malicious cunning? By no means. But you have to hand it to him: So far he’s shown he knows how to play the geopolitical game better than anybody else.

No End of History and No Last Man Anytime Soon. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, April 4th, 2014. (Click here to see collage). Fascist and imperialist ideologies posed a serious threat to liberal democracies during the first half of the 20th century, but they were finally defeated. By the end of the past millennium the fall of the Soviet threat and its Communist ideology gave birth to the theory that there was no longer any room in history for ideological rivalries or wars. Vladimir Putin’s idea of a renewed authoritarian militaristic autocratic expansionist Russia doesn’t yet amount to an ideology, but it certainly has NATO already scrambling forces all over Europe. Does this throw any doubts and shadows over any End of History theory as to the validity of such postulate?

Has the US Become Comfortably Numb? Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, March 28, 2014. As history saw the end of the Great War in 1918 and US forces started going back home, everyone thought peace could finally be achieved in the world. But back in Germany and Russia the seeds for World War II and the Cold War had already been sown and were soon to germinate. A couple of decades later, US military forces were once again needed to restore a certain resemblance of peace around the globe. Now, as the US was retrenching again, Vladimir Putin decided his time had come to do as he wished militarily in his neighborhood. Was Secretary of State Albright right in saying that the US is the Indispensable Nation? The present reality in Eastern Europe may be answering that question with a definite “yes”.

The Big Bang Once Again. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, March 19th, 2014. (Click here to see collage) In light of the recent scientific announcements published in the US general media regarding the Gravitational Waves detected in Space which, allegedly, continue to support the validity of the Big Bang Theory, I thought I should once more present a critique of that theory along with a Thesis that presents an alternative view on the subject. The Hypothesis in question I wrote in the span of a week back in 2009, while living in the city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

If You Want Peace, Prepare for War. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, March 14th, 2014. You don’t need to be a warmonger to refuse to be an appeaser, and you don’t need to be a clairvoyant to notice the similarities between some well-known catastrophic events of the past and some events unfolding in the present.  They say history always repeats itself, but that’s something most power-intoxicated individuals always seem to forget.

The Grandstanding Mr. Putin. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, March 8th, 2014. History has a good number of dangerous foolish leaders. George W. Bush is the first to come to mind. Some others were much more on the criminal side than on the foolish, such as Stalin, Mao, and Hitler. Now we have another world leader who is acting up apparently in an effort to join the club of guys who do stupid and criminal things for the sheer sake of their own personal glory. When will we ever learn…

Who’s Afraid of Obama’s Wolf? Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, March 2nd, 2014. Better not to make threats than to make them and later don’t make good on them, for if you make a threat and then you don’t act on it, your credibility goes down the drain. Simple popular philosophy, no? Well, if it is indeed so simple and so popular, how come Barack Obama doesn’t seem to know it?

Those Restive Authoritarian Troublemakers. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, March 1st, 2014. And what did the world inherit from Communism? Love of your peers? Compassion for the underprivileged? Human wisdom? No such thing. Go visit or live in any ex-communist country and all you’ll find there is three things: Corruption, corruption, and more corruption. The people, of course, are happier now than they were during communist times, but that only comes to prove once more that happiness is a relative thing.

An Impromptu Communal Life. Moscow, Russia, February 14th, 2014. What do you do when one of the links tying your travel plans together breaks and leaves you somewhat rudderless for a couple of weeks during your seven-week holyday? Well, you just do the best you can to salvage your journey, which may include changing schedules and destinations. But what do you do with the time you’re already left sort of stranded in a small seaside city like Santa Barbara, California? Well, if you’re smart enough you just relax and enjoy it.

The Wonders of Discovery. Santa Barbara, California, USA, February 3rd, 2014. The saying goes that the more you travel the more people you meet, but that may only be true if you travel by yourself or in very small groups. Otherwise you probably never get to know any of the locals in the countries you visit. I, for one, never travel in groups; never did it, never will. This may well be the reason that I’ve come to meet some interesting people. And occasionally you may get to meet someone who is actually much more than just interesting.

In Praise of Adèle. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, December 22, 2013. Onscreen character portraits require some good film-making skills to be successful, like a good script, clear directing, the right camera work to capture the proper meaningful facial and body expressions, good editing to keep the character’s evolution believable, good acting, etc. But most of those technical skills would be useless in the absence of good actors. In the case of “La vie d’Adèle” (Blue is the Warmest Color), all film-making skills stand on the impeccable performance of Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux. And that’s the reason that the film turns out to be outstanding.

Among the Top Few Exemplary Human Beings: Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, December 7th, 2013.

How do You say Lebensraum in Chinese? Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, December 1st, 2013. Territorial disputes are probably as old as the human race. Of all possible possessions in this world, land seems to be the most coveted. If in doubt about this just ask imperial England or France, or Germany during the 20th century. Is it China’s turn to follow suit in the 21st?

The Big Kid on the Block Misbehaves. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, November 29th, 2013. Some world leaders still think that whatever political system works well for them in their home countries can work well in other regions of the world too. Just think of the G. W. Bush Administration’s delusions in trying to transplant American-style democracy into Iraq and you’ll know exactly what I mean. On November 23rd the Chinese Government also thought that their system of ruling their people by edict could also be applied on the world scene. But, uh-uh! It just hasn’t worked out that way.

What Else Did They Expect? Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, November 27th, 2013. Domestic politics are often the reason behind some apparently irrational foreign policies. Argentina’s 1982 failed attempt to take over the Falklands (Malvinas) would be a case in point. Fast forward to 2013 and the world watches again a similar arrogant move, this time regarding China Vis a Vis the Senkaku Islands, Japan and the United States. No doubt the Chinese government has plenty to learn yet. The question is: How expensive may this lesson turn out to be to China’s neighbors and to the world at large?

The Amoral, the Innocent, and all of Those in Between. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, November 19th, 2013. Regardless of the country, ethnicity, or nationality of the people we meet, we always end up faced with human beings, which inevitably entails dealing with the good, the bad, and the ugly features that characterize the human race. Experience in travelling usually helps in easing our rapport with strangers, but the idiosyncrasies proper of each culture often colorize the local people with different behavioral hues. The latter can be good or bad, or somewhere in between, but there really isn't much to worry about. Such is life on planet Earth.

The so-called “Social Equality” of Communism. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, November 10th, 2013. It’s even appalling to know that at the beginning of the 21st century there are still some western people who think communism is an ideology worth pursuing. I’m perfectly aware that the capability to fool ourselves is one of the most salient shortcomings of human nature, but the inability to see the clear evidence of failure shown to us on a daily basis in the Chinese example seriously challenges all comprehension.  

Land Reform in China, Version 2013. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, November 2nd, 2013. Land Reforms have been traditionally at the heart of some very bloody revolutions, particularly in Latinamerica. But now there's a Land Reform going on in China whose aim goes basically in the opposite direction. It is not even a revolution in the traditional sense of the word, so I guess "Devolution" would be a more appropriate term to define it. Even more so when we know that its ultimate aim is to restore some private property rights to the people.

First Memory. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, October 28th, 2013. Salvador Dali claimed to have memories of the days he lived within his mother’s womb; other people claim to have memories of the moment they were born, and some others remember episodes taking place while they were barely a few days or a few weeks old. My first memory of anything dates back to just a few hours after I came into this world.

GOP Politics. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, October 25th, 2013. "Gangsterism is politics by other means".

Notes on the Averted Default. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, October 17th, 2013. From its inception, the US has been on the brink of financial chaos a few times. The Government shutdown we just witnessed was not a unique event in the history of the country, which begs the question of how come we haven't yet learnt to nip shutdowns in the bud the moment their first signs appear? But don't ask that question to the TPers in the Republican ranks, as they wouldn't even want to hear about it.

No Otherworldly Powers. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, October 9th, 2013. Republicans seem to think of America as an indestructible force. They seem to believe America’s fortunes will continue befalling her in perpetuity, regardless of whatever America may do. But they’re wrong. America was born and raised on planet Earth and as such she is perfectly mortal, particularly if a highly influential section of her political class becomes insanely suicidal.

Putting Ideology Before Country. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, October 5th, 2013. Talking to some Chinese friends over dinner last night, they mentioned some Chinese tourists had been denied entrance to some American parks because there was no money to pay the park rangers and other administrative staff. I just blamed it all on the Republicans and, echoing de Tocqueville, told them American democracy is such that it allows for unamerican imbeciles of the Republican kind to be elected to the highest offices of government.

The Sirens of Tragic Remembrance. Jiayuguan, Gansu province, China, September 18th, 2013. Sounds can have a variety of significant effects on our psyche. For example, some types of music can be very relaxing while some others can be very exciting. But there are sounds that pierce through the different layers of our consciousness and reach to deeply engraved feelings in our minds. Today I witnessed some of the latter.

A Circus in a Zoo. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, September 16th, 2013. If it weren’t for the bars and cages confining the animals, Zoos would be very dangerous places. Similarly, if it weren’t for some international treaties and agreements, the world would be a much more dangerous Zoo. How much more dangerous would it all be if Zoomates were left to perform tricks and acrobatics as they wished?

The Hesitant in Chief. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, September 2nd, 2013. The hoax used as rationale for the Iraq war in 2003 continues to have repercussions on American Foreign Policy today. There are two sides to that false coin we inherited from the G. W. Bush administration: Our present dose of skepticism regarding the government's assessment of foreign dangers is one. Should the US President’s emasculation be the other?

Why China Could Never Replace America at the World's #1 Spot. Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China, August 27th, 2013. Some people say the 21st Century could be China’s century and there are signs that such assumption may turn out to be true. Some others, however, say the United States will remain the most influential of all nations for a long time to come. What do you think?

The Overwhelming Thunder of Eternal Silence. Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, China, August 11th, 2013. The fields of Philosophy and Psychology may sometimes coincide in explaining some human phenomena, particularly when the philosophy in question is of the transcendental kind. The discipline of Jnana Yoga, for example, can be practiced following some well known psychological tenets. Had you thought about this before?

Supreme Morons at the Supreme Court. Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, China, July 28th, 2013. To be a Republican is to be a conservative, and to be a conservative is basically to be a Darwinist. But to conceive the survival of the fittest in the narrow individualist way that Conservatives keep trying to apply in the American political arena goes contrary to one of nature's basic rules for the survival of any species: What's good for the individual is not necessarily good for the clan, and what's good for the clan is not necessarily good for the species. Are American conservatives so ideologically blind and confused that they cannot even realize they're no longer even Darwinists? Apparently so.

Samurai Rising. Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, China, July 23rd, 2013. China seems destined to become the world's #1 economy sometime during the next 10 years. Along those lines, China has been spreading its influence across Africa, Europe, and the Americas through capital investments and cultural programs. Militarily speaking, the US remains the major obstacle on China's road to world domination. But what about Japan? Could the Samurai wake up from its slumber and help the region counterbalance the Dragon's thrust? Maybe.

Constructive Vs. Destructive Criticism. Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, China, July 18th, 2013. A strong feeling of patriotism has always been a salient characteristic of the American people. Just check out the daily display of American flags in porches and front gardens in American neighborhoods and you'll see what I mean. Patriotism can be a good thing, but it can also be a bad one, just as it was during the self-censoring days and months previous to the Iraq invasion of 2003. In the context of Democracy, criticizing our government is an essential part of our patriotic duty, but where do you draw the line between criticism and anti-Americanism?

A Scientific and Religious Delusion. Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, China, June 27th, 2013. Creationists believe that a super natural and super powerful magician they name “God” created the Universe in six days out of some sort of whim. Scientists, for their part, believe that the Universe came into being out of a huge cosmic explosion of unimaginable proportions they call the Big Bang. Which theory seems more farfetched to you? The first one or the second? To some of us, both of them look equally implausible. Are there any third viable options? Sure. Check out this one.

No Religious Faith Required. Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, China, June 23rd, 2013. Can religious faith be likened to prejudice? Can religious dogma be equated with superstition? Our deist brethren seem to believe so. But, if such were the case, what alternatives would there be available to us in our quest to elucidate our spiritual origins and destiny? Reason? Yeah, I can go for that. How about you?

Reality Swaps. Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, China, June 10th, 2013. While exchanging emails with an old friend the other day, he described to me a telepathic conversation he supposedly had had with a mutual friend a few days before. I replied that, while that conversation may well have happened, one should always beware of our vivid imagination, as it could always play tricks on us and make us believe whatever it is we want to believe. In other words, I asked him to beware of Reality Swaps. Could Reality Swaps take place at the national level as well? You bet.

Quantum Existence. Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia, June 4th, 2013. Science and Philosophy may often reach similar conclusions, after all, they're both engaged in the search for knowledge about the workings of this world and beyond. There's even a hybrid field of study called The Philosophy of Science. Not many of us can truthfully claim to be constantly engaged in any of those fields of endeavor, if at all, but some of us don't turn away when we find writings that deal with them either. Let's just say that some of us are constantly concerned with existence, including its variety of the Quantum kind.

Timeless-Spaceless. Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia, June 2nd, 2013. Sometimes, when I call my friends in Switzerland, Germany, Miami, El Salvador, or California, I jokingly tell them I’m calling them from the future which, technically speaking, is perfectly correct as, according to the time zones we respectively live in, Kuala Lumpur is always a few hours ahead of them. And what about the space between us? Well, nowadays that’s also a concept that needs some reevaluating.

A Failing Test in Diversity? Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. May 29, 2013. Countries, states, cities, or communities with a wide ethnic diversity tend to have artistic and culinary vibrancy and are culturally rich. Just go check out Silicon Valley in California and you'll see what I mean. Such diversity even breeds progress of the outstanding kind we have witnessed around Stanford University over the past few decades. But, doesn't such ethnic multiplicity also breed conflict? Of course it does. It's all just a matter of how we deal with it.

Lurking Beasts. Batu Ferringhi, Penang island, Malaysia, May 12, 2013. Malaysia is a land of multiplicity. Multiple ethnicities, religions and languages are officially sanctioned here. But that doesn't mean general equality is the rule of the land. No way. By design, ethnic Malays hold the upper hand in very important aspects of the local government and society. Does anybody here have a viable different view for the country's future? Some people think so.

Death of a Friend. Subang, Selangor, Malaysia, April 28, 2013. We have all heard it many times, “life is ephemeral”, they say, but we hardly ever stop to think of our own mortality. Then, all of a sudden, we learn of the death of a dear friend whom we hadn’t seen for some time, and our lives together with that friend flash before our eyes in complete detail, all of it in a fraction of a second. Does real friendship transcend time and death? Very likely so.

Congratulations America. Subang, Selangor, Malaysia, April 26, 2013. Congratulations: an expression of joy in the success or good fortune of another. Why would I be congratulating America at this point in time? What has happened over there that should call for such expression of joy? Well, all things considered, there are definitely some things worth rejoicing about in the US today.

The Mafiosi and the Hypocrites. Subang, Selangor, Malaysia, April 14, 2013. There's a famous refrain that asks "how can you point at the spec in the eye of your neighbor when you have a beam in your own?" Which is like saying that playing holier than thou can be a tricky thing, as to do so one should first be free of faults. "If you live in a glass house" another saying goes, "don't go around throwing stones at your neighbors". Has the US thrown some stones at Russia?

Malaysia. Subang, Selangor, Malaysia, April 7, 2013. Malaysia is a tropical country I've been wanting to come to for a few years, but lady luck had until now turned a deaf ear to my pleas. Since April 1st, however, she has finally granted me that wish. I haven't been able to see much of the country yet, but what I've experienced thus far seems to be fulfilling my expectations of it.

Booms and Bubbles. Shanqin Bay, Hainan Island, China, March 5, 2013. We humans often have a hard time learning from our peers’ mistakes. “What happens to the others”, we think, “is not going to happen to me”. But, alas, such is rarely the case. Is China headed toward the same financial dire straits presently facing Europe and the United States? As the song used to say, “…que sera, sera…”.

Clarification. Shanqin Bay, Hainan Island, China , February 15, 2013. Days, deeds, places, and circumstances may come and go, but our Transcendental Consciousness will always be there: Unchanging and Immoveable. So, what are we here in this world for? Good question.

Detachment, the Relative Speed of Time, and Other Things. Shanqin Bay, Hainan Island, China, February 5, 2013. We all know that our moods affect our perception of time. Can the practical side of some philsophies affect us in the same way too? I think it does.

Democratic Capitalism. Foshan, Guangdong Province, China, January 20, 2013. Living for some time in Authoritarian Capitalist countries such as China, can make some of us stop to reflect a bit on the nature of Democratic Capitalism of the Western Sort. For better or worse, freedom is the word.

Of Good and Evil. Foshan, Guangdong Province, China, December 30, 2012. Back in the 1400s, the Renaissance movement affirmed that Humankind was the measure of all things. But around the late 1700s, Immanuel Kant proposed that "Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made". So here we are in the early 21st century still trying to figure out what such measure of all things might be, crooked or not? Good or evil? Probably both.

Nefarious Repentless Assheads (NRA). Foshan, Guangdong Province, China, December 22, 2012. What do you do when drunk drivers keep causing lethal accidents in America? You keep them off the road. What do you do when alcohol and drugs keep harming American youngsters? You do your best to keep them off their hands. What do you do when automatic weapons keep killing American people including children? You keep those weapons out of circulation, right? Wrong! The Nefarious Repentless Assheads, the NRA, say "sell more".

A Criminal Supreme Court? Foshan, Guangdong Province, China, December 17, 2012. The second amendment, a short paragraph written 221 years ago, is today in great part the reason that most of the American Nation is grieving. Nine individuals who are supposed to be the wisest legal guarantors of our wellbeing keep ruling on the side of immature cowboys who refuse to grow up into the 21st century. Maybe it's time to demand that the Supreme Court be brought to Justice.

America, You Blockhead! Foshan, Guangdong Province, China, December 16, 2012. How many times did Lucy call Charlie Brown a Blockhead? And how many times did she put the football for Charlie to kick it only to take it away at the last minute so that Charlie would fall again on his head? America, you Blockhead! How many more massacres will you have to suffer before you finally learn?

The Great Wall of Fear. Foshan, Guangdong Province, China, December 15, 2012. Can there be anything more frightening than fear itself? Can there be anything more paralyzing than the act of fearing? Maybe yes, maybe not, but the evidence I see in my present surroundings points more to the latter than the former.

Change of Guard. Foshan, Guangdong Province, China, November 4, 2012. Eeny meeny miny mo, catch a rabbit by the toe. Such seems to be the electoral situation back in the US of A. I'm all for Barack, but nobody can know for sure who will sit at the Oval Office for the next four years until we hear the final elctoral results on the night of November 6th. In China, on the other hand, such enigma doesn't exist.

Barack is Back. Foshan, Guangdong Province, China, October 17, 2012. Ever felt comforted when seeing again a good friend you hadn't seen for some time? Well, that's more or less the way I felt when watching the 2nd Presidential Debate on October 16, 2012. Welcome back Barack.

The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same. Foshan, Guangdong Province, China, October 9, 2012. What dictates the flexibility of societies when it comes to exerting, absorbing, and preserving radical poilitical changes? What makes some societies more capable of holding on to Democratic principles than ohers? We may all have our own opinion about this subject; I just caught a glimpse of it the other day.

Foshan, etc. Foshan, Guangdong Province, China, October 5, 2012. Changes in China happen at a relatively slow pace, but they happen. Changes in one area of the people's life, however, don't necessarily entail changes in other areas. The use of communication devices, for example, is widespread across the entire population, but information, on the other hand, hasn't followed the same trend. Perhaps it's all just a matter of patience.

Autocensorship at Gunpoint. Foshan, Guangdong Province, China, September 21, 2012. "Censor yourselves and limit your free speech regarding our religion, or we'll storm your Embassies across the Arab world, kill some of your diplomatic personnel, and ultimately blow you and ourselves up in your own city streets and markets". How's that for a Religious Doctrine?

An Insurgency of Consciousness. Foshan, Guangdong Province, China, September 17, 2012. Burning US flags and killing American Ambassadors may feel like an accomplishment for some individuals unable to find any other means to channel their own cultural frustration. But to the rest of the civilized world, their senseless acts only amount to one thing: A fruitless attempt to quell the voices of their own consciousness which seem to scream within their minds: "your archaic socioreligious ways lie at the roots of your cultural failure".

Back to China. Foshan, Guangdong Province, China, September 14, 2012. Being back in China for the third time makes almost everything seem like Déjà vu. But this time my long-term plans are a little bit different. Let's see what the future has in store for us.

Attachments. (Video) Hong Kong, August 27, 2012. This commentary I recorded in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on August 20, 2012 while I was waiting for my computer to restart after a failed attempt. Given those circumstances, I switched on the recording machine and recorded whatever came to mind. The result was a spontaneous bird's-eye view explication of one of the basic premises of Jnana Yoga. Transcript.

Central Asia. Dushanbe, Tajikistan, July 31, 2012. Navigating over certain areas of the world can sometimes expose our sailboat to unpredictable winds. The latest such occasion resulted in my dinghy ending up moored in Central Asia, in the small country of Tajikistan. Thus far all seems well around here, particularly given the cordiality of the locals, but it appears that our sojourn isn't meant to last too long over these mountainous lands. May the winds of fate be always firm but gentle on our sails.

Hiatus. Dushanbe, Tajikistan, July 14, 2012. Sometimes, even much to our regret, circumstances force us to take a leave of absence. Such was the situation I found myself in during the past few months.

A Transcendental Vitruvian. Djibouti, Northeast Africa, April 12, 2012. Taking strolls down the street as after-dinner exercise can usually serve a dual purpose. First it helps your body digest your frugal dinner and then it frees your mind to wonder about whatever comes across it. Last night it was Leonardo's turn to tickle my imagination.

An Eternal Mind. Djibouti, Northeast Africa, April 4, 2012. We could possibly walk from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, thus meeting the limits of the American Continent. We could then walk from Brittany, France, to the Bering Strait in Russia, thereby meeting the limits of the Eurasian Continent. Similarly, we could possibly sail around the world from Santa Barbara, California, to the Island of Manhattan, New York, thereby meeting the limits of the Pacific-Atlantic Ocean, which is basically one single body of water. But what about the Universe?

The Face of Courage, Symbol of Freedom. Djibouti, April 1, 2012. The fact speaks for itself.

Tracking Lucy. Djibouti, Northeast Africa, March 30, 2012. Wandering a bit around the world can sometimes make you think you're in the different countries for predetermined reasons. Fateful cabalistic existential explanations of that sort have hardly ever been my cup of tea, but if we let our imagination go, we're very likely bound to find some of them. Did I come to East Africa to track my own origins along with those of the rest of humanity?

Not Waiting for Godot. Djibouti, Northeast Africa, March 27, 2012. People come and go and sometimes cities and countries do too. When in Rome do as the Romans, goes a saying, and although I rarely abide by it, I occasionally do as the locals. A couple of weeks ago I practiced the most widespread pastime in Djibouti city: I tried Khat.

Silent Islam. Djibouti, Northeast Africa, March 24, 2012. Some people are very outspoken and some others aren't as much. But why is it that some of the loudest voices in the world are usually those siding with extreme political, social, and religious views? Are extremism and determination Synonymous terms in this context? Have the terms moderation and dithering identical meanings as well? Some of us don't think so, but there’s some contradictory evidence out there.

You Dreamed What? Djibouti, Northeast Africa, March 22, 2012. I dream, you dream... we all dream, but is there any real meaning in dreams? Some people believe that dreams are like the unconscious representation of our psyche, or better said, the unconsious representation of our deepest psychological problems. Not too far from those lines, some other people believe that dreams represent a path towards a more fulfilling waking life. I can see some "truth" in both perspectives, but I'm rather inclined to embrace the second one. What about you?

Number Twenty Seven. Djibouti, Northeast Africa, March 19, 2012. Having lived in, or visited, about 14% of all the existing countries in the world today may not seem like a big deal to some of us, yet from a certain perspective it doesn't look so bad at all. “It does not matter how slowly you go", Conficius famously said, "as long as you do not stop”, and for once I instinctively agree with him.

Public Stoning American Style. Djibouti, Northeast Africa, March 4, 2012. Men demanding to stone women in public places for moral "transgressions" is nothing new in the Middle East. They still stone women to death in Afghanistan and in Iran many women are still in danger of suffering such Neanderthalish fate. But public stoning in America?

What a Cast. Djibouti, Northeast Africa, February 24, 2012. Life can often seem like a movie, with different plots, actors, backgrounds, wardrobes, music, etc. One trouble with that movie is the absence of a director and another is the absence of a script. The storyline is clear to us mainly in retrospective, but we hardly ever know for sure what comes next. Who could have ever thought of producing such unending epic masterpiece?

The Butterfly Effect. Djibouti, Northeast Africa, February 17, 2012. Can a child's splashing in the Caribbean waters of Costa Rica on Monday be the cause for a Tsunami wreaking havoc way down in the coastal communities of Southeast Asia on Thursday? According to some physicists, in principle it could. What do you think?

It Goes Both Ways. Djibouti, Northeast Africa, February 8, 2012. What goes around comes around, and other axioms of that sort, are there to tell us that reciprocity is often, if not always, unavoidable. Whether it is in a pleasant or unpleasant context, do unto others and its sibling proverbs seem to be widely applicable in all corners of the world. That includes the Horn of Africa.

Like a Rolling Stone. Djibouti, Northeast Africa, February 7, 2012. To be a Rolling Stone is to be on your own, like a complete unknown, with no direction home, or at least that's what Bob Dylan thought back in 1965. But what about gathering moss? Can a cosmic Rolling Stone gather cosmic moss?

Transition Day. Djibouti, Northeast Africa, January 25, 2012. All of us who have already lived for five or six decades have gone through different changes in our lives. Life transitions are inevitable events that, with different degrees of difficulty and with different degrees of success, each of us has had to cope with. Then, whether we like it or not, our life clocks keep ticking inexorably toward the next transition, until the day comes when we have to face the final one. Have you thought about this lately?

Djibouti. Djibouti, Northeast Africa, December 16, 2011. The African Continent has always exerted a considerable level of attraction on some of us, particularly the sub-Saharan part of it. Landing on the southern coast of the Red Sea, therefore, right at the foot of the Horn of Africa, felt like some sort of fateful predestination. Many Djiboutians speak French, English, Somali, Afar and Arabic, so there's no problem in communicating with them.

Chinese Cowboys. Beijing, China, November 28, 2011. American popular Culture has been clearly dominant in the world over the past 9 or 10 decades. American music, movies, clothes, food and technology have in general held the upper hand over any other culture's corresponding output. Have the Chinese been immune to such irresistible force? Perhaps a lot less than you think.

Karmanomics. Beijing, China, October 30, 2011. Economics and Metaphysics aren't subjects that we normally read about in the same paragraph. But what if some basic aspects of the former were used by way of allegory to illuminate some basic aspects of the latter. Would that work? Find out for yourself.

The Trouble with China. Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China, October 16, 2011. Have you ever lived in China? If you have, then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about in this short writing. If you haven't, please check it out, as it might give you an idea of how some things work down here.

America's Spoiled Child. Shishen, Guangdong Province, China, September 21, 2011. What would happen if you gave a friend of yours carte blanche in whatever it was they did? Would they overstep the boundaries of your friendship and end up embarrassing you or compromising you? Could such be the case of America's friendship with Israel? The jury on this subject is still out, but, will this always be the case? Only time may tell.

Class Warfare. Shishen, Guangdong Province, China, September 13, 2011. Will the Republican Party ever stop waging Class Warfare against the majority of the American people? Will they ever propose legislations that favor EVERY American and not just the Moneyed Class? Will they ever understand that trickle-down Reaganomics has never worked and never will? Probably not.

About this Website. Shishen, Guangdong Province, China, September 7, 2011. Can transcendental philosophies be compatible with mundane activities such as playing and recording music, taking pictures around the world, and occasionally writing about some socio-political issues? Well, would this Website exist if it weren't so?

My Response to Democrats Abroad. St. Etienne, France, August 5, 2011. Yesterday I got an email from the International Treasurer of the Democratic Party Committee Abroad requesting contributions to celebrate President Obama's 50th birthday. The email also asked for contributions for his re-election campaign next year. Here is my reply exactly as I sent it.

Intimidated. St. Etienne, France, August 2, 2011. How would it feel to be an almost absolute minority within the social and business circles in which you have to perform on a daily basis? Would it feel intimidating? How about Barack Obama? Does he feel intimidated in that sense? Maybe.

Reggae. St. Etienne, France, July 24, 2011. One small Reggae concert I attended to in my neighborhood on Friday the 22nd has meant a lot regarding the way I felt about that rhythm in the past. I now hold that rhythm in a much higher esteem than I ever did.

Identity Card. St. Etienne, France, July 16, 2011. Ever wondered what Salaroche is all about? Well, check out this writing and take a peek.

Obama Rising. Istanbul, Turkey, May 2, 2011. In our day and age, what may have been a fully valid statement one day, may be modified or may even be somewhat invalidated the next. Barak Obama certainly scored some decisive political points during this past week. Is he finally getting his groove?

The NonBeliever. Istanbul, Turkey, April 11, 2011. Tennessee Ernie Ford could easily sing "Sixteen Tons" today and it would fit the times quite well. Today more than ever America owes its soul to the few at the top. But what happened to our Redeemer in Chief?

The Constant Foreigner. Istanbul, Turkey, March 22, 2011. I didn't grow up in the country where I was born, which means that I've always been a foreigner wherever I've been, including whenever I've been back to the country where I first saw the light of day. In other words, I've been a constant foreigner all my life.

An Egyptian Lesson. Istanbul, Turkey, February 14, 2011. Has the "American Dream" been hijacked by the forces of conformism, which are fed by the often misconceived notion that just the fact of living in America is reason enough to be content and satisfied with our living conditions? Is there a lesson for Americans to learn from the recent revolutionary events in North Africa? To both those questions I say: Certainly so.

Fear of Islam? Istanbul, Turkey, February 8, 2011. Is Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood a menace to its own country and to the rest of the world? Many western people fear so. But, isnt' the Republican Party a similar menace to America and the world too? Or how about Le Front National in France? I guess our only choice is for Egypt to learn to live with its own home-grown menace as well.

No Way Out Today. Beijing, China, November 25, 2010. Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, there are no clear enemies of America in that region, just as there are no clear friends of America either. How can we expect to find true friends among the people of a culture that has no clear friends or enemies among themselves to begin with?

The Onus is not on Us. The Onus is on Islam. Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China, September 12, 2010. To anyone who may exhort Americans to follow the call of the founding fathers to “reinforce the traditions of religious pluralism” and unconditionally accept our Muslim brethren on American soil, I say, “sorry sir, but the onus on whether that is possible is not on us; the onus is on Islam”.

An Example, Clear and Loud. Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China, September 11, 2010. Once again, the western world has extended our Muslim brethren a hand of friendship and once again it has shown that the idea of religious tolerance is not just another couple of words. A good majority of western people actually live by that idea. Could the Muslim world learn anything from this? Sure they could.

Islam in New York. Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China, September 3, 2010. Is it any wonder that when a project to build an Islamic center just two blocks away from Ground Zero is announced so many people raise their voice against it? No it isn't.

The Amazing Thing. Nanning, Guangxi Province, China, July 1, 2010. Can there be anything more intellectually blinding than the effects of a perverted nationalistic indoctrination? Maybe not.

And All that Pain Just to End Up Longing to Become Capitalists? Nanning, Guangxi Province, China, April 11, 2010. The students at the University don’t talk to me about politics or ideology. They talk to me about their dreams of eventually living lives with as much comfort as possible. They talk to me in terms quite similar to those in which any western University student would talk to me.

Sino-Musicality. Nanning, Guangxi Province, China, March 9, 2010. Music is often considered the most significant expression of any culture; Chinese Music certainly attests to that. A couple of days ago I managed to record some local Chinese flute players on my recording machine at home.

A Passing Illusion. Hanoi, Vietnam, February 19, 2010. A nanofraction of a nanosecond. Do you think that would be a fair way to describe the length of our lifetimes if we were to compare them to Eternity? Hmmm... not even that.

Hey Hill, Maybe I Miss You Already. Hanoi, Vietnam, February 8, 2010. The fundamental things apply as time goes by. One year after his election, Barack’s campaign promises have turned into a… a what? A squirm? A whimper? Maybe I'm beginning to miss Hill.

The Myth of India. Hanoi, Vietnam, January 11, 2010. Everything we need to know about the four branches of Yoga is now available to everyone in the form of books, DVDs, writings on the Internet, etc. So, why would any spiritual seeker want to go to India at all?

Lunacy Reigns. Loutraki, Greece, January 6, 2010. Humanity is presently suffering from an increasingly severe case of Extremist Islamitis, a disease whose virus was generated within Islam and that now has spread to the rest of the world. Is there an antidote for it?

Hey Lady ! Any Man Near You is Your Father. Loutraki, Greece, January 3, 2010. An episode I lived last night left me thinking whether this is Greece in the times of Zorba, or Greece in the 21st Century. But maybe it's a combination of the two.

I Haven't Gone Anywhere. Loutraki, Greece, December 30, 2009. I've traveled close to 34,000 miles this year (54,400 Kms) and I've been to some 7 or 8 countries too. What does it mean?

Body Privacy or Flight Security? Loutraki, Greece. December 29, 2009. Have Airport authorities around the world decided that body privacy is preferable to flight security?

Tolerance at Gunpoint? Loutraki, Greece. December 2, 2009. Are western countries willing to throw away the achievements of centuries of painful social struggle in the name of "religious tolerance”?

Too Good to Be Good? Loutraki, Greece. November 27, 2009. The term "Carrots and Sticks" is a very well-known term in circles interested in US foreign policy. Is Barak Obama really aware of what it means?

Obama, the New Tutankhamen of the World. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. June 4th, 2009

To Dissent or not to Dissent, is that the Question? Niihama, Japan. April 26, 2009

The Continuing Israeli-Palestinian Family Feud. Sliema, Malta. January 8th, 2009

Who's Responsible for the American Car Industry's fall? Sliema, Malta. Dec, 12, 2008.

Why Don't You Want my Money? Sliema, Malta. November 14, 2008

Proud to Be an American. Sliema, Malta. November 7, 2008

The Invisible Hand finally reveals itself and speaks to the dogmatic, unbridled and irresponsible US-style Market Economy of the G.W. Bush years. Sliema, Malta. Sept. 22nd, 2008.