This painting by Edouard Manet is so intriguing. Where is the gentleman looking at the young woman?
However, this picture fits my topic. This post was written yesterday and it is about Covid-19. It’s incredible, but Covid remains a major threat. Yesterday, there were 2,641 new cases in the province of Quebec, revealing that some people celebrated Christmas and the New Year. One couldn’t. However, there was no demonstration against sanitary measures. Somehow, that is not the sort of thing Canadians do.
I pity the people of Washington, DC. There was a huge pro-Trump rally, which means that a thousand or thousands of people were infected. I believe they wanted life to be normal, which has been Mr. Trump’s attitude. Life is not normal and the pandemic will not end if strong measures are not taken. We must accept that there is a pandemic and stay safe. What choice do we have? I’m glad I live in Canada.
Despite the new lockdown, efforts are being made to keep street people safe. As I told you, I didn’t vote for Monsieur Legault, but I admire the way he is dealing with the pandemic. However, after ten months, Quebec still sits at the top of the list of Canadian victims, followed closely by Ontario. Many are working from home, and many are considering instituting a universal basic income. As for retired persons, it seems that pension funds are not decreasing. I keep thinking that poverty is at my door, but that is not the case.
Covid remains. It is the new reality and it will remain the new reality. Protesters who have taken to the streets are likely to catch the virus and spread it. Moreover, as I wrote in my last post, Mr Trump is seeing the protesters as thugs. He is not seeing them as individuals protesting an unjust death and asking that racial tensions in the United States come to an end.
I wasn’t well yesterday, and could not post anything, but I saw pictures that told a long story. The police was not allowing journalists to cover the events, which is their role. It is therefore difficult to know events precisely. We will not know who is destroying personal property. However, fatigue did not prevent me from reading.
As I feared, protesters had again taken to the streets, where no one is safe. Mr. Trump is a racist. Therefore, he wants the public to see that the protesters are thugs and will not let anyone see otherwise. This is authoritarianism, repression, bigotry and other evils I will not name. Not now. However, yesterday, The Washington Post reported that former defence secretary Jim Mattis has stated that:
“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us,” Mattis wrote in a statement published by the Atlantic.
“We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership,” he continued. “We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.”
Mr Matis is right. This president wants to put protesters in the wrong and has the press pushed away so he is the only witness and divides Americans.
Mr Floyd’s murderer is in custody, and so are his fellow officers. When Mr Floyd said that he could not breathe, fellow officers didn’t pull Derek Chauvin away from George Floyd. I wrote that a heavy foot killed Mr Floyd, but it was a merciless knee and fellow officers did not intervene. They could have prevented George Floyd’s death.
All Officers Arrested
I have now read that all officers had been arrested. As for protesters, Mr Trump will not ever see them as protesters. As noted above, however legitimate the protest, the protesters will be seen as thugs. Moreover, it has also been reported that Mr. Floyd had been infected by Covid-19. Will this be used to explain away a genuine homicide? Mr Floyd died of Covid-19. How convenient! But we know the truth.
I will close by repeating that Donald Trump should not have been elected to the Presidency of the United States. He is not sufficiently educated. A good education is a source of freedom. It broadens the mind. One sees what one had not seen before and one can wrap one’s thoughts in words. But what Mr Trump reads is fake news, and he thinks he is under attack. He has also learned to lie.
In short, Derek Chauvin killed Mr Floyd and President Trump is failing Americans abysmally. There could be new outbreaks of Covid-19 and President Trump is distorting the truth. To this effect, he is not allowing the press from chronicling events. Fortunately, Americans can see.
The protest must be peaceful and Americans must elect to the Presidency of the United States a person who will be accountable and will not divide the United States.
“In this depraved campaign season, it’s unclear whether Trump’s support from white supremacists will have a positive or negative effect on his campaign.”
PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID J. PHILLIP / AP (The New Yorker)
Just as we were expecting Mrs Clinton to lose her bid for the presidency of the United States, rumours are circulating that Mr Trump may have raped a 13-year-old and then threatened to kill her if she told.
Such matters have to be investigated. One is innocent until proven guilty and to this rule there can be no exception, but rape, however, is a criminal offence. I suspect, moreover, that the Federal Bureau of Investigation will have to investigate allegations of connivance between Mr Trump and the Kremlin. There is considerable fear outside the United States that Mr Trump will be elected into the office of President of the United States. The Ku Klux Klan, no less, has endorsed his candidacy.
President Obama criticized Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey for re-opening the investigation into Mrs Clinton’s emails. Mrs Clinton used her personal computer to send emails in her professional capacity as United States’ Secretary of State. It is not a secure way of sending emails. Mrs Clinton has stated that she was not directed not to use her personal computer, but that she is accepting full responsibility for her actions. Moreover, Hillary Clinton’s emails were investigated and she was cleared.
Consequently, when FBI Director James Comey announced he was re-opening the investigation into Mrs Clinton’s email, the earth shook. He had put Mrs Clinton at a disadvantage in an election where voters do not have a choice. The alternative is Mr Trump, which is the unthinkable. By re-opening the investigation, Mr Comey broke a protocol. It was too late. I saw a figure, but could not trace my way back to the source. However, if my memory serves me well, the figure was 60 days and I had read the New York Times and The New Yorker.
The protocol applies to governmental agencies, such as the FBI, and it is used to protectthe candidates, the electorate and, ultimately, democracy. Consider, for instance, that a voter may be persuaded not to vote for the candidate of his or her choice, only to learn that the candidate of his or her choice was the better candidate. It is easy to poison the mind of voters. Mr Comey failed to protect Americans.
Newspapers can disclose news, which is how I learned about the possible rape of a 13-year old. In this matter, timing is again an issue. Mr Trump’s victim, if indeed he raped a 13-year old, should have spoken earlier, but she reported that Mr Trump told her he would kill her if she talked. The word “killing” may have been used metaphorically, but to the victim, it was a genuine threat and the ultimate form of intimidation. Besides, it is a known fact that Mr Trump is a sexual predator.
It is also a known fact that Mr Trump is a liar, but would he lie to a young woman who could ruin his reputation and career? I doubt it. If he is elected to the presidency the United States, Americans will have a liar as president and commander-in-chief and Mr Trump may have lied his way out of a conviction: rape. He can afford the very best lawyers.
Hillary and Bill Clinton, PHOTOGRAPH BY JUSTIN SULLIVAN / GETTY
Two Investigations
The plot thickens. I was under the impression that the FBI investigation was about Mrs Clinton’s emails, which it may be at the moment. However, the FBI is also investigating the Clinton’s, or “so-called ties” between Hillary and Bill Clinton. Specifically, they are investigating the Clinton Foundation. Yet we are told that emails are being investigated.
“Dropping a bombshell less than a week before the Presidential election, the F. B. I. Director James Comey revealed on Wednesday that the Bureau was investigating Hillary Clinton’s ties to Bill Clinton.”
I should tell why the FBI could not investigate the new cache of emails earlier than it did. There was a formality the FBI could not skip. What is it, precisely, that the FBI could not investigate before 8 November 2016, the day of the election? It seems a witch hunt the purpose of which would be to eliminate Mrs Clinton and elevate Donald Trump to the presidency as he wishes, without an election.
“To say that they are investigating so-called ties between Hillary and Bill Clinton while offering no specifics about what those ties might be is unconscionable this close to an election,” Podesta told CNN. John Podesta is Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman.
In my last post, I asked Who (and how) had put the FBI up to such shenanigans as re-opening an investigation days before an election and possibly sabotaging the better candidate’s campaign thus empowering an ignoramus and a man who cannot contain himself. If a man feels free to assault women, he will feel free to assault the world. Whoever put the FBI up to re-opening an investigation into Mrs Clinton’s emails is an unconscionable individual.
From my perspective, Americans are currently being denied the right to elect their president and Mr Trump, who will take them to a “new age of endarkenment” is being foisted on them. We know the “how,” a breech of protocol, but the saboteur has not been identified.
Mrs Clinton used the wrong computer, but as I wrote in my last post, she has devoted a life time to the well-being and the security of all Americans. Once he is in office, Mr Trump will do away with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Obamacare. This is very wrong. Citizens pay taxes and, in return, their government ensures their security. No one is omitted. Leaders negotiate a Social Contract with the citizens of a country, which is not happening in this particular election. This election isn’t an election.
Donald Trump behaves exactly how you would expect an American fascist to act. PHOTOGRAPH BY MANDEL NGAN / AFP / GETTY
I wrote that he did not have a platform, a program, but he does. He has a platform and a program, but it is of a bitter savour.
His platform is resentment and his program is revenge, and that is an ideology with many faces and one name. This is fascism with an American face.
“The truth is that Trump’s “positions” on specific issues are more or less a matter of chance and whim and impulse (Of course women should be punished for having abortions! Ten minutes later: no, they shouldn’t) while his actual ideology, the song he sings every day, the one those listeners and followers gleefully vibrate to, is one anthem, and it is the sound of the authoritarian and anti-democratic impulses Americans have rejected since the founding of this country. Call them what you will—populist authoritarianism or extreme-right-wing ethno-nationalism—the active agents within a Trump speech and energizing a Trump rally are always the same: the worship of power in its most brutal and authoritarian forms (thus his admiration for Vladimir Putin and for the Chinese Communists who assaulted the protesters at Tiananmen Square); the reduction of all relations to dominance contests; the contempt for rational argument; the perpetual unashamed storm of lies; the appeal to hysterically exaggerated fears of outsiders; and, above all, the relentless sense of ethnic grievance that can be remedied only by acts of annihilating revenge. His is the ideology not of democratic patriotism but of a narrow nationalism alone—the glorification of the nation, and the exaggeration of its humiliations, with violence promised to its enemies, at home and abroad; and a promise of vengeance for those who feel themselves disempowered by history. He will “level the playing field” with the terrorist spectre of isis by forcing soldiers to commit war crimes; he will not merely kill our enemies but annihilate their families. His platform is resentment and his program is revenge, and that is an ideology with many faces and one name. This is fascism with an American face.”
Conclusion
The protocol should not have been violated. Sowing the seeds of doubt about a nominee as a campaign is drawing to a close is paramount to endorsing the nominee’s opponent. Mr Comey’s last-minute revelation is an assault on democracy, words I have already used. In this election one should vote for the nominee whose devotion and dedication to the United States is an established fact. That privilege is being trampled on.
Retired General and former Secretary of State Colin Powell is not an admirer of Hillary Clinton and he has called Donald Trump a “national disgrace” and “international pariah.”
Yet, he has stated that he would vote for Mrs Clinton because she is an experienced politician. She is, by leaps and bounds, the better and safer choice. In such a case, a rational individual has to take Blaise Pascal‘s wager.
“In Pensées, Pascal surveys several philosophical paradoxes: infinity and nothing, faith and reason, soul and matter, death and life, meaning and vanity – seemingly arriving at no definitive conclusions besides humility, ignorance, and grace. Rolling these into one he develops Pascal’s Wager.” (See Pascal, Wikipedia.)
According to Pascal’s Wager, if one elects Mr Trump one has every thing to lose and nothing to gain.
I tried to finish this article earlier, but a migraine stood in my way and the pain will not abate.
Hillary Clinton in South Carolina (Photo credit: Google images)
A Nightmare
After months of investigation, mere days before the vote, and having failed to find dead bodies in Mrs Clinton‘s closet, the FBI chose to flex its muscles by undermining Mrs Clinton’s bid for the presidency of the United States. It appears that more emails have surfaced. We do not know what they contain but they have jeopardized the success of Mrs Clinton campaign and the security of the citizens of the United States. More importantly, they are putting the world at risk. No Mr Trump is not presidential material.
To be absolutely precise, the FBI, the American Federal Bureau of Investigation, may have sabotaged the 2016 American presidential elections. Are these new emails or emails waiting to be investigated? How can anyone know? The timing would suggest they were sitting in a file cabinet or were handed over at the worst moment. We have no way of knowing. The campaign was a circus and it has turned into what seems a nightmare.
At any rate, witch-hunting has begun. There were rumours suggesting connivance between Mr Trump and Russia. This matter was dealt with promptly. We have been told that their is no connivance between Mr Trump and Russia.
Not only does the FBI investigation seem a witch-hunt, but the nominee who is in serious trouble is Mr Trump, not Mrs Clinton. Therefore, it may be a case of mistaken identity.
How can anyone forget that
“Trump’s trouble began on October 7, when The Washington Post released a video in which Trump boasts of sexually assaulting women. “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful [women]—I just start kissing them,” Trump said. “It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything.” He added, “Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.” The video produced a wave of revulsion, and many Republicans denounced him, with some withdrawing support.” The Atlantic
Sexual assaults are a statutory offence in several countries and damning in the United States, with the possible exception of Mr Trump. The facts that emerged on 7 October 2016 caused many Republicans to distance themselves from Mr Trump. But the FBI did not promptly lift the cloud of suspicion that could lead to Mrs Clinton’s defeat. It could be that the FBI chose to ignore that a known sexual predator was still an official nominee to the presidency of the United States, drowning in an ocean of unsubstantiated suspicion the better qualified candidate. I doubt that Mrs Clinton would have run for office if there were serious improprieties in her conduct.
Former General and Secretary of State Colin Powell has credibility. He stated that he would vote for Mrs Clinton because she is an experienced political figure, not a frivolous comment. Mr Trump is new to politics and knows so little about the various dossiers the President of the United States must be familiar with that one wonders why the Republican Party chose him as their nominee to the presidency. They perhaps expected that Mr Trump would present a clear and coherent platform, but he didn’t.
For instance, he gathered a group of women who were ready to say that former President Bill Clinton was a womanizer. Mr Trump should have known that former President Bill Clinton’s indiscretions have nothing to do with Mrs Clinton’s ability to play her role as President of the United States in a competent manner and it so happens that in the current race to the presidency, Mrs Clinton is the competent nominee, not Mr Trump. Mr Trump did not know that forcing oneself on a woman was objectionable and perhaps a crime. It is a crime in many countries.
Besides, Mr Trump planned attack on former President Bill Clinton was a “trumpism.” It was yet again avoidance of a discussion of the many issues facing his nation, such as immigration, gun-control, the crisis in the Middle East, matters Presidents of the United States deal with. Given the years she has devoted to serving the people of the United, Mrs Clinton is familiar with these issues, which, as noted above, makes her the competent nominee. Mr Trump’s campaign was no more than a distasteful sideshow and sadly “bombastic” (Paul Krugman, NYT).
The article below, by Paul Krugman, dates back to May 2016, but it has not lost its significance. To read the article, please click on its title.
Conclusion
Please do keep in mind that, if elected, Mr Trump intends to build a wall separating the Unites States and Mexico. It would prevent Mexicans from entering the United States. He has also stated that, if he elected to the presidency, he would not allow Muslims into the United States. In his opinion, all Muslims are terrorists. Moreover, this sexual predator has threatened to jail women who have undergone an abortion. Finally, as our colleague B. Ashley has written, he suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder (see Wikipedia). Mr Trump’s behaviour is “characterized by an exaggerated feelings of self-importance,” or grandiosity. If a man states that he should be proclaimed President of the United States, by-passing an election, not only is he assaulting democracy, but his perception of reality could be that of an absolute monarch. All humans exhibit a degree of narcissism. We think we are important, but not the point of claiming we should be the president of a country, except as an obvious joke. That would be called a sense of self-entitlement.
After posting my last article, I realized that it lacked a conclusion, or final sentence about democracy. In a democracy, people have the right to choose their president, but they also have to live with the consequences of their choice. Mr Trump does not know poverty. He can afford the best care, the best medication, luxurious dwellings, meals in the finest restaurants and lives in a tower he owns.
If elected to the presidency, will he be able to see that others are homeless, hungry, unable to feed their children or to pay a doctor’s fees? Mrs Clinton can see the needs of others, but although she is an experienced politician, which is an advantage, she has spent decades in Washington. Some people think a change is, by definition, for the better.
I can sense a personality disorder, but it is difficult for me to give it a name. I am not a psychologist, nor am I a psychiatrist. However, our colleague B. Ashley has studied the “Donald phenomenon” methodically and has sought the help of experts. Therefore, she may be able to provide information that go beyond my “trumpism,” which consists in concealing one’s platform or in not having a platform to begin with. It would seem that what ails Mr Trump is Narcissistic Personality Disorder (Wikipedia). There can be no doubt that his behaviour is “characterized by a exaggerated feelings of self-importance,” or grandiosity.
Voter take into account the nominee’s platform. But they also choose the nominee considering the manner in which he or she behaves. Mr Trump has behaved as though he owned the presidency. Mr Trump has avoided presenting a serious and coherent platform, a process I have called “trumpism.” He has also exhibited a sense of entitlement, which is consistent with narcissistic behaviour.
Cancelling the Election? Never!
Mr Trump had stated he would not accept the result of the election unless he were elected. But he has moved a step closer to imposing himself on the American electorate. The moment he heard that more emails had been found that could harm Mrs Clinton, he boldly proposed that the election be cancelled. He was the President of the United States by default, so to speak.
On the one hand, Mr Trump displayed feelings of grandiosity, and, on the other hand, he forgot a simple and well-known rule, which is that one is innocent until proven guilty. However, particularly egregious is the implication that one can rise to the presidency of the United States dispensing with an election. That would be an assault on democracy. It is the behaviour or dictators.
It could be that Mr Trump is afraid the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, will not find information that would disqualify Mrs Clinton and that he felt he should quickly seize this heaven-sent opportunity. Not only would Mr Trump have risen to the presidency having avoided a serious discussion of the many issues at hand, thereby flaunting “exaggerated feelings of self-importance,” but, more importantly, Mr Trump would have circumvented the election to which campaigns lead, which I do not think is possible.
Mrs Clinton has asked, unambiguously, that all information FBI investigators extract from the latest emails they are in possession of be made available to the electorate as soon as possible, if appropriate. This request is reasonable. But it is not reasonable to expect being proclaimed President of the United States by-passing an election. If the FBI finds serious and arguably true improprieties in the emails they are examining, I should think the need for an election would not be eliminated. Americans would still have to choose between nominees.
I do not know what protocol would be used in this worst-case scenario, but I doubt that an election can be avoided. Elections are central to the “rule of the commoners,” the concept that underlies the notion of democracy. (See Democracy, Wikipedia.) A democracy is not a perfect form of government, but it is the best we have. Americans must vote.
Mr Trump has tarnished his image. A nominee to the presidency should know:
that sexual assaults are unacceptable;
that a defeated nominee must accept defeat because the United States is a democracy;
that one does not attack members of one’s party. Colin Powell is a retired General and a former Secretary of State. His support was essential;
and that one has to be voted into office. Nominees are not divinely ordained, which would explain why Mr Trump has circumvented a serious discussion of the issues. He is “chosen.”
Let us also remember:
that his attitude towards Mexicans and Muslims is unacceptable;
and that il n’est pas sortable. He does not have the polite manners that allow one to take him out. He will shame the United States.
Conclusion
To conclude, I will write that if Mr Trump is elected to the presidency of the United States, Americans will have to face with the consequences of their decision, and so will the world. The United States is a democracy.
WordPress has specialists. What a group! B. Ashley researched “Narcissistic Personality Disorder.” I thank her.
In the area of Greek mythology, Aquileana is our expert. Narcissus is an important figure in Greek mythology, so Aquileana has told his story. Please note that Aquileana has not expressed her view on Mr Trump. Her area is Greek mythology and related Roman mythology. The following link leads to her post on Narcissus.
But I will attempt to summarize Narcissus'(story, using Wikipedia and Britannica.
Narcissus was the son of the river-god Cephissus and the nymph Liriope. He was a beautiful youth who “disdained those who loved him” (the nymph Echo loved him and so did Ameinias). Nemesis, “the goddess who enacted retribution against those who succumb to hubris (arrogance before the gods),” was able to attract Narcissus, the son of the river-god, to a river and once he saw the reflection of his face, he could not stop looking at it. “Narcissus lost his will to live. He stared at this reflection until he died.”
However, “[t]he Greek traveler and geographer Pausanias, in Description of Greece, Book IX, said it was more likely that Narcissus, to console himself for the death of his beloved twin sister, his exact counterpart, sat gazing into the spring to recall her features.”[1]
The story of Narcissus is told in Ovid‘s Metamorphoses, Book III. The flower named after Narcissus, the narcissus, is best known as the daffodil or jonquil. The jonquil grew where Narcissus died.[2]
The term narcissism has several meanings, which include grandiosity and egocentrism. Narcissists focus on themselves and themselves alone. For instance, Napoleon had himself crowned Emperor. But this practice has no room in a democracy.
The current presidential campaign in the United States differs from previous campaigns, such as the 2008 campaign. In 2008, issues were discussed, which has not been the case in this campaign. Mrs Clinton is a veteran politician, so voters know, to a large extent, what they will be dealing with, if she is elected to the presidency. But Mr Trump is not a politician and is not familiar with the numerous issues. He therefore avoids discussing issues.
I have written about his “trumpisms,” which is a dismissive discourse. My best example of a “trumpism” is the failed discussion on gun control. It ended when Mr Trump said “take her [Mrs Clinton’s] guards away from her and watch,” or something to that effect. Mr Trump managed not to address gun control by straying not only from the general to the particular, which could be relevant, but from the general to the personal, quite a gap. The personal is not irrelevant in choosing a president, but in a debate, it is seldom mentioned.
Well, a day or so ago, Mr Trump was threatening to sue the women who confirmed he was a sexual predator. That is another “trumpism.” While Mr Trump threatens these women loudly, real issues are not being discussed, which tells the story of Mr Trump’s campaign. However, should Mr Trump be elected to the presidency and sue the women he assaulted, their testimonial could damn him. He could be impeached. It would be in Mr Trump’s best interest not to carry this discussion an inch further.
He won’t. But issues are not on his mind. Having threatened to sue the women who confirmed he was a sexual predator, Mr Trump is now attacking his Party, the GOP or Republican Party.
As a result, Mrs Clinton is inviting endorsements from Republicans. The colleagues who nominated Mr Trump are distancing themselves. For example, Colin Powell has said he would vote for Mrs Clinton.
Mrs Clinton is familiar with every dossier the President of the United States will have to deal with, and she can tell right from wrong. Mr Powell “spoke about his [Mr Trump’s] inexperience, he spoke about the messages that he’s sending out every day to his supporters, which really paints our country in a negative light across the globe with all our allies.” (The New York Times)
As I was meditating on this drôle de campagne, this strange campaign, a campaign during which few issues have been addressed, I was reminded of French encyclopédiste Denis Diderot‘s (1713 – 1784) Paradoxe sur le comédien,The Paradox of the Actor. In Le Paradoxe sur le comédien, written between 1773 and 1777, Denis Diderot suggests that a good actor does not feel the emotions he displays. He is in full possession of himself, which allows him to play the same role convincingly day after day. (See The Paradox of the Actor, Wikipedia.)
Nominees do play a role. In fact, we all play roles and even “dress” the part: the office, lunch with a dear friend, an evening at the opera, relaxing, etc. As for nominees to the role of President of the United States, their role is to tell the people—it’s all about the people—what they intend to do for them. They are in fact negotiating a social contract: taxation, employment, education, immigration, the Middle East, gun control, the environment, health care and other social programmes, etc. Good leaders build the future and, as the saying goes, the road to the future is always under construction.
If Mr Trump intends to slash into the Affordable Health Care Act, now is the time, or the campaign was the time, to discuss it. Health care must be affordable.
The polls surprised me. I didn’t think Mr Trump would be able to gather as much support among the United States’ electorate as he did. He was a newcomer to Washington and therefore a mostly unknown quantity whose education had not prepared for the position of President of the United States. But he had supporters. Mr Seid, quoted below (italics), may have the answer “populist… .” Could the medium be the message? (See The Medium is the message, Wikipedia.) Truth be told, if the polls now place Mrs Clinton ahead of Mr Trump, it has not been, until now, because of a sneaky conspiracy or ruinous revelations from the best of hackers. So far, Mr Trump is the one who has built himself and undone himself, and he may not be able to walk back a bad performance.
Trumpism
I should note that the Wall Street Journal‘s Gerald F. Seib also used the term “Trumpism” in an article published on 8 August 2016 entitled “Separating Donald Trump From Trumpism.” No, I did not borrow the term “trumpism” from Mr Seib. I borrowed it from my mother tongue, French. “Se tromper” means to make a mistake, to be mistaken, and “tromper” means to deceive, to be unfaithful to, to fool. Moreover, an elephant has a trompe.
I have given “trumpism” a meaning that is not consistent, or not entirely consistent, with Mr Seib’s who writes that there is Mr Trump and
[t]hen there is Trumpism—the mixture of attitudes and positions that catapulted its namesake to the Republican nomination in the first place. Trumpism is a populist mix of anger at the status quo, skepticism about the virtues of free trade and immigration, doubts about the need for U.S. intervention abroad, fondness for law and order and a dose of nationalism. “Americanization, not globalization, will be our new credo,” Mr. Trump put it in a speech in Detroit on Monday.
“Separating Donald Trump From Trumpism.”
We are days away from the American election. Everything could change. But I doubt it will.
Donald Trump will not commit to accept election result
The photograph above was not taken during the third and final debate of the race to the presidency of the United States. During the third debate Mr Trump stated that he would simply look upon an unfavourable result as part of a great conspiracy. He will accept the result if he wins.
Such an answer suggests somewhat of a flaw in Mr Trump’s truly colourful personality. According to Mr Trump, victories and losses are the result of conspiracies. It follows that if American voters do not elect Mr Trump, they will have been indoctrinated by or fooled by conspirators.
Every four years, when an election takes place, it is “rigged.” If Mr Trump believes that elections are rigged, were Mr Trump to be elected to the presidency, theoretically, he would be yet another president whose election was rigged or pre-arranged. However, he, Mr Trump, is suggesting that he is a “promised” President and the only person to guide the nation. If defeated, he will not accept defeat.
In a democracy, the electorate choses one of two or more candidates on the basis of a clearly defined platform, i.e. a description of a candidate’s program, if elected. The duty of nominees—Mr Trump and Mrs Clinton are nominees—is to make his or her program clear to voters in as civil a manner as possible. Citizens of the United States choose their representatives by voting and every adult has the right to vote. This is what made America great. Its greatness does not lie in a vague past. It lies in a past that forged the country so its citizens could vote and their privacy would be protected. No, a politician cannot play doctor and dictate the quantity of painkillers will be administered to a patient. That would be called an intrusion. The US has its Drug Enforcement Administration.
1. Mr Trump assaulted women but did not know his actions constituted an assault.
2. Mr Trump also assaulted reason. In the matter of gun-control, he has suggested Mrs Clinton’s bodyguards be taken away from her. That would be called a “trumpism” and se tromper FR means to make a mistake and tromper means to deceive, not to be faithful, to fool. When discussing birth-control, he first stated that women who had undergone an abortion should be jailed. However, he is now saying that women get abortions “days before birth.” Doctors disagree, but do they even count, or common sense for that matter?
Although the child may be still-born, days before birth, one gives birth. A “trumpism” is a twisted way of not discussing the issues. The truth is that if a woman dies during childbirth and the baby is alive, his or her life will be saved. Mr Trump lives on another planet. As I noted above, it is for medical doctors, the experts, to make medical pronouncements.
3. And, in the third debate of the election campaign, Mr Trump said he would not commit to accept the election result. This is an assault on democracy which no American political party will allow. Nor the electorate. Mr Trump will have to accept the result of the election.
On 8 November 2016, the citizens of the United States will exercise their right to vote and the result of the election will be respected. Americans will elect the nominee who is most likely to ensure their safety. That is the reason why they pay their taxes.
The Elephant Clock, from The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices by al-Jazari (MMA, NY)
“Cowards,” says Ban Ki-moon
Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations is perfectly right. They are cowards! Aleppo is dying and a convoy of supplies for 78,000 persons was bombed the moment the cease fire was lifted, killing twenty persons. To make matters worse, on Tuesday, medical workers were killed. Humans, homes, and architectural gems, some a thousand years old, are being destroyed. On Wednesday, the attacks continued.
India and the Middle East are the areas where numerous Indo-European languages started to develop. Knowledge of the Near to Middle East may survive and so may a large number of people, but crimes are committed by terrorists, autocrats, and other villains against the innocent population of Syria and other nations of the Near and Middle East. This process goes on and on. Humanitarian relief is sent, but demented individuals prevent supplies from reaching their destination. No, there is no excuse for ISIL militants to behave like barbarians, nor is there any excuse for Bashar al-Assad to allow his forces to wreak havoc on Syria. He is blaming the US for the recent attacks.
As for Donald Trump, if elected to the presidency of his country, he will not allow Muslims into the United States. He has made this clear. Surely he must know that the plight of Syrians and Iraqis is genuine. If he doesn’t, shame on him! A candidate to the presidency of a country should be well informed.
A Social Contract
When the day comes, if it comes, when Donald Trump is elected to the presidency of the United States, liberty will collapse and the French will have to take the famous statue back to France: Lady Liberty. The America Mr Trump wants to see reborn is a country that will not enter into a decent social contract with its people. In all likelihood, Mr Trump will abolish the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. How can there be progress?
Every human being should be protected, from birth until death. Even the poor have the right to be treated if an illness, possibly fatal, befalls them. Insurance companies? It seems to have worked, but one has to be very careful. Insurance companies are businesses. They seek a profit. They’ll destroy your life and will not own up to what they have done. Some of you do not know my story, which I can repeat, but not now and not here. Not as I write about great atrocities and the worst of genocides.
The Armenian Genocide
A few days ago, I found information about the Armenian Genocide in a French internet publication I read regularly: Hérodote. Young Armenian women were crucified in the same manner Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. Others may have discovered the same story. Information is now posted under several entries on the internet. A video has been inserted in the Wikipedia entry on the Armenian Genocide. One can see a row of crosses and young women, girls, dying.
Le Génocide des Arméniens (Hérodote) FR
The Armenian Genocide EN
Forced pregnancies as a violation of Human Rights
genocides
Raphael Lemkin
In 1915 in particular, the year the Armenian genocide began, young girls were also raped, some to death. Many of these young women got pregnant. It is at that time in history that forced pregnancies were first seen as a violation of Human Rights, which is precisely what they were and remain. Rape is a crime, even in wedlock.
The term genocide was coined by Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin who lost 49 relatives in the Holocaust. The Holocaust went on for six years, which is a longer period of time than the duration of the Armenian Genocide, but it would appear that the Armenian Genocide inspired Hitler. (See Armenian Genocide and Raphael Lemkin, Wikipedia.)
Donald Trump and Torture
ISIL beheads, mutilates, burns people to death, drowns them. It enslaves, rapes, and also crucifies some of its victims. ISIL does not crucify in the same way Jesus was crucified, but at some point the victim can no longer breathe.
Donald Trump would not go that far and it could be that Mr Trump was not speaking seriously, but he did say he approved of torture. A candidate to the presidency of the United States cannot condone torture. He’s disqualified himself.
“Trump’s false pronouncements are either believed or blithely ignored by a substantial chunk of the electorate. But we’ve seen no evidence that he’s persuaded a majority. Could that change?”
(Photo credit: The New York Review of Books)
It could be that Mr Trump will be elected.
I will close here and hope a permanent ceasefire is about to be declared.
I have read several articles about Mr Trump and my opinion remains unchanged. In fact, I believe he may jeopardize the safety of I do not understand that the Republicans chose him as their nominee to the office of President of the United States.
However, Republicans have started to distance themselves from Mr Trump because of his avowed intention to prevent not only Muslims, but Mexicans and people originating from Latin-American countries, from entering the United States.
Although Mr Trump has lost the support of some key members of the Republican party, he remains defiant. He will finance his way to the Presidency. But will the citizens of the United States vote for a man who does not represent a party?
The Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic Monthly published a series of articles on Mr Trump, one of which is about his mind. I am a little wary of such articles, but do believe that Mr Trump’s manners and language preclude his being considered an appropriate candidate to the office of President of the United States. As we say in Quebec, Donald Trump n’est pas sortable (he’s not fit to be seen). It may therefore be difficult for those Republicans who have turned their back on him to adopt a new stance.
The tragic Orlando Massacre invites serious reflection on the issue of discrimination, a sturdy perennial. The President of the United States cannot discriminate against people on the basis of ethnicity and faith. Nor can he discriminate against people on the basis of gender and sexual orientation. But Mr Trump does discriminate against Muslims, all Muslims, and Mexicans as well as other Americans of Latin-American origin. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that:
“Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”
See Discrimination, Wikipedia.)
The good news is that Mr Trump now agrees with President Obama “for watch list gun ban.” Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association disagrees, but the fact remains that one cannot shoot without a gun and that arming people will not address the problem of terrorism. Omar Mateen had access to a powerful weapon and several guns.
The Second Amendment lost its validity the moment the United States had a militia. However, if one enjoys marksmanship, there are facilities where such individuals may engage in their sport. Marksmen and women will not hurt anyone if their weapon is kept in a secure area. Sadly, some gun owners do not put their weapon(s) away from the reach of children which has caused siblings to shoot a sister or a brother. Children may think the gun is a toy.
Walking down the street carrying a gun can also lead to tragedies. For instance, the police may at times pull the trigger too quickly because of fear of being shot. It would be my opinion that endangering the life of innocent people is a breach of the social contract and that it negates the Second Amendment.
The Pulse
The Pulse was a club where L.G.B.T. (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans) socialized as is their right. Discriminating against people on the basis of sexual orientation seems extremely narrow-minded. As a WordPress colleague pointed out to me, people of different sexual orientation have a right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
I agree fully. Gays deserve the same respect as other law-abiding members of society, which includes gathering on a Saturday evening to socialize and relax. No one was creating a disturbance at the Pulse. I encourage you to read Half-man of Orlando (colltales.com). Virginia Woolf wrote Orlando (1928).
Islamic Fundamentalism
As stated in an earlier post, although Mr Mateen claimed allegiance to the Islamic State, it does not appear he was directed to kill for Isil. However, as he was in the process of murdering people, he did tell the police that the United States should “stop bombing” Syria and Iraq. The Obama administration considers the Orlando massacre a crime of terror and hate, and it will welcome more Muslim refugees. The refugees are the victims of Islamic fundamentalism and rigid autocracies.
Americans are divided with respect to the role they should play in the Middle East, but in the end, it will be, and should be, for the Middle East to determine its fate.
Conclusion
In short, the Orlando Massacre has so many facets and it raises so many issues that it may well be one of the most significant events in recent history.
The Orlando Massacre will long be remembered as a horrific event. But we are now hearing about the courage of people who saved dozens of lives risking their own. These accounts are very touching and they show love. The police did all it could. They broke holes through the walls so they could get in and stop the massacre. I thank all these generous and fearless individuals.
Hatred: Donald Trump
In the meantime, however, Donald Trump, a presidential hopeful, has disgraced himself. Should he be voted into office, he would prevent Muslims from entering the United States. Before he started killing, Omar Mateen, the presumed shooter, claimed allegiance to the Islamic State, but it is unlikely that he was directed to kill innocent citizens by anyone. President Obama is calling the crime “homegrown.” We will know more as the investigation progresses.
The Republicans erred in choosing Mr Trump as their candidate to the presidency of the United States. Presidents cannot allow themselves to make statements in which they demonstrate hatred. In fact, candidates to the presidency of the United States cannot even allow themselves to think as Mr Trump thinks.
At the moment, not only has Mr Trump displayed Islamophobia, but he has also made it very clear that he is a racist. Several years ago, I watched an A&E television program and I heard Mr Trump boast to Bill Curtisthat a certain club was so exclusive that African-Americans could not enter.
He is also a misogynist and, in this regard, extremely offensive. Does Mr Trump think that women are irresponsible citizens who undergo abortions frivolously? Besides, Mr Trump cannot make pronouncements in this area as he is not a qualified medical practitioner. He’s a bully and, as you know, a liar.
What will we do when President Obama is replaced? He cared for the people. He had the qualifications expected of world leaders. He didn’t rush to judgment. He was able to perform his duties despite systematic obstructionism. He survived two government shutdowns. He has an open, brilliant and beautiful mind and he has earned the respect and admiration of the world.
But Donald Trump! The Orlando massacre was a great tragedy which a presidential hopeful used to foam at the mouth and offend Muslims.
Mr Trump has shown that he is “unfit,” a word I am borrowing, to run for the office of President of the United States.
—ooo—
I apologize for neglecting my very dear readers. Life has been unkind. I’m glad we have each other.
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Hillary and Bill Clinton, PHOTOGRAPH BY JUSTIN SULLIVAN / GETTY
