Olympic Scoundrels

Media coverage of the 2016 Rio Olympics turned most gleeful not from human endeavor & sportsmanship, but from tragedy and hurtfulness.

Rupert Murdoch & the other media barons, Matt Lauer & "human interest" reporters, created Olympic Gold from dredging dirt.

Top stories producing GOLD for media corporations:

Olympic Media $coundrel Gold Medalist: Ryan Lochte, USA
Pissy prima donna Lochte heroically dodges bullets in Rio, returns to the USA with a relay gold after abandoning his teammates. Sorta sorry now...

Media $coundrel Silver Medalist: Renaud Lavillenie, France
Hometown favorite Thiago da Silva clears a new Olympic pole vault record. Defending Olympic Champion Lavillenie fails to match the height, and bitterly compares his experience of crowd animosity with Nazi racism at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. 

Media $coundrel Bronze Medalist: Hope Solo, USA
The heavily-favored US women's football (soccer) team is defeated by underdog Sweden. Just after the match, disappointed US goalkeeper Hope Solo calls the joyous Swedish team "Cowards." Sweden goes on to win Olympic Silver; US women go home empty-handed. Solo's subsequent six-month suspension by US Soccer for her "cowards" comment may be linked (reasonably?) to the US women's wage discrimination lawsuit against US soccer bureaucrats -- Solo is a major litigant -- [media & assorted lawyers are sure to profit from the controversy].

We media consumers must be aware that our emotions are exposed, and we each are played by media professionals like fish on the hook, with sport reporting as with political reporting. Next event: Clinton vs. Trump
Who's the CHUMP?

Correcting Kids

A creepy case from the USA: two twelve-year old girls repeatedly stab a classmate. They believe murder will satisfy the powerful demon Slender Man (an online character), and they'll be welcomed to live in his forest castle.

The victim survived 19 stab wounds.

The state of Wisconsin is legally treating the girls as adults.

Are the girls crazier than the prosecutor?  The whole case seems sickly fictional.

Educating Fans on Olympic Ideals

In a passionate & exciting Olympic pole vault competition, underdog Thiago da Silva cleared a personal best and new Olympic record 6.03m for the Olympic Championship. Defending champion Renaud Lavillenie took silver.

It's reported that late-night fans at Rio's Olympic stadium became so partisan as to boo when Frenchman Lavillenie sought to defeat Brazilian da Silva. Fans have now been cautioned on sportsmanship.

World recordholder Lavillenie compared his treatment by the crowd to that of African-American Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, when racial superiority and eugenics were underlying arguments leading to the deportations and mass exterminations of the following dark Nazi years.

Fans should at least clap politely for all competitors.

The hard work of every athlete should be respected. Let's remember the Olympic ideals of Excellence • Friendship • Respect (link). We might be swept-up at times with partisan support; and as spectators fail to understand the challenges being overcome. Many of us have great respect & awe for the Olympic Champion, but we should also spare a thought for those who sought mightily -- and were perhaps defeated by economic handicap, sudden illness or injury, or the unfairness of political interference; areas beyond the competitive venue of physical superiority or shortcoming.

And it might also be noted that as number one & world recordholder, the great champion Lavillenie wasted no energies when he was winning in comforting his many vanquished competitors. Now the Flying Frenchman is lost in tears, with his sob story stifling the Olympic achievements of new champion da Silva. Crybaby? Graceless loser? The fuel of champions needn't be the blood of competitors. Let's thank Lavillenie for a lesson on Olympic ideals. New championships are ahead -- for the mob to apportion both sympathy & glory.

Brash when Winning: French vaulter Renaud Lavillenie   (but tears in Rio)

Coe Must Go: No Olympic Spirit

The Olympic Truce goal is worthy of our respect. Though short-lived every four years, we're encouraged to rise above national squabbles and bloodshed.

Ill-conceived Olympic bans & boycotts have been part of world affairs for millennia. The ancient Games are poorly documented, but we find continuing work to impose TRUCE by those with higher vision than the typical "rip the throats out of those goddamn foreign scum."

Sadly, the UK's Lord Coe is a big part of the problem. He and the IAAF Council banned all 68 Russian track & field athletes without data on individual guilt (one Russian woman based in the USA was reinstated on special appeal). Blaming innocent athletes for the crimes of their government bureaucracy was a political decision seriously tarnishing Rio 2016. It diminishes the competition & the medals awarded at these Olympic Games.

As President of the IAAF, Coe has an important & overriding obligation to protect innocent athletes from discrimination. Failing miserably, Coe did not raise his voice against collective punishment -- Sebastian Coe should resign in disgrace.

Throughout 2016, as specially required by the International Association of Athletics Federations, each athlete candidate to the Russian National Team has had to submit to both Russian and international anti-doping controls. But then the IAAF banned all Russian athletes. Surely some IAAF method could have been arranged to ensure athlete integrity (six months in a neutral nation training camp?) -- but bureaucratic & political squabbles sacrificed the athletes. The world is treated to a scandalous tabloid tale of a "mouse hole" at a Sochi Winter Olympics anti-doping centre that purportedly happened years ago and has little relevance to track & field. Anti-Russian media meanwhile condemns that nation for its territorial battles with the Ukraine. Consider the evidence of state-sponsored bribery to secure the Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, London and Tokyo Olympic Games -- that doesn't mean every athlete is dirty. Coe & Co. poor choice of a politicized blanket ban caused great harm, extending to the European Junior Championships and Paralympics. The UK's Lord Coe is a self-aggrandizing political operative lacking respect for the Olympics.

Political boycotts and blanket collective bans harm competition. One of the charming points of Olympic competition is when an underdog suddenly excels and wins. Pompous Sebastian Coe personally owes much to political interference with the Olympic Games. His own Olympic medals were won in 1980 and 1984 -- both competitions severely & artificially limited by boycott. Improve judging & anti-doping monitors. Let's encourage the widest possible competition and support the glories of Olympic achievement.

Let's similarly heed Roerich Pact efforts, where the Banner of Peace should protect our global cultural heritage (also Hague Convention of 1954). Sadly, Taliban atrocities in Bamiyan (Afghanistan), along with Bush/Blair bombing of world heritage sites in Iraq, Syria & Libya, show we've yet a very long way to go before achieving minimal levels of civilized interaction.

Olympic Hijacking

The world of sports, athletes and spectators, has been sabotaged by political interference with the Olympic Games.

Athletes from Russia have been impeded. Track & field (athletics) competitors from Russia have been totally banned from the Rio 2016 Olympics.  The USA, the UK, and their allies are punishing the Russian Federation, the world's largest nation, for political & military involvement in the Crimea.

But this forced ban on Russian athletes cheapens the medals being awarded. Each Olympic Champion may have been defeated if competition were truly open. Each medal is diminished by an asterisk noting some competitors were excluded.

Arguing Russia's being banned for widespread doping is bogus: catch the cheaters, but clean athletes must compete. Ground zero for cheating scum dopers is the USA: Lance Armstrong, the BALCO scandal, the disqualified Marion Jones, etc. Fastest American Justin Gatlin has been caught and penalized at least twice for doping...

The Olympics are supposed to rise above politics for a brief period every four years. We've cheated the organizers in Brazil by allowing these Olympic Games to be tarnished. Leaders and spectators should share sadness with athletes and shortchanged competition.

Devils You Know?

Progressives are disgusted with the major party "choices" for U.S. President. We've learned that from the start, the fix was in to select corporatist pro-TPP Hillary Clinton as nominee for Democrats.

But the shit continues. At this instant, I'd need to lookup the name of her running mate (from Indiana). Why'd she choose such a feeb for veep?

Because American people today will eat shit and say it tastes Great!
USA NUMBER ONE
God Bless Us.

Fora Temer

The unelected acting president of Brazil, authoritarian Michel Temer, is only in power thanks to a political coup d'etat, where elected President Rousseff was deposed by judicial machinations. No doubt big money from outside Brazil helped destabilize the government.

Cries of "Fora Temer" are heard throughout Olympic venues. Temer OUT!

MARUTA : Dead Bodies in Japan

Nineteen bodies were found 26th July in Sagamihara, Japan.

Satoshi Uematsu (植松 聖), a 26-year old Japanese male, surrendered himself to police. Weeks before, he'd warned authorities he wanted to provide euthanasia 「安楽死」 to the physically or mentally weak. The 19 dead, and 26 others wounded, were attacked around 2:30AM as they slept in a publicly-managed group home for disabled people.

Japanese police describe the incident as mass murder. But they've not named any murder victims.

Handicapped people often are treated as less-than-human in Japan. Many families wish to hide any relationship to mental illness or having a family member who is in any way crippled. The existence of such people is often a closely-guarded secret.

By refusing to provide human names for the victims, we're reminded of Japan's callousness during WWII, when deadly human experimentation on Imperial Japanese Army prisoners used the euphemism "maruta" ("logs") to describe human victims. The cruel medical experiments, notably by Unit 731 and Surgeon General Shiro Ishii around Harbin, used Chinese & Allied prisoners-of-war and Russian captives to test biological and chemical agents useful as potential weapons for Japan. (After the war, the American government provided war crimes immunity in exchange for key data). Nazi SS Dr. Josef Mengele's human experiments are thus far better known than the vivisection practiced by Japan and the accompanying murders of those surviving first round experimentation. So cruel and callous!

In fact, most people in Japan still insist on labeling mixed-parentage children (where only one parent is Japanese) as "half" ハーフ... Could a crazy kill a dozen and be charged for six or less? Focus on 混血 is unhealthy -- we should teach to appreciate individual positive dimensions, and not systematically handicap based on differences.

MARUTA attitudes still survive today...

Doping Headquarters: USA

Global sport's most famous doper is American Lance Armstrong. He's admitted to continuous doping as a world-class cyclist, and around the world he's now been stripped of seven Tour de France titles, lost his Sportsman of the Year honors, had the French Légion d'honneur taken away, etc. Armstrong's use of banned and illegal performance-enhancing drugs, and his admitted lies, are a stain on the USA.

As the USA now criticizes largely unknown Russian doping sportspeople, and rejoices in efforts to ban all Russians from the Olympics (unsuccessful effort) and Paralympics, it is good to recognize the minimal penalties levied on wealthy high-profile American cheating sportsman Lance "THE SCUM" Armstrong:
1) number of criminal charges: 0
2) days spent under arrest:  0
3) days spent in prison: 0

Meanwhile, it was totally unfair that a week before the Olympics, many blameless Russian competitors still didn't know if they'd be allowed to compete. Partisan Murdoch press & anti-Russian elements generated a witch hunt, trying to condemn people who'd been tested repeatedly without incident, and who'd competed fairly. Never forget: the admitted King of Doping Conspiracies is Lance Armstrong, representing the USA.
America = the world's number one doping enabler.

Perpetual Economy Class

Perpetual economy class life gets more grim & hopeless... 

We cannot & should not pretend all is well. Call it armed robbery or rape? The US national election conspiracy is a crime crippling our children & our communities. Funding global militarism, and domestic police militarization, has crippled the USA. It allows the 1% to sip champagne and laugh at us.

For a large group of American proles, even economy class is a distant dream. Corporate media pits American impoverished to fight each other. But one day each person recognizes: I'm poor as shit in a Land of Plenty.

One sudden accident away from homeless? 
You've been cheated.
CHUMP 

Goldmangate Returns

Corporate media is muddying the waters around the US election. Ludicrous reports of opinion polls suggest that over the weekend Clinton "extended her lead" over Trump: but three months remain before the election; with sensationalist media's bootprint, anything can change in a day or two.

Clinton is clearly a friend of the corporations, and her Goldmangate speaking engagements are likely to haunt her. Goldman-Sachs repeatedly raped the American people during the Bush regime, and belatedly agreed to pay a US$5 billion penalty (though much is a tax-deductible business expense; link).

Hillary Clinton knows how to kiss-up to big money, and her $225,000 breakfast speeches were surely designed to get her invited back again.

Nonetheless, if and when the contents of Clinton's brown-nosing are disclosed, Goldmangate could torpedo Hillary's chances for the US Presidency.

If people become strongly against her, they ignore the defects & shortcomings in the other fool.

Even The New York Times is highly critical of Mrs. Clinton's US$11 million income from the still-secret speeches. "An accountable and transparent White House" remains unlikely. 

"Barry the Blade" Obama

US President Barack Obama is lauded by his supporters for greatly improving the USA and its economy, using data measured from the collapse of the Bush regime.

That collusive disaster was orchestrated by Republicans, but where major Democrats (such as Sen. Hillary Clinton) fed lavishly to gain nourishment & resources. Obama himself sadly leaves a soiled legacy.

Obama's "successes" are largely built on sand: the national infrastructure is eroding, huge funds continue to pour uselessly into overseas militarism & so-called defense, while the American people have become progressively more brutal and hopeless.

Emperor Obama has given corporations precedence over citizens, letting the interests of big capital discuss & compose the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership) in government-protected secrecy. That agreement would further severely limit the USA and other democracies from controlling our own futures. Bad bad bad.

Uncovering the secret operations of US democracy has been horrible. Obama and his government coverup murder, mayhem, torture, illegal spying, and improper collaboration with foreign intelligence services, while whistle-blowers try to shine light on American corruption.

These people helping our citizenry were systematically crushed. Responsibility lies at the elegantly-shod feet of Barry Obama.

Obama can issue presidential clemency & pardons to people who've fought against the Dark Side, (including):
Ed Snowden
Chelsea Manning
Julian Assange

Obama can still rescue a positive legacy... Pardon the People's Heroes.

Snowden, Manning, Assange: Presidential Pardons Please.

Land of the Small

Just returned from visiting Japan, a nation always interesting...

Due to aging, this trip was slightly uncomfortable. In terms of my personal aging, I'm physically not as flexible as in past decades as I creep near toward retirement age. Japan is built for people six inches (15-cm) or more shorter. The population is narrower and lighter. Buses, chairs, etc. are designed for an average Japanese adult, plus or minus very little. Japanese buses and airplanes manage to add an extra row or two compared to designs aimed at Europe or North America. If you visit Japan, you'll soon see & feel what I mean...

The second point of aging is Japan's infrastructure & cityscape. In the late 1970s when I first visited Japan, much of the infrastructure looked new. Bridges, highway guardrails, overpasses, etc. seemed clean or maybe dusty. Now much of every city is streaked or ridden with rust and clearly deteriorating. Factory areas have suffered as production moved abroad: buildings are often underutilized or derelict. Slow depopulation of rural areas, along with mercantile difficulties, left dismal & darkened shopping areas, with shuttered shops and a general depressing atmosphere.

There are surely dynamic areas and thriving neighborhoods throughout Japan. Exciting & different experiences can be encountered everywhere. People are very kind, usually quite curious, and ultimately friendly. But there's a layer of grime over much of the declining Japanese nation...

Electing Your Prison Warden

"Choice" between voting for Clinton or Trump is disgusting.

Each clearly represents Big Business & mega-corporations. Each has vowed to be a servant of Zionism.

Electing Clinton or Trump will continue America's wasteful militarism around the globe. For the past 50 years, both major parties have wastefully poured America's resources into weapons of death & destruction, preferring not to invest in people & American communities.

The U.S. Federal system is now broken beyond repair. We must plan & prepare for disintegration.

We watched the collapse of the often-cruel Soviet Union machine. Because of gross mismanagement, the USA is overdue to collapse. Prepare now to weather the coming storm & assorted plagues.

Drift to the Dark Side

...
Each major candidate is from The Dark Side ...
...

Talking Turkey

A key aftereffect of Turkish insurrection might be a shift in Turkey's support of NATO operations across Europe. Turkey's been a staging area & military base for NATO / US strike forces on Syria & elsewhere.

We occupy bases around the world, at great cost. Could it happen the bossy USA pulls the plug on NATO, and let Europe defend itself? Labeling American occupation forces "NATO troops" fools no one.

Might the tens of thousands of US military forces leave Europe for the first time since WWII?  Probably not immediately, but surely the day will come when American voters and ultimately the leadership realizes the heavy costs far outweigh any benefits to the USA.

Big Bite in Turkey

The attempted coup in Turkey was triggered by the USA.
Militarist funds flows from the USA destabilize the world.
Funding foreign militaries is by definition political interference.

The plotters against President Erdoğan have watched US-backed anti-democratic "rebellions" in Egypt (against President Morsi), Honduras (against President Zelaya), Haiti (against President Aristide) and elsewhere. US military aid & "friendly relations" flow generously as democracy is subverted & crushed. Now in these dark lands, Government-directed death squads control the streets. The fresh US-backed dictator grins wickedly at news cameras and poses with the US President & top US officials.

The message clearly sent by the Obama government (and those of his predecessors) to America's hireling fascist dictators is dark, dirty, and powerful.

No BJ for Britain

Bumbling Boris Johnson played with fire, and burned his fingers.
Then Boris Johnson ran away.

Naughty Boris Johnson!

 

UPDATE: Boris Johnson will serve the Queen's government as UK Foreign Secretary. Bravo to the World.
God Bless Us Every One!

Racist Hate

When my parents married in Massachusetts in 1956, they were legally prohibited to marry or cohabit in 14 states -- so of the then 48 American states, they'd be criminals in 29% (my mom is mixed race, Hawaiian / Caucasian / Chinese, my dad is Caucasian). Their marriage lasted 58 years to my Dad's death.

If my mother were Negro, they were barred marriage in a further 11 states (25 total, or the majority of the then 48 states).

Such laws are gone. Most admit the USA ain't perfect, but we're nearer to ruined, economically & morally. We fund belligerent militarism around the world (via deficit spending). We've many millions of impoverished & underemployed Americans, and our dog-eat-dog democracy cultivates abiding hates & racism. Mass media and consumerism are enemies. Our ruling elite pays little heed ...
Not good at all. 
Grade: D

Eating Sand

Nobody wants to die needlessly or foolishly.

"War Hero" families help cultivate myths of justified butchery.

But nobody wants to DIE EATING SAND.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and US President George W. Bush, were officially exposed as war criminals today: 6 July 2016, in Sir John Chilcot's report of The Iraq Inquiry.

Bush, Blair & cronies tried mightily to mislead the world from the earliest stages of planning the war in Iraq, tossing sand in our eyes when they themselves were dirty. Remember the Powell deception? (link and transcript) All was widely reported at that time, but many poor suckers did not understand -- and were sent away to die. Rest in Peace if possible.

Among the many voices against the war in early 2003, the UK Leader of the House of Commons, MP Robin Cook, was perhaps most explicit. But his warnings went unheeded, and hundreds of thousands of people have died...

Here's (mp3) Cook's highly-remarkable speech in the House of Commons:
Robin Cook resigns over Iraq attack plan 2003-03-17.mp3

and a transcript:
Robin Cook resigns in order to vote against war on Iraq

Cook warned against unilateralism, bullying and wielding war in doubtful circumstances. But the munitions boys & militarists pushed us into a criminal WAR

NATO Brexit?

A majority in the UK wants to avoid supernational entanglements. Will the new UK Prime Minister be leading the nation out of both the EU & also out of NATO?

What impact will Brexit impose on the NATO alliance?
Should NATO overall be shutdown?

A prominent voice in the Boston Globe claims NATO contributes to instability as an anti-Russian behemoth pushing military solutions, when creative diplomacy is needed. America is urged by anti-interventionist author Stephen Kinzer to step back from NATO, cutoff its nearly 75% of total funding, and let Europeans develop their own security systems. America & its Western allies are being groomed to hate a preselected next enemy.

Could the disengagement process lead to curtailing the close intelligence cooperation amongst America's allies?

Will the symbiosis of the USA & its closest ally Israel bring aboard a diminished UK with less European leverage?

And for the United Nations Security Council, the UK's been gifted an unelected ("Permanent") seat with veto opportunity. Keeping representative staff in expensive New York City costs dearly, and such UNSC membership is clearly undemocratic. Perhaps UK withdrawal from the UNSC lies ahead?

Those outside can only say, "God Cheer & Tally Ho!"

REMAIN?

Belligerent Britain is eager to LEAVE
But the costs will be greater than most can conceive:
We'll need new munitions and rockets and tanks
And young cannon fodder to people the ranks.

Throwing mud, hateful whingeing
Hurts the Brits overseas
Do we want ethnic cleansing?
Xenophobe policies?

Must our live-abroad brethren
File home? (Make some room!)
Liquidating their casa
For the Olde English gloom?

The rich will grow Richer
And the poor will eat shit
Lady Swell will still party
While we proles must submit.

Blame our own megawealthy
Who will keep us in chains
As the dear House of Windsor
Will still swill their champagnes.

(poem)
REMAIN?
by  Genki

Understanding Bondage

Some people heartily feel America the beautiful is the Greatest Nation on Earth, and God smiles on her prosperity and the American people.

Others feel we live in a shithole of deeply corrupt systems, with a population willfully ignorant of damages we impose on the environment and the wider world.

Happily I'm somewhere in-between.

But it is important to understand major trends & faults in our society, or risk being damaged. Thus please read these disturbing analyses of what's wrong with the USA today, which provide actionable advice:

"Thank You for Standing Up"  by Chris Hedges

"Voting will not alter the corporate systems of power. Voting is an act of political theater. Voting in the United States is as futile and sterile as in the elections I covered as a reporter in dictatorships like Syria, Iran and Iraq." (written in January 2012)

"Con vs. Con"  by Chris Hedges
"The repeated argument of the necessity of supporting the “least worse” makes things worse... build alternative movements and parties to bring down corporate power or continue to watch our democracy atrophy into a police state and our ecosystem unravel... If you want to see what America will look like soon, across the country, shift your focus from the convention halls to the streets in Cleveland and Philadelphia. It is in the streets that our corporate masters will win or lose."

"A Debasing Spectacle: Behind and Beyond the Latest Quadrennial Carnival"  by Paul Street
"The quadrennial electoral extravaganza is no place to go looking for justice...  
Let’s mourn and organize."

One Man, Acting Alone?

The brutal murder of Jo Cox is a multi-dimensional outrage & horror.

As the UK seemed to lurch toward ethnic cleansing, the public murder of a young mother by a disaffected loner (?) may have shifted the tide of public opinion.

The accused killer has been announced as Thomas Mair, though in court he claimed his name to be "Death to Traitors - Freedom for Britain" ... Did his Mum ever called him that? We may never know, but the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. We're told Tommy "appears to have links to far-right groups" and also that there is great political importance in how the story is reported (The Washington Post).

I'm a supporter of the EU, and for Britain to remain. I'm wholly against targeted killings and violence.

Jo Cox may be a rallying focus against an extreme element of society who'd sacrifice anyone or all. But the story within hours was being twisted in various ways. Corporate media spin and greater forces in society were harvesting benefits from the young mum's still-warm corpse.

For example, many media sources published "news" released from the USA about extremist book purchases allegedly made the perpetrator 17 years ago (BBC link). How can a packing slip from 1999 be produced in a matter of hours "proving" the perpetrator's dark thinking? One answer is that public attention span is very short, and the Brexit vote deadline near, so the proofs needed to be generated quickly. Voilà! ? How & why could a private civil rights group in the USA have such information & evidence? Surely extremist publishers & booksellers don't share their data so easily...

Look into the inconsistencies (link) and it's easy to find explanations, but these arguments are dark as the murder, and the multiple forces of law and good and evil all become grey and difficult to discern. So much easier just to cluck at feel sad about the tragedy. Is that truly our democracy in action?

NewRepublics?

GuestAPO USA

Always Outmaneuvered!

 

Protection Against Controllers

As Britain debates potential exit from the European Union, it's useful to consider who wins.

The idea that local people will be empowered by relying on corrupt national-level stooges is ridiculous It's still mega-government. Most people are -- sorry to be brutal -- enslaved as sheep.

The fight is truly over checks-and-balances. Who will be the bosses? and how much freedom will the corrupt elite have to suppress us? National-level "elite leaders" are actually forced to maintain minimal standards by organizations such as the EU and UN.

External enemies include huge foreign systems, including corporate systems. The European Union has many safeguards for human rights. Great EU efforts against monopolization and corruption have levied very large multi-billion euro fines on sneaky dirty corporations. These are functions national entities can only mobilize with great difficulty.

Our enemies are global & well-funded.

American Tyranny - 4 more years?

American Tyranny is scheduled to continue another four to eight years - at least.

If you don't like the way government & megawealthy corporate cronies intrude at your cost into your home & personal life, too bad. Americans are electing people who help the rich, and who help themselves. There's shit left for you.























"Just four more years" before potential reform again becomes possible? The answer's NO. Is it really possible now via voting?  no.

America was bled by the Bush-Cheney regime, and Halliburton-Blackwater milked us dry. But then Obama and the Upper Class gave huge public funds to their rich & powerful 1% friends to maintain controls over housing, the markets and over our lives.

Repression becomes stronger. "The Obama government of Hope" built-up a spying & reconnaissance infrastructure attached to every phone & computer, continued assorted wars & destabilization, and generated enemies by escalating poorly-targeted assassinations (including American citizens abroad).

Clearly the ballot box offers no salvation -- the system's perpetually corrupt. (In the Democratic California primary, millions of ballots remain uncounted three days later). The little we have is being rudely taken -- even illusions of fairness, justice, hope...

Life don't run forever. Fattened by cheap cuts of meat & greasy sweets, Americans are beginning to wake up angry.

Brexit Opportunity

I don't think the UK should withdraw from the European Union. Boris Johnson (BoJo & co.) irresponsibly counsel for Brexit - my fellow Balliol man's become a driver of dumfux...

Painting neighbors as enemies and becoming more insular is shortsighted -- a favorable scenario only for arms dealers and right-wing extremists.

On the positive side, one group's loss is another's gain.

Sad for Brits with vacation homes on the continent - When many sell & flee, prices will fall. Good for the rest of us hoping for a bargain, but overall a loss to better human understanding.