Tag Archives: Donald Trump

Dear America,

Would you marry someone, who has the mentality of a criminal? Someone you know to be a bully. Someone, who has been caught lying regularly. Someone, who breaks promises, agreements and laws as if they didn’t exist. Someone, who has no problem with outright blackmail or even violence, if that’s what it takes to reach the wanted results.

Would you hire such a person to work for you, or go into business with that person? Would you want someone like that as your boss or closest colleague? Would you want someone like that to befriend your children?

If you wouldn’t, why in heaven’s name would you elect a man, who fulfils all of the above criteria, your President? America, how did you let this happen?

This is just biased slander, you may say. Our President is a dealmaker, who will Make America Great Again. You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet, you might add.

Let’s take a step back. In fact, let’s go all the way back to April 4, 1949; to the day NATO was founded after World War II. The treaty itself was signed in Washington, and it has served your interests, America, from thereon. You entered the treaty because you recognised the threat posed by the Soviet Union to Western democracies. A threat that once again became evident as Russia unlawfully invaded Ukraine in 2022.

You do remember, don’t you, that Russia was the driving force of the Soviet Union and that Vladimir swore to Make Russia Great Again long before Donald entered the picture. Vladimir would love nothing more than to grab a bite of your NATO allies and preferably you too. Donald may see this as one of the many inconvenient details that he is a master at forgetting, but you shouldn’t.

It’s clear that Donald has fallen hard for Vladimir. Like attracts like. If it was only the two of them, I would wish them happy. They deserve each other. But Donald doesn’t represent only himself, he represents you too, America.

Everyone has the right to change their mind. Even in a marriage that has lasted 75 years as NATO has. But the parties still have a prenuptial agreement signed and sealed. Promises have been made, including the future aid promised to Ukraine.

Donald is now breaking your promises by the dozen. It is nauseating to watch as he withholds promised aid and intelligence support from a country that is fighting against an invader that NATO, with you in the forefront, has considered a common foe for the past 75 years.

Not to mention the way he harasses Greenland and the Danes. It is an example of bullying and greed at its purest: barely veiled threats and muscle-flexing to gain something that never belonged to you and that no one wants to give to you.

America, you have essentially elected your own Vladimir. Vladimir has invaded your thinking more successfully than he ever managed to do in Ukraine.

You may say that Russia is not something Americans should worry about anymore; it’s Europe’s problem. I disagree. Unless you are ready to give up on democracy? If so, who am I to stop you. But before you do, please ask yourself: Do I really want America to become like Russia?

Just as Vladimir has done before him, Donald is all set to extend his presidency past its present term and to remove the need for future elections. He is taking over the army, FBI and CIA as we speak; or at least making a determined effort to do so. He is making sure no one will investigate his or his friends’ doings. His “team” even ensured that bad cops are free from public scrutiny in the future. These are all facts. You can track the nominations and decisions online, if you don’t believe me.

The similarities between Donald bullying Canada financially and Vladimir attacking Ukraine physically are more than fleeting. Actually, Donald is taking it a step further; he is coveting land all the way from Greenland to Gaza.

The way he is going, he may even try to mess with the Fed, thus singlehandedly upending the world economy. Banking is based on trust. Seriously, who would dare trust a Fed guided by Donald’s capricious hand? The financial gain you seem to be focusing on is only a hairsbreadth away from turning into unimaginable losses.

I can understand that it is hard to face the facts. It is often hard to leave a spouse that treats you badly too. When bad things happen, you may tell yourself that this is just an aberration; that things will soon get better. Why would they? Does Donald look like a man ready to change? It’s time to face reality.

Is this what the Founding Fathers envisaged, when they signed the Declaration of Independence: Musk firing employees summarily, aid withdrawn without proper process, treaties and promises broken, allies bullied? Is this something they would have condoned? Were their ideals based on pure monetary gain – preferably their own?

You may say that America has paid enough. Europe has paid just as much as far as Ukraine is concerned. When one totals the military, financial and humanitarian aid given to Ukraine, the sums paid by both parties are close to equal. Assuming you are willing to use the real, documented numbers – not the ones dreamed up by Donald. The only difference is that Europe is still keeping the promises it made, while you are now breaking them.

Or maybe you just don’t care anymore? If so, that is your prerogative. I just wonder what life without trust looks like? I think you should too. Do you really want your children and grandchildren to grow up in an environment, where a criminal mentality is just fine as long as there is something to be gained financially?

America, when Ukraine finally sees peace, it will be at a cost higher than it should have been – all because of you. This became abundantly clear to the whole world, when JD and Donald bullied Zelenskyy in front of the media – demanding a thank you from him, while they were actively working with Russia against the Ukrainians’ rightful efforts to preserve their nation.

Just as they are working to get a real estate deal in Gaza. All in the name of peace.

America, it is time to update The Star-Spangled Banner. Let’s face it. You are not the “land of the free and the home of the brave” anymore. You are fast becoming the land of the greedy and the home of the bullies.

Using our power to make a difference

If you are into the concept of democracy, the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Those of us who might be in a position to make a difference, yours truly included, are too comfortable and lazy to do what it takes to safeguard democracy. Others have totally lost faith in their ability to affect political change.

Countries are up for grabs by leaders who are ruthless enough to ignore all rules as they forge on relentlessly towards absolute power.

The Russian people excel at outsourcing power. They have totally given up on the concept of making a difference. They do not see themselves as political actors. This “Putin has the power, makes the decisions, they have nothing to do with me” way of thinking allows ordinary Russians to go on with their daily lives without any concern for e.g. the war against Ukraine, the efforts to eradicate the Russian opposition and the discrimination of many minorities. According to the majority, it’s all Putin’s doing. They themselves have no say and therefore no responsibility.

Democracy is not dead in America – yet. However, unforgivably many politicians are too comfortable and too lazy to even try to make a difference although they could. The Republicans have all but outsourced their power to Donald Trump, who will grab it and twist it out of recognition. Despite this, many of them maintain that they have nothing to do with Trump’s outrageous behaviour. In addition, too many voters have lost faith in their ability to affect meaningful political change.

Will this laziness and loss of faith result in the loss of the unity, democracy and rule of law that their forefathers fought for?

Where is the EU, when all of this is taking place? It is slowly waking up to the fact that many of the world’s problems may spill over into its lap sooner rather than later. Unfortunately, EU members are no strangers to ignoring a problem until it gets out of hand. It’s the “too comfortable and lazy to react in a timely fashion” effect all over again.

At times, I feel like I am watching a political reality show that seems to be moving unstoppably towards a tragic ending.

The Chinese have always had an eye for playing the long game. I can’t help but admire the ingenuity of it, as I watch Xi Jinping meet key political players all over the world; creating expectations, hope, fear and overall confusion.

As the saying goes, when you realise you are in deep s…, don’t move. This is probably China’s goal: to ensure that as many players as possible stay put and just allow the long game to play out. By the end of the day, the rest of us will find ourselves in the position of bystanders. The force will not be with us anymore – we will have given it away.

Giving power away is not always bad. My first image above is of George Washington surrendering his resignation as wartime leader; and thereby ensuring that the country’s future leader was decided by democratic vote. Something that an increasing amount of key world leaders are keen to avoid these days.

I wish to end this blog on a positive note, so I include a few more pics from my latest trip to New York and Washington. It was a trip of farewell in many ways. However, hopefully not a farewell to the U.S. we used to know – a leading Western democracy.

This trio of pictures serves as a reminder that the angle we view things from changes the picture we see. It is also a reminder that what once was destroyed can be rebuilt with time and effort – even though it will never be the same.

My final picture is a reminder of the fact that, while man can strive towards the skies, nothing rivals the beauty of nature. The need to safeguard our environment is one more reason not to give away our power to make a difference.

My AI assistant (by courtesy of WordPress) kindly gave my feedback on this blog. It suggested that I should add some examples on how to make a positive difference. Sadly, I am still struggling with the how myself. My first step has been to admit to myself that I am part of the problem. I think we all need to find our own way from there. Where there is a will, there is always a way.

Please don’t let me be misunderstood

The futile hope expressed above is shared by many. Songs have been sung about it, most notably by Eric Burdon and the Animals in 1965.

Sadly, misunderstandings are not on a downward trend. The modern Western world, as we have come to know it, is becoming increasingly postmodern. The focus is more on values, rights, symbols and identities.

To better understand these changes, I googled my way through various “philosophy for dummies” articles and revisited some books I had read years ago.

I started with scepticism. Sceptics (too) come in many forms depending on the time and the culture. To make a long story short I will quote Wikipedia: “Philosophical sceptics are often classified in two general categories: Those who deny all possibility of knowledge, and those who advocate for the suspension of judgement due to the inadequacy of evidence.”

In theory, it could be said that Donald Trump’s former counselor Kellyanne Conway was just taking a philosophical approach to the matter, when she defended White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer’s false statement about the attendance numbers of Donald Trump’s inauguration by stating that Spicer gave alternative facts.

Along those lines, we could even argue that she took philosophy to a higher level, when she later referred multiple times to a non-existent Bowling Green massacre. In terms of ultimate scepticism: Who is to say what is existent and non-existent?

Don’t get me wrong – despite my philosophical forays, I am still a firm believer in reason and knowledge. Kellyanne Conway’s untruths are still fiction not fact.

But the more we communicate, the more evident it becomes that philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein got it right, when he argued that the logical structure of language draws a limit to meaning and thereby to the the expression of thought. To simplify in the extreme: We will always be misunderstood and misunderstand because we each think in our own, subjective way. There is no language and use thereof that everyone would understand alike. Language and the use of it is always relative.

When we combine this limitation with an increasing focus on the individual and on values, rights, symbols and identities instead of more quantifiable issues, the possibilities for misunderstanding become almost limitless.

The more we discuss things that Wittgenstein considered undiscussable due to the limits of language, the more we venture away from sense to nonsense. The issues themselves are not nonsense, but any statement about them is, if Wittgenstein is to be believed.

No wonder we tend to exist in our own, Internet-facilitated bubbles these days. As we discuss the undiscussable, it helps that we at least start off on the same page whether in terms of religion, values, rights, symbols or identities.

At this point I have to stress that in many parts of the world people are either still fighting to survive in a material sense or fighting to get themselves and their opinions heard. Postmodernism is a luxury that is not affordable to all. No wonder Western ideals seem foreign and even naive to many – not only outside the Western world, but also within it, which should not be ignored.

I myself struggle at times to buy into broadly defined, high-flying programmes for the betterment of mankind, or demands for a wide range of services to meet the individual needs of all and sundry.

I am stuck back in the modern world; bemoaning the lack of reason, knowledge, practicality and cost-efficiency, and worrying about financing.

To avoid misunderstandings – programmes that aim to contain the negative effects of climate change are a necessity, not something I would consider high-flying.

The refrain of my theme song starts off with “I’m just a soul whose intentions are good.” It seems at times that our postmodern Western world is positively drowning in good intentions.

Maybe the nature of our intentions is the only thing that truly matters in the long run? Which would lead us into the nightmare of defining good and evil.

First we would have to decide, whether to approach the matter through religion, ethics, philosophy or psychology. The mind boggles – there are so many branches and trees that is impossible to see the whole forest.

Maybe I should go with Spinoza, and define good as something we certainly know is useful to us and evil as something we certainly know hinders us from possessing anything good. Or maybe not – I can just hear Putin defending his war in Ukraine to the Russian people in terms of Spinoza.

So maybe I will just go with the idea that evil actions consist of elements related to unbalanced behaviour involving e.g. expediency, selfishness, ignorance and neglect. Good intentions would in turn consist of elements like compassion, moderation and humility.

As you can see, I am making choices. There is no absolute as far as good and evil goes. There  is my choice and your choice. Which makes it easier to understand why Finland’s and Sweden’s good intentions may not always be considered good in Turkey. Compromises have to be made.

Unless we fully understand this, there is no way for alliances to work in an increasingly postmodern world: A world in which people in their respective bubbles are boosting each others belief that their own definition of good is the right one.

To take this a full circle. Was Kellyanne Conway, and by extension Trump,  just a philosopher with good intentions? Well, pigs may farm, if Orwell is to be believed, but they have yet to fly.

But Kellyanne was onto something. In an increasingly postmodern world everything is subjective. This inevitably affects politics too.

People find it harder and harder to get down from their high moral horses, and cope with the idea that there is a whole world out there that doesn’t see things their way. The question is, where will this fragmentation lead us?

Putin probably looked at the Western world and saw the fragmentation – a weakness as far as he understood. A costly misunderstanding. He never saw the underlying strength. In a postmodern world that focuses less on the material, independence and the right to chart your own path becomes the one thing people are ready to support and defend to the extreme. It is not about countries anymore, it is about each one of us personally.

To come back to my blog title – you will probably misunderstand this blog to some extent, but I have realised that this is not necessarily a bad thing. All thoughts are equal when we discuss the undiscussable.

Flying into a rage

There I was, waiting for my connecting flight to Helsinki after a long transatlantic flight; trying to have a nap and minding my own business – until my neighbour decided to involve me in his. Continue reading →

Democracy, just for you, just on time

I wish there was a “just for you, just on time” form of democracy. There is clearly a market for one.

Democracy is a little like saving. It’s a slow process, you experience setbacks at times, and your ultimate goal may seem unreachable all too often. Continue reading →

Maybe I will, maybe I won’t

Maybe I’ll make some changes, maybe I won’t. No, that’s not me trying to gain control over my chocaholism, even though it can get out of hand. It’s Donald Trump talking about his team and his strategy going forward. Continue reading →

The alternativeFacts symbol

Donald Trump is just a few weeks into his presidency, and already he and his team have made history. Alternative facts are here to stay. No executive order was needed. The world learned by example. To commemorate this, I decided to create a symbol, the alternativeFacts symbol. Continue reading →

Bowing to fear and unreason

I have read about it, I have seen it in documentaries and movies, but I never thought I would one day be sitting in the midst of it. I am not talking about war, and the destruction it brings. I am talking about an everyday variety of Continue reading →