The worst President the USA has ever had!

Donald Trump was confirmed as the new “elected President of the United States”, having defeated the former First Lady, Hillary Clinton, in a most vulgar, dishonest, and degrading election campaign the United States has ever witnessed. Countless times in his crummy campaigning, and with noted irony, Trump had the temerity to label his opponent as “crooked”.

 

The swindling, tax-evading, Twitter crazed, Donald Trump deprived millions of their savings and cheated banks out of further billions with his dozens of declarations of bankruptcy. It required a female judge to uncover his sham, the so-called Trump University, but even so, he has not paid a single penny in federal income tax and continues to withhold public information, no doubt until such time as he is able to enact regulations that will enable him to keep his dubious finances a secret as an executive privilege.

 

I felt physically ill as I watched the ignorant majority of Americans falling for Trump as the Germans had fallen for Hitler. How the German industrialists took Hitler’s side and fed him the initial funds for his election in 1933, pushed through by his foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, and how Joseph Goebbels, intellectually schooled by the Catholic Order of Jesuits, built the propaganda machine that would sway so many felt like memories of yesterday.

 

The male members of my aristocratic family served as officers in German royal regiments. My elder brother and cousin served as pilots in the Luftwaffe, and while they were shot down in action, I, myself, was spared participation in any combative missions as a fighter pilot, and thereby, I unwittingly survived World War II. In the 1950s, I came to Canada, and now my eldest son is a scientist living in the U.S., giving me more than one reason to hope to be able to count on the USA to guard humanity from a nuclear war which could annihilate the entire human population. The USA, in one way or another, is the most powerful nation in the world and must be given some credit for having so far prevented, albeit precariously, that war which could mean the end of a habitable globe.

 

The United Nations, as a replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, was established on October 24, 1945, at the end of World War II, with the express vision of preventing another such conflict. At its founding, the UN had collected 51 member states, a number which has since grown to 193, but despite its declaration of “eternal peace”, not one day has gone by since that time on which humanity could claim to have achieved universal peace on Earth.

 

Since time immemorial, men, with their God-given energy and strength, have failed to protect and promote generations of people, while the women of the world have given birth to and nourished them, ensuring the perpetuation of a human population that they have mourned with sorrow. Generations have been slaughtered because these women were never given the power to protect their own offspring. Clearly, a new Reformation of humanity is necessary to give rise to a world in which women may have their equal voice and faculty to negotiate terms of peace with justice and fairness at the forefront of every dispute’s resolution.

 

Barack Obama, the first black President of the United States, whose agenda was constantly sabotaged by a Congress dominated by the opposition, but who nevertheless served two full and exhausting four-year terms, maintained his energy to steadfastly produce conciliatory negotiated solutions resulting in peaceful compromises. He left the enemies to live for another day, but paved the way for the great opportunity for the first female President to take over the reins and lead us into a new world order as Germany did with Chancellor Angela Merkel, who by the way was Time Magazine’s 2015 Person of the Year. Obama might have justifiably thought his achievements would be carried on and that Americans would be ready to have a woman rule their nation with peace and harmony, however, he might also have suspected, from experience, that an alternate turn of events would be just as possible. And so it was.

 

 By chance, I recently saw an interview with two formidable women, Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama, who exemplify that women could have the power to “make America great again”. Having celebrated my 91^st birthday, I may not live to see the dawn of a bright light succeed in America, but I am reassured by these ladies and my spirit is lifted, giving me the energy I need to fulfill my purpose with the writing of my philosophy on helping abused women to lead normal lives and the empowerment of women to reach and break the now famous Glass Ceiling coined by Hilary Clinton.

The Holy Qur’an, A Birthday Gift

For my 90th birthday, my wish was to acquire an English, large print edition of the Qur’an. I wanted to finally read it in its entirety as I felt this would enable me to make a more educated contribution to the necessary and imminent reformation of Islam, a reformation that will eliminate the hostile interpretation of this holy book that has resulted in sanctions of barbaric behaviours and discrimination against women.

I have only just read the introductory chapters, “How to Approach the Qur’an”, followed by “A Brief Look at the Life of Muhammad”, an historical account of the prophet’s activities. The latter chapter ends with the story of Barakah, Muhammad’s nursemaid who, by then over seventy years old, visited his grave every day to cry softly. Once asked why, she replied, “By God, I knew that the Messenger of God would die, but I cry now because the revelation from on high has come to an end for us.”

Painting of Mohammad

And how right she was. What a mess the Muslims have made of the “revelation”, twisting it into various misrepresentations of radicalism and hatred. These days, the two primary Muslim sects are on a constant war path. The Saudi Arabian Sunnis have enraged the Iranians with their execution of the Shiite cleric, Sheik Nimr al-Nimr, precipitating the burning of the Saudi embassy in Tehran, and in turn, the order for all Iranian diplomats to evacuate Saudi territory within 48 hours. This stunning state of affairs has left the United Nations and Western powers at a loss. How might it be possible to prevent an armed conflict between the two largest Islamic religious communities in the world?

Fighting in Mosul

Hostilities have escalated frighteningly in both countries, further distressing the majority population of restless young adults who have been enlightened by the exposure to different cultural choices thanks to the Internet. Young Arabians are bombarded with everyday barbaric news from the Islamic State, but are also attuned to the liberal views of the democratic West, leaving them in a position to question, to choose, as they become more and more disenchanted with the status quo of their lives and mistrustful of the men who have not learned a single lesson from history, that absolute power cannot survive for thousands of years, such as Hitler had assumed. The princely rulers of Saudi Arabia have not learned that the “divine rights of kings” came to an end with the French Revolution in 1799 which overthrew their monarchy, established a republic, experienced violent periods of political turmoil, and finally culminated in Napoleon’s reign of dictatorship until he, too, was deposed as all dictators have been or will be.

French Revolution

Only reasonable, kind minds may prevent the disintegration of humanity in Islam. The new reformation can only become a bloody massacre, nothing more, in the absence of a new Enlightenment which would elevate women to an equal status of power, which would cultivate a peaceful coexistence between nations, and which would eradicate the perpetual uprising of brotherhoods spurred on by corrupt and hungry demagogues.

Muslim Women Give the Voting Finger

Let the United Nations intervene to stop the escalation of violence, to invite all factions of Muslim sects, as well as observers of other religions, to listen to women, to theologians, those who have the heart and the sanity to enlighten mankind. Let those who sit on high come to the realization that bloodshed will not serve in the defense of their beliefs, but rather, they might alter their stance to achieve universal peace through a tolerance of diversity.

Looking Back on a Century (1914 – 2014)

What went wrong?

History teaches us to look back and consider what might have been done better. In the nineteenth century, with the Industrial Revolution, international commerce was flourishing, the British Empire was spanning the globe, and territories were ruled by emperors and kings who could all relate to each other. But it all fell apart with the First World War. At its end, the victors created a flawed peace treaty in Versailles, one of the most important and controversial conditions of which required ‘Germany to accept the responsibility for causing all loss and damage’ during the war. The punitive figure, roughly the equivalent of US $442 billion, was excessive and counter-productive, and Germany’s inability to pay the fine led to a decision of an indefinite postponement of reparations due at the Lausanne Conference of 1932.

The decision came too late. The vanquished state of Germany came under the spell of the radical movement of the Nazi party. Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and immediately proceeded to eliminate all political opposition and to consolidate Germany’s heads-of-power titles to one; Hitler became sole dictator and supreme leader of Germany, legitimized by national referendum in 1934.

On the other hand, facilitated by Germany, the Russian Communist Revolution took place in 1917, removing Russia from the war and transforming the Russian state into the world’s first Communist dictatorship, displacing its traditional monarchical system. Following Vladimir Lenin in the mid 1920s, Joseph Stalin became the most brutal dictator in human history.

Nevertheless, after Hitler unleashed his power, starting the Second World War in 1939 against Poland, followed by the invasion of France, and an attempt to defeat England in the Battle of Britain, his invasion of Russia was the beginning of his end. Russia prevailed, with massive military aid from the Allied countries, only to later face its former allies in a Cold War and with the threat of nuclear arms.

The war-weary European nations had but one chance; not to repeat the blunder of Versailles, but to rebuild all of Europe, including Germany and its allies. It was the great General, who later became U.S. Secretary of State, George C. Marshall, who had the wisdom and compassion to commit the United States of America to his plan as outlined in a speech he delivered at Harvard University in June 1947. Marshall said, “It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace.” As Secretary of State, Marshall devoted the United States to the development of a recovery plan for all of Europe, including its own former enemies, the Marshall Plan, for which he would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The German people, appreciating the chance, dug themselves out of the rubble and diligently made the best use they could of the Marshall plan to bring about a Wirtschafts Wunder, an economic miracle.

 

Now, fast forward to after we have weathered the Cold War with Russia, when the threat of annihilation by their atomic bomb has been peacefully resolved. The Russian leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, in a series of summit talks with President Ronald Reagan between 1985 and 1988, improved relations with the U.S. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) arms limitation treaty was signed in 1987, and by 1989,

Gorbachev had sanctioned the end of the Communist monopoly on political power in Eastern Europe. For his contributions to the reduction of East-West political tension, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

In the meantime, the Middle East became embroiled in a war, instigated by the dictator of Iraq with the invasion of Kuwait. In March 2003, U.S. forces invaded Iraq, vowing to destroy their weapons of mass destruction and end the dictatorial rule of Saddam Hussein. Hussein was captured, tried and hanged, and democratic elections followed. In the years since, there have been over 4,700 deaths of U.S. and allied troops, and more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed.

The withdrawal of U.S. troops left Iraq in its traditional condition of tribal dispute. Instead of the necessary pacification between the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, animosities flared into a chaotic aftermath. The formerly oppressed Shiites took revenge on the Sunnis, who in turn made the uprisings of the barbaric Islamic state and ISIS possible, to spread anarchy in Iraq and Syria with no end in sight.

The disturbing events in January 2015, brought about the realization that the threat of another world war by Islamic terrorists, with infiltration of suicide bombers, is impossible to defeat with conventional armies. It needs a new mindset, a new Enlightenment, with a universal peace mission, designed and instigated with foreign aid, to rebuild with economic aid, as well as the effort of moderate Islamic communities, to bridge the divides of various tribes.

The American Divide: Hawks and Doves

This concerns the great indignation of Eric Thomas Bolling, a conservative American television personality who specializes in financial news and political commentary. He is the co-host of Fox News Channel’s early evening talk show, The Five.

Bolling objected to President Obama’s comments in an earlier White House Prayer Breakfast Speech, wherein the President compared the current Islāmic uprising in the Middle East, radical Muslim jihadists killing innocents in the name of Allah, to Christians of nearly a thousand years past. Bolling went on to reveal his twisted knowledge of history: “And yet when you take Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, whatever, their combined killings in the name of religion – well, that would be zero.”

Bolling’s ignorance is appalling. Christians fought a thirty-year war in Europe, mainly in present-day Germany, between the years of 1618 and 1648 which killed 20% of its population in a mass slaughter which was not to be equaled until World War II. The Holy Inquisition, the darkest side of Christian history which started in 1478 and raged on for a period of 300 years, is still called the foulest crime and deepest shame of Western civilization. An estimated four million women were killed in witch hunts, burned at the stake or drowned in caged baskets, convicted of being temptresses of men.

Let me tell you, the United States, the most powerful nation on Earth, is not always appreciated for its lack of diplomacy. There have been enough blunders made by hawks which could not be righted by doves. And at home, democratic culture has not been supported regularly. The USA had its slavery, its KKK movements, and today, a creeping culture of university campus sexual assaults and gang rape.

Before I turn this into a long-winded rant, I’ve attached the news reports and let you be the judge. Paralyzing stupidity?

BOLLING: President Obama, Christians, and ISIS: Wake Up America

‘America Is Not Broken’: Bolling Tells Obama, Progressives to Back Off:

 

In Need of Reformation

 

Wake-up calls and drastic measures are sorely needed to move humanity towards the realization that something has to change. Consider the recent events in Paris, the unchecked assassination of an entire newspaper staff and the murder of Jews in a kosher supermarket by three men under the influence of outdated religious laws who had been outraged by the blasphemous publications mocking their revered prophet, Muhammad. These are the heroic acts they paid for with their lives. These are the signals of guerilla warfare in the making which will put fear in the hearts of millions of people who have nothing to do with that kind of religious justification. These types of actions demand renewed efforts of intelligent defense, as well as aggressive new military strategies, but counter-maneuvers will not change the animosity of barbaric cultures.

The President of the United States has simply stated that current policies with Cuba are not working. The 50-year cold war has only produced hardship and suffering for families with members split between the two countries, unable to communicate with each other. The new policy isn’t just replacing the old one, and no matter what the righteous argument may be, such as claiming the rewarding of dictators in Cuba, it takes a significate step towards a new Reformation. There are two vital elements present: a) diplomatic talks instead of armed threats; and b) the leading negotiator is a woman, Roberta Jacobson, Assistant Secretary of State, the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America.

The displacement of Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussain, in 2006, did nothing to solve the Middle East conflict, billions of U.S. dollars having been wasted. The Middle East’s Jihadist terrorist hostilities against Europe and the Americas is on the rise and steadily scoring victories of propaganda. Watching the news on CNN, I was not impressed with the photo-shoot of European leaders in a marching column of solidarity, but with the passionate pleading of Muslim women that these assassins are not what their religion is all about.

Weapons will not change human attitudes; religious tribalism needs to be reformed. Take the Catholic Church, once a political powerhouse within Christianity which was reformed by a war which extended from 1517 until 1648, over 130 years.

Islam has one particular problem. Their infallible Prophet Muhammad had two periods in his life, one saintly and the other devilish, the latter in which he was afflicted with the sickness of epilepsy. If Muslim communities in Europe and America accept their Quran as written in the first period, and discard the belligerent and antisocial later addition, Islam could be reformed by a peaceful movement to the benefit of humanity as a whole.

That, of course, would require a spiritual and political intervention, an intervention by women, with words and love, where men have failed.