tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-366465892024-03-07T07:06:10.658+01:00David Seaton's News LinksI am an American journalist who lives in Europe.David Seaton's Newslinkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00269813419598042699noreply@blogger.comBlogger1408125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36646589.post-56599845194196944552020-08-10T18:08:00.000+02:002020-08-10T18:08:03.959+02:00Plugging away<p style="text-align: left;"> <img alt="Laura Jamieson and Michael Smith, employees at Ashford Castle (and also a couple), never expected to move into the stately digs." class="Image__image" src="https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/q_auto,w_602,c_fill,g_auto,h_339,ar_16:9/http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.cnn.com%2Fcnnnext%2Fdam%2Fassets%2F200622132058-14-ashford-castle-photos.jpg" /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A few months ago, I took a pause in blogging. The appearance of Donald Trump as President of the United States took the wind out of my sails, not so much Trump himself, horrid as he is, but Trump as a symptom and a symbol of ruinous decadence. It was like seeing an old friend suddenly getting horribly thin, or finding a loved one suddenly lost in depression, no longer taking care of their appearance, not washing, not changing their clothes. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One sure thing has come to me from from all of this. I am grateful that I have no children and thus leave no innocent grandchildren to face the world that is coming. I realize that those of us born right after World War Two, in either the USA or Western Europe, have lived to be elderly in a truly Golden Age of peace, prosperity and health that is more than probably going to disappear forever.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the following weeks and months, I hope to write some sort of coherent analysis of some of the facets of this descent into chaos. For the moment I am collecting articles that my instinct tells me are relevant and that may help me to write something useful in the future. I am posting them to my twitter account. <a href="https://twitter.com/David_Seaton" target="_blank">@David_Seaton</a>, if you care to read them and draw your own conclusions.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In the meantime, the only way I can fully express the dread I feel is in poetry.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Today I leave you with this sample:</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Futurology<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The old and toothless of our tribe<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Tell the tale<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That before the beginning of time<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Even before the mountains began to glow in
the dark<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">An orange baboon ruled the world<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And the legend has it<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">That our land of tears,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Of ashes,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And of dust<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Was, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Once upon a time,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">A land of hopes and dreams</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "verdana" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="color: #274e13;">DS</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dear Readers,</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I have been taking a break from blogging while trying to understand how someone as grotesque as Donald Trump got to be POTUS... And finally I'm beginning to get some ideas about what it means and I'll be back soon to share them with you. <b><span style="color: #38761d;">DS</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">There he sits</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">In his big, white, house</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Fattening toads</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
</span>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
And breeding house flies</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
For Beelzebub</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
W(h)ither America?</div>
</span></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">Trump’s approval ratings are <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/202811/trump-sets-new-low-point-inaugural-approval-rating.aspx" target="_blank">lower</a> than those of any new U.S. president in the history of polling: Just <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/donald-trump-administration/2017/01/job-approval-rating-quinnipiac-poll-234225" target="_blank">36 percent</a> of Americans are pleased with his performance so far. Some <a href="http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=7548" target="_blank">80 percent</a>
of British citizens think Trump will make a “bad president,” along with
77 percent of those polled in France and 78 percent in Germany. </span><span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">And that’s just week one. </span><span class="FP--author--wrapper"><span class="author"><a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/01/30/3-ways-to-get-rid-of-president-trump-before-2020-impeach-25th-amendment-coup/" target="_blank"><i>Tom Malinowski - Foreign Policy </i></a></span></span></blockquote>
The USA is just a little over 240 years old and 240 years is time enough for anything to happen.<br />
<br />
And so now, after all these years, the White House of Washington is finally occupied by someone who is mentally ill, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/donald-trump-mental-illness-narcisissm-us-president-psychologists-inauguration-crowd-size-paranoia-a7552661.html" target="_blank">seriously mentally ill.</a> Bat-shit crazy, in fact.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTc0WFYFJPRODrtTif9nSEgweYp7XAU_-zO7iEzXyv3I-nezSpYfbvKAsucJ3Del0f8Z5pn1dDLG6eECL43pFyGTRjOQD2Lm7XWS3KJqIQYut88umn3GLpGZdcDX4OE_iN1UZ01Q/s1600/blind.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTc0WFYFJPRODrtTif9nSEgweYp7XAU_-zO7iEzXyv3I-nezSpYfbvKAsucJ3Del0f8Z5pn1dDLG6eECL43pFyGTRjOQD2Lm7XWS3KJqIQYut88umn3GLpGZdcDX4OE_iN1UZ01Q/s200/blind.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
This takes some getting used to. <br />
<br />
I have held off writing about this until now because the situation appears to me much too numbingly, depressingly, chaotic to really analyze... yet.<br />
<br />
For me the most significant thing in this Night of the Living Trump, is the world-wide horror, depression and confusion it is producing.<br />
<br />
And the most encouraging thing is the galvanization of what appears to be a "new" left in America, (and much of the rest of the world it would appear) that is no longer so concerned about who can use what bathroom, but more tuned into saving the country and perhaps the entire world from an evil maniac.<br />
<br />
So in the weeks and months to come, I will leave trying to analyze what this malignant narcissist does and concentrate my modest efforts on recording and examining what America and the world comes up with to wriggle out of his tiny-handed grip. <span style="color: #38761d;"><b>DS</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Vultures twitter in the trees</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">A message carried by the breeze:</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The herd, it seems, has bought their butcher</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And he's a butcher they must feed</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">One who eats when they have fallen</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Drinking only when they bleed</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Bilious, glutton, gorged, lubricious</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Puffed and swollen by his feasting</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Spilling words</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Like Onan's seed </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="color: #38761d;"><b>David Seaton</b></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTEB_l4wF8OrHzy3YqoTozfTW4Okl9SE2k8iB6A_kmp77XcF9fHQ7-QiHyMbNlzLZF23qqR6p4lXlvxsHLkjYc9H6w-JPGZKuEfPCTvKqDW_P0NXsoOqVkZU0dpWa-yY7vvBXmbA/s1600/Trump-eyes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTEB_l4wF8OrHzy3YqoTozfTW4Okl9SE2k8iB6A_kmp77XcF9fHQ7-QiHyMbNlzLZF23qqR6p4lXlvxsHLkjYc9H6w-JPGZKuEfPCTvKqDW_P0NXsoOqVkZU0dpWa-yY7vvBXmbA/s400/Trump-eyes.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Animal, Vegetable or Mineral?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Now that a white supremacist has just been made the next president’s closest White House adviser, and the president-elect has called conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of Infowars to thank him and his followers for their part in his election victory, we have reasonable confirmation that we are indeed in a fever-dream America. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "times new roman" , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176212/tomgram%3A_rebecca_gordon%2C_no_%22new_normal%22/#more" target="_blank"><i>Tom Engelhardt</i></a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
These days I often find myself wishing that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Mailer" target="_blank">Norman Mailer </a>were still alive to turn this fecal moment of America's democratic saga into art. </div>
<br />
Mailer's <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Armies_of_the_Night" title="The Armies of the Night">The Armies of the Night</a> </i>and <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_and_the_Siege_of_Chicago" target="_blank">Miami and the Siege of Chicago</a> </i>both dating from the legendary <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_of_1968" target="_blank">year of 1968</a> were an important help in making some sense of a period that had begun with the mysterious assassination of JFK and carried us through the civil rights battles and martyrdom of Martin Luther King, all accompanied by the obscenity of the Vietnam war... a period whose divisions and bitterness have as yet to heal.<br />
<br />
It was a great story and Mailer told it well.<br />
<br />
Intuition tells me we are about to enter a similar period. <br />
<br />
We are faced with the immovable fact that someone so surreally "un-presidential" as Donald Trump has captured the White House, thus becoming the most powerful man in the world overnight ... And that he has achieved all this mostly by evoking the sordid, family demons inhabiting the septic tank of white America's psyche. <br />
<br />
Seeing something so improbable I'm tempted to believe that the Donald must have made a <i>iuuge</i>, wonderful, "deal" with none other than Old Scratch himself. <br />
<br />
Living the sickening horror that Trump's mysterious ascension and
triumph produces, I wonder if someone so reality grounded as Mailer
could have handled anything this weird. Certainly analyzing paranormal phenomena was never part of his skill set.<br />
<br />
In fact, analyzing my own shocked and sickened feelings and searching the corners of my subconscious, I discovered to my amused horror, that the only living author that might have the vocabulary to portray Trump's uncanny rise in the face of all common sense and decency, is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._K._Rowling" target="_blank">J.K. Rowling </a> and she doesn't write about politics, she writes about witchcraft.<br />
<br />
<b>A great villain makes for a great story and </b><b>we are now part of this villain's story</b><br />
<br />
Nobody knows better than Ms. Rowling that the heart of a thrilling yarn is a good villain, at that she's tops. Remember it was J.K. Rowling that created <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Voldemort" target="_blank">Lord Voldemort</a>, who is the closest thing to Donald Trump I've ever seen.<br />
<br />
See how she analyzed her creation, the "Dark Lord", AKA "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" in a BBC interview:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Rowling described Voldemort as a self-hating bully: "I think it is often the case that the biggest bullies take what they know to be their own defects, as they see it, and they put them right on someone else and then they try and destroy the other and that's what Voldemort does." <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Voldemort" target="_blank"><i>Wikipedia</i></a></span></blockquote>
Now if that doesn't describe the <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump" target="_blank">@realDonaldTrump</a> to a tee...<br />
<br />
So the Good News is that <i>Trump is a flawlessly perfect villain</i>; and perfect villains... like perfect heroes, are of enormous value in great stories, and remember, <i><u><b>great stories are the philosopher's stone of political action</b></u></i>.<br />
<br />
Think back on how many people were moved to vote back in 2008 just by reading "<a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi3qpH7ub7QAhUHXBQKHWt3DU8QFgglMAE&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FDreams_from_My_Father&usg=AFQjCNF6bFqLcaCeVt17IweLhgd2D80TQA&sig2=nBu21DGmo1Ecxf37z8W_-g&bvm=bv.139782543,d.d24" target="_blank">Dreams of My Father</a>", but the problem was that after voting people simply expected their "hero" to take care of everything while they went about their business... that way, <i>since the people didn't stay mobilized</i>, "Hope" and "Change" turned out to be little more than words in the wind.<br />
<br />
<b>A perfect villain will keep the people mobilized.</b><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
The problem is we have our villain, but we haven't got a hero yet... Where is our Harry Potter, the one who can break all Voldemort's spells and incantations and expel He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named to the outer darkness?<br />
<br />
The answer is <i>one</i> Harry Potter isn't going to get it. To change things there must be an army of "Harry Potters". An army teeming with <i>all</i> those citizens of America and the world who can't face sitting passively by watching President Trump crush one by one all their hopes and dream of freedom and justice. <i>They</i>, all the engaged and committed people must be the Harry Potters of our times, the ones who keep freedom alive.<br />
<br />
To paraphrase a musty old slogan from the 60s (<i>irony alert</i>) "Let a million Harry Potters bloom"! <span style="color: #38761d;"><b>DS</b></span></div>
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</script></div>David Seaton's Newslinkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00269813419598042699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36646589.post-40885264858950998582016-11-10T10:40:00.001+01:002016-11-10T10:47:48.675+01:00Elections 2016: Good News and Bad News and a QuestionFirst the bad news: Trump won.<br />
<br />
Now for the good news: Hillary lost.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">(T)he force most responsible for creating the nightmare in which we now find ourselves wide awake: neoliberalism. That worldview – fully embodied by <a class="u-underline" data-component="auto-linked-tag" data-link-name="auto-linked-tag" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/hillary-clinton">Hillary Clinton</a> and her machine – is no match for Trump-style extremism. The decision to run one against the other is what sealed our fate. If we learn nothing else, can we please learn from that mistake? <i><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/09/rise-of-the-davos-class-sealed-americas-fate" target="_blank">Naomi Klein - The Guardian</a></i></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Many of history's great moments are written by such details; as this <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_Want_of_a_Nail" target="_blank">famous poem</a> illustrates:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For want of a nail the shoe was lost.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For want of a shoe the horse was lost.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For want of a horse the rider was lost.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For want of a rider the message was lost.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For want of a message the battle was lost.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And all for the want of a nail.</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
And it turns out that the good news is truer than the bad news. Look at the graph below:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo9KVa2P3FQi9F5j3xPhZKI80AGn9dGThi0yxV2Uk8llQiEtqx27VF5MYcG-Ste2JJbbMcLHLjT26f0v89h6EkBAG6uxQYvsgeoC5asZrDA0qixkj0Xlj-gLEJki8ydVYnAWiS3w/s1600/Votes-presidential-candidates.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo9KVa2P3FQi9F5j3xPhZKI80AGn9dGThi0yxV2Uk8llQiEtqx27VF5MYcG-Ste2JJbbMcLHLjT26f0v89h6EkBAG6uxQYvsgeoC5asZrDA0qixkj0Xlj-gLEJki8ydVYnAWiS3w/s640/Votes-presidential-candidates.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-weight: bold;"> Not a Trump landslide, but rather a Hillary collapse </span><i><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">hat<b> </b></span>@jonathanwebber</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Looking at the graph it's obvious that probably any other Republican could have defeated Hillary Clinton and that any other Democrat (certainly Bernie Sanders) could have defeated Trump. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This means that, thanks to the Clinton machine's insistence on Hillary's entitlement, the absurd face of Donald Trump will someday grace a postage stamp, but more importantly, this also means that the Democratic party is either going to move more to the social-democratic left or disappear... and that is <i>really </i>good news.</div>
<br />
And now for a question:<br />
<br />
Is globalization dead or does it just smell that way?<br />
<br />
Stay tuned.<b style="color: #38761d;"> DS</b><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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version of something I wrote several years ago, which I felt with a few minor changes would be more timely today than when I first
wrote it.</span></i><br />
<div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;">
<div>
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></i></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="Shinola" border="0" class="alignright" height="194" src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/127/429574303_3631328e0e.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="200" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 10.56px;">Shinola, take a whiff</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/127/429574303_3631328e0e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">In American-Speak someone of little understanding is said to be unable to distinguish between excrement and shoe polish, we say then that he or she "can't tell shit from Shinola." It appears that a perhaps critical mass of Americans have taken it upon themselves to investigate the why and the how of the odor coming from the collective "shoe" and have set about to do something about it. Not a moment too soon if the the never ending antics of the Republican House of Representatives or the appearance of a nightmarish buffoon like Donald Trump, are any sort of leading olfactory indicators of the nation's mental health. </span><br />
<br />
Contemplating the mere possibility that something that should only be handled with forceps like Trump could now lead a party once led by Abraham Lincoln or Dwight Eisenhower; o<span style="font-family: inherit;">ne gets the feeling that the spirit of the republic is a little like the Bruce Willis character in </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">The Sixth Sense,</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> dead, but doesn't know it yet. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In that film, only one small boy seems to understand the situation. Today the social media are crowded with "small boys" of every political, or conspiracy stripe, all of them shouting out their versions of the system's multi-odorous shoe.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">There is certainly a
sense that something is terribly wrong, something mysterious, but I
think it could be something quite simple, if intractable, that is
afflicting the system. Like the Bruce Willis character, we really don't
understand our true situation. In my opinion we are going through
something similar to what the USSR went through nearly twenty five years ago. Twenty five years may seem a long time to someone under
forty, but in historical terms it is nothing more than a blink of the
eye. After all, from the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919 to the outbreak of
World War Two in 1939 was only <i>twenty</i> years.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Absurd, you say, the two
systems are totally different, like oil and water ... on the contrary, I would say that
the similarities between them are more interesting than the differences and that
America has simply been more efficient than the USSR ever was in resisting
the same acids that are eating away at its structures of social control in much the same
way as they devoured the Soviet's.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Both the USSR and the USA
have relied on huge government spending to propel their economies. The
role of government funded research has been essential in almost every
high tech area: computers, the Internet, aviation, etc, in all of them
the input of the state has been paramount. Where the United States won
hands down was in turning the sophisticated technology so expensively
acquired into affordable consumer products and fomenting never-never
credit to keep them affordable when salaries stagnated.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"What about freedom?" you
say, to which I would reply that the social control of the Soviet
system was extraordinarily brutal and primitive compared to our system
of social control, which is infinitely more sophisticated than theirs
was. I never lived in the Soviet Union and my experience of how a
well-oiled dictatorship controls public opinion comes from having lived
in Franco's Spain. Franco lasted forty years and the Soviets lasted
seventy. Although the USSR was communist and Spain's regime was
authoritarian/fascist, the similarities in maintaining control were great.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Under Franco, all
newspapers were of course owned by people approved of by the regime,
however until very late into the dictatorship, all articles appearing in
them were previously censored by government officials before publication, after previous censorship ceased any
violation of the regime's standards could be punished by imprisonment
and fines. There was only one television channel to begin with, later
two, both state owned and censored, as were all books, stage plays and
films, which were previously dubbed into Spanish, (<a href="http://theculturetrip.com/europe/spain/articles/spanish-cinema-why-all-the-dubbing/" target="_blank">with often curious results</a>). There were private
radio stations, but they all connected to the state radio for their
hourly news programs. Here is something that will give you an idea of
how paranoiac such a regime can be: radio dispatched taxis came into use
in the USA in the late 1940s, but they were still forbidden in Spain
until well after the dictator's death in 1975, as <i>they constituted an
independent communication network outside state control</i>. There is no way
that the Franco regime could have ever tolerated the Internet, cell
phones, SMS or social networks such as Twitter or Whatsapp.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Getting back to the
Soviet Union I have read that you needed very high level permission to
even have <i>access</i> to a photocopying machine there. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat" target="_blank">Thus the modest mimeograph machine was an important instrument in the USSR's downfall</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Bottom line: A system of social control
cannot operate successfully in an environment of free movement of
information.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is where, until now, the USA has
always been more sophisticated and effective, however, like the
mysterious intruder in Edgar Allen Poe's "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Masque_of_the_Red_Death" target="_blank">The Masque of the Red Death</a>,"
you can run, but you can't hide and the same access to information that brought down
the Soviets and would have made Franco's regime impossible, have in America morphed under the combination of military technology,' hooked to an
insatiable consumer society, and are now even eating away at the US system.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">As we observe in the
political paralysis of today, we can see that the Founding Fathers of 18th century, in an America then WASP, religiously and ethnically quite homogeneous, created a political structure that was not designed to
reflect a society as complex and multifaceted as contemporary America's
has turned out to be.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The centrifugal forces of
a country as huge and diverse as America's were kept more or less
under control until recently by what <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCUQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FEdward_Bernays&ei=QbnbTsyKN9S38gOok6j8DQ&usg=AFQjCNHo7FfXZvWXJOLy3WsORArxM-vvcQ" target="_blank">Edward Bernays</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Lippmann#Legacy:_Almond-Lippman_Consensus" target="_blank">Walter Lippmann</a> called, "<a href="http://www2.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/consent.html" target="_blank">the management of consent</a>,"
that is to say the American science of public relations applied to
forming public opinion. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Heretofore "freedom of the press" </span>in the first place <span style="font-family: inherit;">required enough money to buy a press, therefore the creation of
opinion was in the safe hands of people with enough money to pay to
play. The major newspapers, radio and TV networks and of course
Hollywood all worked together naturally to manufacture a national
opinion leading to political consensus. Compare this to Twitter and cellphone videos of the police shooting black people.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Herein lies the
importance of the recent idea of the "people" being 99% and <i>everything</i> being owned and run for the benefit of the "one-percent": this is a self generating
phenomenon, which has required minimal capital outlay to influence the
opinion of millions of people, and which is helping a critical mass of opinion to "tell
the shit from the Shinola". The downside of all this being political instability.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This phenomenon is totally outside the control of those
who have always manufactured consent until now. As an example: </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Cronkite#Public_credibility_and_trustworthiness" target="_blank">Walter Cronkite's role as the symbol of unified national opinion </a>would be impossible today.<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is only the
beginning, in a couple of years we will be look back on this present moment tenderly like
watching a home movie of a baby's first steps.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">However "our" system has
been reacting to this danger which its own technology and marketing have
produced and under the cover of the war on
terrorism, the National Security Agency. the FBI or the guardians of intellectual property, are putting
mechanisms in place that only await a "national emergency" to tug on our
leash.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In short this is a fight that is never fully won, but never must be lost.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">A toast to Shinola! <span style="color: #38761d;"><b>DS</b></span></span></div>
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</script></div>David Seaton's Newslinkshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00269813419598042699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36646589.post-34255326825049063882016-09-10T17:10:00.000+02:002016-09-10T19:21:29.905+02:00Fear breeds evil: Trump is only a symptom of much worse to come <div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"It is fear that brings misery, fear that brings death, fear that breeds evil."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Vivekananda" target="_blank">Swami Vivekananda</a></span></i><br />
<i><br />
</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Vivekananda, the Indian, patriot-saint, whose teachings inspired Mahatma Gandhi, spoke about fear breeding evil in the late 19th century. This was long before a massive wave of post-defeat inflation, which destroyed the savings of its middle class, caused a terrified Germany, home of Goethe, Hegel, <a href="http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/m/meister_eckhart.html" target="_blank">Meister Ekhart</a> and Einstein, to hand over its destiny and the lives of many millions of Europeans to an insane, failed water-colorist, ex-corporal, from Vienna...<a href="http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/chapter_07.htm" target="_blank"> all with the blessing of Germany's "one-percent</a>". <br />
<br />
The lesson being, if the corrosive, poisoning effects of fear could cause that nightmare to happen in one the world's most educated and civilized nations, it could happen anywhere and that certainly includes today's United States of America.<br />
<br />
Fear as Vivekananda said, "breeds evil". You could say that fear weakens the "political immune system" of a nation and that a "symptom" of an acute failure of that political immune system might be the sudden appearance of the bizarre, massively unqualified figure of Donald Trump as a serious candidate for the US presidency, with its capacity to turn the world into atomic ashes, something which in political terms could be compared to the <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=kaposi+sarcoma+pictures&espv=2&biw=1448&bih=902&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi6uM-Wh_vOAhWK6xQKHQ4fAvgQ_AUIBigB&dpr=1" target="_blank">spectacular Kaposi sarcomas</a> which in the early 1980s announced the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.<br />
<br />
Or if you prefer even racier metaphors, The Donald could be a sort of wacky "John the Baptist" for the Anti-Christ...<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Imagine, though, a different figure, someone with Mr. Trump’s callousness but without the thin skin, lack of self-control and fragile, oversize ego. Imagine, in other words, a demagogue who embodies the dynamics of America’s pervasive commercial atmosphere, but who is smart, cunning, self-aware and self-disciplined(...)We had better prepare for such a person. In business, Mr. Trump might be called a beta test, or a “proof of concept.” To that end, he has already succeeded. <i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/10/opinion/campaign-stops/the-selling-of-donald-j-trump.html" target="_blank">Lee Siegel - New York Times</a></i></span></blockquote>
Mark Twain said that history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The troubled psyche requires a scapegoat. For Hitler, it was the Jews, among others. Today scapegoats are sought everywhere for the widespread feeling that something is amiss: that jobs are being lost; that precariousness has replaced security; that incomes are stagnant or falling; that politicians have been bought; that the bankers behind the 2008 meltdown got off unscathed; that immigrants are free riders; that inequality is out of control; that tax systems are skewed; that terrorists are everywhere. </span><i style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/23/opinion/my-daughter-the-pole.html" target="_blank">Roger Cohen - New York Times</a> </i></blockquote>
</div>
What is the objective reality behind the fear that so many people feel today?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">When (</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">some economists and technologists)</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> peer deeply into labor-market data, they see troubling signs, masked for now by a cyclical recovery. And when they look up from their spreadsheets, they see automation high and low—robots in the operating room and behind the fast-food counter. They imagine self-driving cars snaking through the streets and Amazon drones dotting the sky, replacing millions of drivers, warehouse stockers, and retail workers. They observe that the capabilities of machines—already formidable—continue to expand exponentially, while our own remain the same. And they wonder: Is any job truly safe?(...) The share of prime-age Americans (25 to 54 years old) who are working has been trending down since 2000. Among men, the decline began even earlier: the share of prime-age men who are neither working nor looking for work has doubled since the late 1970s, and has increased as much throughout the recovery as it did during the Great Recession itself. All in all, about one in six prime-age men today are either unemployed or out of the workforce altogether. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/07/world-without-work/395294/" target="_blank">The Atlantic</a></i></blockquote>
<div>
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Andrew McAfee, associate director of the MIT Center for Digital Business at the Sloan School of Management,(…) despite his obvious enthusiasm for the technologies, doesn’t see the recently vanished jobs coming back. The pressure on employment and the resulting inequality will only get worse, he suggests, as digital technologies—fueled with “enough computing power, data, and geeks”—continue their exponential advances over the next several decades. “I would like to be wrong,” he says, <b style="text-align: justify;">“but when all these science-fiction technologies are deployed, what will we need all the people for?” </b><span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(<i>emphasis mine</i>)</span></span><b style="text-align: justify;"> </b><a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/515926/how-technology-is-destroying-jobs/" target="_blank">MIT Technology Review Magazine</a></span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">"I love the poorly educated"</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/02/24/donald-trump-wins-nevada-caucuses-sot.cnn" target="_blank">Donald Trump</a></span></i></div>
<br />
When we say, "We the people"... Who exactly are "We"? Who are the winners and the losers going to be in our "brave new world"?<br />
<br />
Here is a graph to show the spread of intelligence (hint: most well paying jobs in the future will go to the light purple to red IQs on the right side of the graph)</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNKniFZdT7TyXwssmPh_Jmk9D2jSUqN32r_Ig38VSLHJwbPTAsQpLJZTfDZve6FO5O7t-Pa79GmsVVLh9N8aUYsefBj0-X9B1x0be9tRWPZTqmYKNAKHk8Yjf4K_9Oa3MjnRrxIw/s1600/IQchart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="417" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNKniFZdT7TyXwssmPh_Jmk9D2jSUqN32r_Ig38VSLHJwbPTAsQpLJZTfDZve6FO5O7t-Pa79GmsVVLh9N8aUYsefBj0-X9B1x0be9tRWPZTqmYKNAKHk8Yjf4K_9Oa3MjnRrxIw/s640/IQchart.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;"><i style="font-size: small; text-align: justify;">Credit <a href="http://www.archure.net/">http://www.archure.net</a>/</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Lets clarify even further what "average" means:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="text-align: justify;">The average IQ of the population as a whole is, by definition, 100. IQs range from 0 to above 200, and among children, to above 250. However, </span><b style="text-align: justify;">about 50% of the population have IQs between 89 and 111, and about 80% of the population have IQs ranging between 80 and 120,</b><span style="text-align: justify;"> with 10% lying below 80, and 10% falling above 120.(<i>emphasis mine) <i style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://hiqnews.megafoundation.org/Definition_of_IQ1.html" style="text-align: justify;">hiqnews.megafoundation.org</a></i></i></span></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Here is a chart that shows what you can do with the following IQs:</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Table 1 - Practical Significance of IQ - </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://hiqnews.megafoundation.org/Definition_of_IQ1.html"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: blue; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">hiqnews.megafoundation.org</span></i></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="mso-cellspacing: 1.5pt; mso-padding-alt: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184; width: 769px;"><tbody>
<tr> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 69.75pt;" width="93"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">IQ Range</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 66.75pt;" width="89"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Frequency</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 102.0pt;" width="136"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Cumulative</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Frequency</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 125.25pt;" width="167"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Typical Educability</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 180.0pt;" width="240"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Employment</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Options</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 69.75pt;" width="93"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Below 30</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 66.75pt;" width="89"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">1%</span></div>
</td><td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 102.0pt;" width="136"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">1% below 30</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 125.25pt;" width="167"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Illiterate</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 180.0pt;" width="240"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Unemployable. Institutionalized.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 69.75pt;" width="93"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">30 to 50</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 66.75pt;" width="89"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">1%</span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 102.0pt;" width="136"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">1% below 50</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 125.25pt;" width="167"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;">1st-Grade to 3rd-Grade</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 180.0pt;" width="240"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Simple, non-critical household chores.</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 69.75pt;" width="93"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">50 to 60</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 66.75pt;" width="89"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">1%</span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 102.0pt;" width="136"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">1.5% below 60</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 125.25pt;" width="167"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;">3rd-Grade to 6th-grade</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 180.0pt;" width="240"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Very simple tasks, close supervision.</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 69.75pt;" width="93"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">60 to 74</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 66.75pt;" width="89"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">3.5%</span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 102.0pt;" width="136"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">5% below 74</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 125.25pt;" width="167"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;">6th-Grade to 8th-Grade</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 180.0pt;" width="240"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">"Slow, simple, supervised."</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 69.75pt;" width="93"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">74 to 89</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 66.75pt;" width="89"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">20%</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 102.0pt;" width="136"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">25% below 89</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 125.25pt;" width="167"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;">8th-Grade to 12th-Grade</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 180.0pt;" width="240"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Assembler, food service, nurse's aide</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 69.75pt;" width="93"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">89 to 100</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 66.75pt;" width="89"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">25%</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 102.0pt;" width="136"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">50% below 100</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 125.25pt;" width="167"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;">8th-Grade to 1-2 years of College.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 180.0pt;" width="240"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Clerk, teller, Walmart</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 69.75pt;" width="93"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">100 to 111</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 66.75pt;" width="89"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">50%</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 102.0pt;" width="136"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">1 in 2 above 100</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 125.25pt;" width="167"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;">12th-Grade to College Degree</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 180.0pt;" width="240"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Police officer, machinist, sales</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 69.75pt;" width="93"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">111 to 120</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 66.75pt;" width="89"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">15%</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 102.0pt;" width="136"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">1 in 4 above 111</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 125.25pt;" width="167"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">College to Master's Level</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 180.0pt;" width="240"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Manager, teacher, accountant</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 69.75pt;" width="93"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">120 to 125</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 66.75pt;" width="89"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">5%</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 102.0pt;" width="136"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">1 in 10 above 120</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 125.25pt;" width="167"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;">College to Non-Technical Ph. D.'s.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 180.0pt;" width="240"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Manager, professor, accountant</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 69.75pt;" width="93"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">125 to 132</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 66.75pt;" width="89"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">3%</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 102.0pt;" width="136"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">1 in 20 above 125</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 125.25pt;" width="167"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Any Ph. D. at 3rd-Tier Schools</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 180.0pt;" width="240"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Attorney, editor, executive.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 69.75pt;" width="93"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">132 to 137</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 66.75pt;" width="89"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">1%</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 102.0pt;" width="136"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">1 in 50 above 132</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 125.25pt;" width="167"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">No limitations.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 180.0pt;" width="240"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Eminent professor, editor</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 69.75pt;" width="93"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">137 to 150</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 66.75pt;" width="89"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">0.9%</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 102.0pt;" width="136"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">1 in 100 above 137</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 125.25pt;" width="167"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">No limitations.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 180.0pt;" width="240"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Leading math, physics professor</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 69.75pt;" width="93"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">150 to 160</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 66.75pt;" width="89"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">0.1%</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 102.0pt;" width="136"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">1 in 1,100 above 150</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 125.25pt;" width="167"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">No limitations</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 180.0pt;" width="240"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Lincoln, Copernicus, Jefferson</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 69.75pt;" width="93"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">160 to 174</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 66.75pt;" width="89"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">0.01%</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 102.0pt;" width="136"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">1 in 11,000 above 160</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 125.25pt;" width="167"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">No limitations</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 180.0pt;" width="240"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Descartes, Einstein, Spinoza</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> </tr>
<tr> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 69.75pt;" width="93"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">174 to 200</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 66.75pt;" width="89"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">0.0099%</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 102.0pt;" width="136"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">1 in 1,000,000</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">above 174</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 125.25pt;" width="167"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">No limitations</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> <td style="padding: 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt 1.5pt; width: 180.0pt;" width="240"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">Shakespeare, Goethe, Newton</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td> </tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If these charts are correct it means that 90% of America's population is at the very best intellectually fitted for nothing more than then AI vulnerable jobs like "manager, teacher, accountant" and only 15% could even aspire to that. 75% are between 89 and 111. All of those jobs from manager on down to <a href="http://www.caregiving.org/">caregivers</a> and <a href="http://metro.co.uk/2016/09/06/sex-robots-will-be-better-in-bed-than-any-human-being-expert-promises-6113375/" target="_blank">perhaps even sex workers</a> are vulnerable to the rapid advances in artificial intelligence.<br />
<br />
And don't imagine that China, often the villain of American job loss, is any different. <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/1dbd8c60-0cc6-11e6-ad80-67655613c2d6.html" target="_blank">The Chinese are leading the world in Robitics</a>. The loss of industrial jobs for "average" people is a world problem and the Chinese, like the Japanese, or Europeans for that matter, at least have the excuse that their population is rapidly aging.<br />
<br />
However:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Largely as a result of higher fertility rates and immigration, America’s population, while ageing, is nonetheless likely to remain distinctly younger than other developed countries. <i><a href="http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/31/4/776.full" target="_blank">Oxford Journals</a></i></span></blockquote>
It seems obvious that there is a critical mass of American citizens/voters who have every right to feel afraid and as Vivekananda said, "It is fear that brings misery, fear that brings death, fear that breeds evil.". This is the stagnant pool where demagogues like Donald Trump swim and flourish.</div>
</div>
<br />
<b>What or who created good jobs for people with average intelligence in the first place?</b><br />
<br />
<div>
<table cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihc0t-eggvF5IjTskeygpkaQUA3GPA7EKtlaCIieEdSzeloF9ydiiiazy1AjtD5Qq5q_chscxJc0W7RbrTbJ7vI_l0FxoEfdAyDYXEs_Bok6GISs_PA_0PfUIRAkUQ_BSJPpERcA/s1600/Henry+Ford.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihc0t-eggvF5IjTskeygpkaQUA3GPA7EKtlaCIieEdSzeloF9ydiiiazy1AjtD5Qq5q_chscxJc0W7RbrTbJ7vI_l0FxoEfdAyDYXEs_Bok6GISs_PA_0PfUIRAkUQ_BSJPpERcA/s200/Henry+Ford.jpg" title="" width="155" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Henry Ford</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A good symbol of the economy that is disappearing would be <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford" target="_blank">Henry Ford</a> and the philosophy behind that economy and American's legendary prosperity could probably be summed up by these two quotes of his:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs </span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Paying good wages is not charity at all - it is the best kind of business</span> </span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Those two ideas, making complex things cheaply and paying basically low-skilled workers well, changed the world and created a stable, property owning, comfortable, middle class life style for millions of Americans with only a high school education or less, and gave the United States a political stability that was the envy of the entire world. That stability is disappearing/has disappeared as of today and fear... and the evil fear brings are the result. And soon even highly skilled workers and people with graduate degrees will probably be finding themselves facing the same realities as the poorly educated do today... if they aren't already.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/media/images/60604000/jpg/_60604013_fordpackardplant(9)640x350.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/media/images/60604000/jpg/_60604013_fordpackardplant(9)640x350.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Henry Ford's Detroit factory today</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
As we try to predict the future of the few winners and many losers of today's technological revolution, it might be useful to consider the fate of the losers (and they lost big) of Ford's technological revolution.<br />
<br />
This is what big city traffic looked like before Henry Ford made cheap automobiles ubiquitous.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="525" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cqCJJNioiGI" width="700"></iframe><br />
<br />
This film was shot in London, but it could just as well have been made in New York or Chicago.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What is shown in 1890s London that is missing from today's city streets?<br />
<br />
Horses.<br />
<br />
The streets then, the world itself, was full of horses, millions and millions of horses. For thousands of years horses had accompanied humanity and done them great service. The word for horse in Spanish is "caballo" and the word for gentleman is "caballero". Our relationship was once that close:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Due to its natural companionship with man in both work and art, the Horse easily wins a special seat in history, ranking high marks of honor, reverence and symbolism. Serving man in war, mobility, productivity, agriculture, development of all kinds, the Horse is by far one of the largest contributor to the enhancement of civilization. <i><a href="http://www.whats-your-sign.com/horse-symbol-meanings.html" target="_blank">Avia Venefica</a></i></span></blockquote>
Then...<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars people said, 'Nah, what's wrong with a horse?' That was a huge bet he made, and it worked. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk" target="_blank">Elon Musk</a></i></span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In a very short time a much loved symbol of the "enhancement of civilization" almost disappeared simply for economic reasons.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What sort of "jobs" are the few horse left doing? What sort of insight could this give us to the future of the masses of today's humans who wont be relevant in tomorrow's new technological environment?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Well, a horse that is very fast or very beautiful, plays polo, does tricks or is very "good with children" still has a place in today's world of the wealthy and the chance of a comfortable, pleasant life. Other less desirable "careers" might be that of a "trail horse" in a summer camp... or participating actively in steak tartar.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But you say, "this horse metaphor is ridiculous, horses are animals and people are well, 'people' ... human beings, 'endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights' and so forth". But what this really boils down to, is that horses couldn't vote and unlike so many Americans today didn't possess fully automatic assault rifles with banana clips. In short eliminating horses from American life because they were no longer needed or profitable had little or no danger or political cost.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;">
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So leaving aside the precedents of certain 20th century figures like Stalin, Hitler and Pol Pot, we can safely assume that Americans with average to low IQs are not going to be physically eliminated. </div>
</div>
<br />
Where are we headed then?<br />
<br />
If we want to be optimistic we can see ourselves looking at the problem as <a href="http://cs.brown.edu/~mlittman/" target="_blank">Michael Littman</a> does:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
We can turn machines into workers — they can be labor, and that actually deeply undercuts human value. My biggest concern at the moment is that we as a society find a way of valuing people not just for the work they do. We need to value each other first and foremost. Make it clear that the machines that we're talking about are machines to benefit everybody and not just the people that have them. <i><a href="http://www.techinsider.io/researchers-predictions-future-artificial-intelligence-2015-10/#because-of-that-michael-littman-says-we-will-have-to-rethink-how-we-value-people-18">Michael Littman, computer scientist at Brown University - Tech Insider</a></i></blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
A skeptic might imagine one of the "great and the good", a "one-percent-er" reading that and thinking, "how much is all<i> that </i>going to cost?" and saying, "not by raising <i>my</i> taxes" and then contributing heavily to the campaign funding of any politician or media group dedicated to fighting Littman's point of view.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
What will the future AI/robotic America probably look like then?<br />
<br />
You won't need much of an imagination to envision where we are going. Think of a big country, thickly peopled, rich in natural resources with a first class scientific and cultural establishment and many mega-billionaires... and enormous masses of desperately poor people... Say, Brazil or India</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
In short, in the foreseeable future, or the United States of America is going to turn into a nightmare of human misery something like the <a href="https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2014-12/15/2/enhanced/webdr09/enhanced-buzz-wide-32235-1418627963-7.jpg" target="_blank">slums of Calcutta</a>, the <a href="http://en.mercopress.com/data/cache/noticias/29666/0x0/favela-rio.jpg" target="_blank">favelas</a> of Rio de Janeiro or <a href="http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/130719173650-ym-romans-harlow-detroit-bankruptcy-00000708-story-top.jpg" target="_blank">today's Detroit</a> and the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37292306?SThisFB" target="_blank">South Side of Chicago</a>, or the elected representatives of the millions of “unneeded human beings” are going to have to fund the massive government expenditures that are going to have to be made in public education, social support, socialized medicine, day care centers and public “make work” projects of all kinds. This is what libertarian billionaire, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel" target="_blank">Peter Thiel</a> probably meant when he said that <a href="http://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian" target="_blank">freedom and democracy are incompatible</a>. He surely means that in a democracy <i>his</i> freedom to do what he and other billionaires want to do with their money would be severely curtailed.<br />
<br />
In short, American big money will be as cool with this nightmare scenario as their Indian and Brazilian counterparts and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnQoVZdPq_Y" target="_blank">like a boxer tying up his opponent in a clinch</a>, will happily finance every nutcase and corrupt politician they can find to avoid this future sacrifice of their power, wealth and privilege. <b><span style="color: #38761d;">DS</span></b></div>
<br /></div>
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The festive celebration of elderly, white-American andropause held in Cleveland Ohio drew to its close without bloodshed. For this we can be truly thankful. Coming next, the coronation of Hillary Clinton in Philadelphia, the "city of brotherly love". It has been commented that Donald Trump is the only Republican that Hillary Clinton could defeat and that Hillary Clinton is the only Democrat that Donald Trump could defeat. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The winner gets the atomic bomb.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For me that is the decisive fact. Hillary Clinton is not very honest and her judgement is questionable, but she is not mentally ill. Donald Trump is neither honest nor trustworthy, either, but on top of that, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/07/trump-and-sociopathy/491966/?utm_source=atltw" target="_blank">I seriously doubt his sanity</a>, The idea of Donald Trump in possession of the atomic bomb is unacceptable. For me it is that simple.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This campaign for the presidency of the United States of America shows every sign of becoming the ugliest, dirtiest one in American history. With my mind already made up and as a matter of elementary mental hygiene, I don't want to follow it blow by blow, wading in the filth. These coming months, not being able to retire to a cave in the Himalayas, I hope to find other things to write about. <span style="color: #38761d;"><b>DS</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thoughts for the day:</span><br />
<blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“A Republic, if you can keep it.”</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Benjamin Franklin</span></i></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>John 8:32 - King James Version</i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Freedom? For whom? To do what?"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov</i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"To whom much was given, of him much will be required"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i>Luke 12:49 · Luke 12:47 · King James Bible </i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">Understanding the world today would be much simpler if we conceded that gradually after WWII and picking up speed dramatically after 9-11, the United States has evolved into a corporate-military-security state... in short a "regime"; </span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> a</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">nd like our old, Cold War<span style="font-family: inherit;"> opponent<span style="font-family: inherit;">s</span></span>, the Soviet Union, (which was also a corporate-military-security state-regime), we need to wrap our realpolitik in millenarian ideology... "</span><i style="font-family: inherit;">We are building global democratic capitalism comrades</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">".</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">The</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">"end of history</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">" and all that... while we force-feed political prisoners in our Guantanamo gulag, kill American citizens without trial, etc, etc.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">America’s post-September 11th national-security state has become so well financed, so divided into secret compartments, so technically capable, so self-perpetuating, and so captured by profit-seeking contractors bidding on the next big idea about big-data mining that intelligence leaders seem to have lost their facility to think independently. Who is deciding what spying projects matter most and why? <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/07/nsa-costly-european-adventure.html" target="_blank"><i>The New Yorker</i></a></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here are two examples of who we <i>say</i> we are: </span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><i><a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-109publ102/html/PLAW-109publ102.htm" target="_blank">Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2006</a> </i></span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available pursuant to this act shall be obligated or expended to finance directly any assistance to any country whose duly elected head of government is deposed by military coup or decree." </span><a href="https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-109publ102/html/PLAW-109publ102.htm" target="_blank"><i>109th Congress Public Law 102</i></a><br />
<pre></pre>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So we face a historic opportunity. We have the chance to show that America values the dignity of the street vendor in Tunisia more than the raw power of the dictator. There must be no doubt that the United States of America welcomes change that advances self-determination and opportunity.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">(...) </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And now we cannot hesitate to stand squarely on the side of those who are reaching for their rights, knowing that their success will bring about a world that is more peaceful, more stable, and more just.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/19/remarks-president-middle-east-and-north-africa" target="_blank">Barack Obama - May 19, 2011</a></i></blockquote>
Followed by an example of who we <i>really</i> are:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">On 3 July 2013, Egyptian army chief General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi led a coalition to remove the only democratically elected President of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, from power and suspended the Egyptian constitution.(...) The US refused to describe the action as a coup.(...) Ensuing protests in favour of Morsi were violently suppressed with the dispersal and massacre of pro-Morsi sit-ins on 14 August 2013, amid ongoing unrest; journalists, and several hundred to a few thousand protestors were killed by police and military force. </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Egyptian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat">Wikipedia</a></i></blockquote>
A clear example of our reality might be the contrast between <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Beginning" target="_blank">Obama's Cairo speech</a> in 2009 or <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/19/remarks-president-middle-east-and-north-africa" target="_blank">the public encouragement of the "Arab Spring"</a> and then supporting the military <i>coup d'état i</i>n Egypt, that soon followed their first free elections in history<i> </i>(<a href="http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-109publ102/html/PLAW-109publ102.htm" target="_blank">while because of 109th Congress Public Law 102, denying it <i>was</i> a coup</a>) <span style="font-family: inherit;">where an army that literally</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">lives</i><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">off American aid (in exchange for not troubling Israel) massacres the supporters of a legitimate, democratically elected government that they have overthrown</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">manu militari</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">, without the White House even giving them a sharp tug on their leash... impossible for anyone, anywhere, to believe that the USA hadn't colluded in it... Perfectly comp<span style="font-family: inherit;">arable to the Soviets invading <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact_invasion_of_Czechoslovakia" target="_blank">Pra</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Pact_invasion_of_Czechoslovakia" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">g</span>ue in 1968</a> </span></span>to "<a href="https://www.google.es/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiFg5X8yvPNAhWB7hoKHXZnAPgQFggmMAI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FReal_socialism&usg=AFQjCNHNH1GA7Au2NL3lkkvULD1E3Iu-AA&sig2=OSg4nUneZoHzJd8_EJXsLA" target="_blank">defend 'real existing socialism</a>'<span style="font-family: inherit;">"</span>... <span style="font-family: inherit;">A</span>ll of this brings us face to face with our hypocrisy... rubs our noses in it really.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">Perhaps hypocrisy is to be preferred to cynicism though, because as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_de_La_Rochefoucauld_%28writer%29" target="_blank">La Rochefoucauld</a> famously said, "<i>Hypocrisy is the homage which vice pays to virtue</i>", which means that if good didn't exist, bad people wouldn't have to pretend to be good... Which is probably the best you can say about America's present performance on the world stage.</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Sort of the "Soviet Union Light".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">What was it that brought the mastodonic Soviet superpower crashing to oblivion, the straw that broke the camel's back?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">finally </span></span>caused the USSR to unravel was t</span>he simple <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">free move<span style="font-family: inherit;">m</span>ent</span> of information</a></span>, it was merely<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1989-10-05/news/mn-913_1_soviet-union" target="_blank"> allowing Soviet citizens full, free access to the ordinary photocopying machine</a>. That is what brought down the Soviet system.<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: start;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: start;">Could it be a vulnerability that both superpowers might have some</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">how</span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: start;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: start;">in common?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">What could be America's version of the USSR's Xerox-Achilles heel.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">Today facing the security state we have the ubiquitous cellphone video camera connected to Facebook and Twitter, plus a population armed to the teeth, in a country where in many places <span style="font-family: inherit;">"<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_carry_in_the_United_States" target="_blank">open carry</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">" is legal. This is</span></span> a combination whose dissolvent effects on public order we are just beginning to sample.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In Dallas, the police's use of an exploding robot also gives a sinister hint of the militarization of America's police forces that the establishment feels might be "necessary" if that public order were to be severely endangered. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">What sort of endangerment? Where could this be leading<span style="font-family: inherit;">? </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We might find out very soon. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ho<span style="font-family: inherit;">w about this for <span style="font-family: inherit;">a possibl<span style="font-family: inherit;">y historic <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=clusterfuck" target="_blank">clusterfuck</a>? Ar<span style="font-family: inherit;">med to the teeth Black Panther activists <a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/slipstream" target="_blank">slipstreaming</a> the Black Lives Matter movem<span style="font-family: inherit;">ent</span> go to the <span style="font-family: inherit;">Republican convention is Cleveland Ohio, to protest <span style="font-family: inherit;">Donald Trump's racism, where the<span style="font-family: inherit;">y will meet <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/05/trump-white-power-delegate-illinois-lori-gayne" target="_blank">white power Trump supporters</a> also armed to the teeth<span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This in a state (Ohio) where <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/ohio-police-fatally-shoot-child-carrying-toy-gun" target="_blank">a black child carrying a <i>toy</i> rifle could be shot by the police</a>.<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span> </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The New Black Panther Party, a "black power" movement, will carry firearms for self-defense during rallies in Cleveland ahead of next week's Republican convention (...) </span>Several other groups, including some supporters of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, have said they will carry weapons in Cleveland.(...) Officials in Ohio have said it will be legal for protesters to carry weapons at demonstrations outside the convention under that state’s "open carry" law, which allows civilians to carry guns in public. <i><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-police-blackpanthers-exclusive-idUSKCN0ZS1Z7">Reuters</a></i></span></blockquote>
The ingredients for anarchy are all there. If not now, when?<br />
<br />
If something dreadful doesn't happen, we might take it as a sign that America's famous luck has not quite run out... yet<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Where could the combination of all of th<span style="font-family: inherit;">ese ingredi<span style="font-family: inherit;">ents</span></span> be heading?</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwz6Uotb1I9mofyczSQi1e49APvuln7VMgg7b8QCJUK24bgBiddr7ilSUv9qV5G7yIdY6nFmhf_cEWbwMbKSl492QyeArF4I7sms7HqiMQ_LXpxrK7am8hJn2ikZTdIq3l-aNFxA/s1600/Karl-o.jpg">A<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span>wise old fellow</a> once said something to the effect that the present cannot judge itself, anymore than we can judge a person by what he thinks of himself<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">...</span> that time alone will be the judge of our present affairs, but that old man also said that the present is always <i>pregnant</i> with the future and in time it will be clear that everything that is to come tomorrow was present in some form today, right now, under our noses waiting to come to fruition. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">Sobering thought that.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><b style="color: #38761d; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">DS</b></div>
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If you are an American living abroad, as I do, you are naturally very conscious of the world's opinion of the USA. The question now sometimes asked directly and often implied is: How can a country of over 300 million people, the richest and most powerful in the history of the world, one that, once upon a time, produced Jefferson, Lincoln, the two Roosevelts... even Truman, Eisenhower and LBJ, end up having nothing better to choose from now than Trump and Hillary?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Donald Trump appears like a nightmare product of a poorly digested meal... I find myself much more worried by the masses of people who would support him enthusiastically than by the Donald himself. When he has gone back to his golf courses these people will remain and perhaps, someone more subtle and even more evil than Trump will find many more effective ways to exploit them.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
That leaves Hillary</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I don't like Hillary Clinton, I never have... or Bill for that matter, although he may have been the most naturally gifted politician ever to sit in the White House, he may have also been the cheesiest too. That odor of ripe Camembert follows the Clintons wherever they go. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Obama too has been quite a disappointment for me, I agree with Cornell West, that he is a "Rockefeller Republican", having said that, he and his family have had a very beneficial effect on America's image around the world. "Elegant" is the best word to describe Barack and Michelle Obama. As to his "legacy", he will probably be remembered as much for what he hasn't done, like not sending ground troops back to the Middle East, as for achievements like Obamacare, which is pitiful when compared to any European country's public health system.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
For me the choice between Trump and Hillary is clear</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Hillary Clinton may reek of Camembert, but Trump reeks of sulfur. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The biggest danger now is that many of the supporters of Bernie Sanders, among whom I am numbered, dislike (loathe) Hillary even more than Trump supporters do and if, as is nearly certain, she is the Democratic candidate, many Sanderistas may either stay home on election day, or go out and vote for a third party candidate or... even vote for Trump. In sufficient numbers this fugitive vote might end up putting a renegade villain escaped from a Marvel Comic into the White House.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The third-party option is the one that worries me most. Remember: this sort of bickering leading to Ralph Nader's votes in Florida was what brought us George W. Bush... and next to Trump, Dubya, is Joan of Arc. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The American system has been so constructed as to be very resistant to change and it is a two party system. At this moment the Republican Party seems about to commit suicide and it would be a shame if the Bernie supporters did anything to impede their Trump-led, self-destruction. After the Republicans destroy themselves in November and the Democrats take back both houses of Congress... then would be the time to split the Democratic party to left and right, not now. <b><span style="color: #38761d;">DS</span></b></div>
<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Peter_Thiel_%282014%29.jpg/400px-Peter_Thiel_%282014%29.jpg" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Peter_Thiel_%282014%29.jpg/400px-Peter_Thiel_%282014%29.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="133" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Peter Thiel </span><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Wikipedia</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Peter Thiel wrote, on April 13, 2009, in the Libertarian '<a href="http://www.cato-unbound.org/">Cato Unbound</a>' blog, <b>“Most importantly, I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”</b> In the same article, he also wrote, "Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron. <span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>(emphasis mine)</i></span> <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel">Wikipedia</a></i></span></blockquote>
</div>
How does Thiel define "freedom"?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"I remain committed to the faith of my teenage years: to authentic human freedom as a precondition for the highest good. I stand against confiscatory taxes, totalitarian collectives” <a href="http://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian"> <i>Peter Thiel - The Education of a Libertarian</i></a></span></div>
</blockquote>
Thiel thinks his freedom is incompatible with democracy. How is democracy normally defined?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b class="Latn headword" lang="en">democracy</b> (<i>plural</i> <span class="form-of lang-en plural-form-of"><b class="Latn" lang="en"><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/democracies#English" title="democracies">democracies</a></b></span>)<br />
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span class="ib-brac">(</span><span class="ib-content"><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary#uncountable" title="Appendix:Glossary">uncountable</a></span><span class="ib-brac">)</span> Rule by the people, especially as a form of <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/government" title="government">government</a>; either directly or through elected representatives (<a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/representative_democracy" title="representative democracy">representative democracy</a>).
<span class="HQToggle"> </span>
</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span class="ib-brac">(</span><span class="ib-content"><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary#countable" title="Appendix:Glossary">countable</a><span class="ib-comma">,</span> government</span><span class="ib-brac">)</span> A <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/government" title="government">government</a> under the direct or <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/representative" title="representative">representative</a> rule of the <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/people" title="people">people</a> of its <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/jurisdiction" title="jurisdiction">jurisdiction</a>.
<span class="HQToggle"> </span>
</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span class="ib-brac">(</span><span class="ib-content"><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Glossary#uncountable" title="Appendix:Glossary">uncountable</a></span><span class="ib-brac">)</span> Belief in political freedom and equality; the "spirit of democracy". </li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
"Democracy" then, means the rule of the "demos". Who are the "demos"?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b class="Latn headword" lang="en">demos</b> (<i>plural</i> <span class="form-of lang-en plural-form-of"><b class="Latn" lang="en"><a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/demoi#English" title="demoi">demoi</a></b>)</span></div>
<ol style="text-align: justify;">
<li style="text-align: justify;"><span class="ib-brac">(</span><span class="ib-content">political science</span><span class="ib-brac">)</span> The <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/commoner" title="commoner">common</a> populace of a <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/state" title="state">state</a>, the <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/people" title="people">people</a>. <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/demos"><i>Wiktiionary</i></a></li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
Where and how is Democracy incompatible with Peter Thiel's freedom?<br />
<br />
It's all quite simple, let Bernie Sanders explain:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="p-block" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This is an economic model developed by the economic elite to benefit the economic elite. We need real change.(...) We need to end the international scandal in which large corporations and the wealthy avoid paying trillions of dollars in taxes to their national governments. <a href="http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/06/29/opinion/campaign-stops/bernie-sanders-democrats-need-to-wake-up.html"><i>Bernie Sanders - New York Times</i></a></span></div>
</blockquote>
Where is Thiel-style freedom <a href="http://www.techinsider.io/momentum-machines-is-hiring-2016-6">leading</a>?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">McAfee, associate director of the MIT Center for Digital Business at the Sloan School of Management, (...)despite his obvious enthusiasm for the technologies, doesn’t see the recently vanished jobs coming back. The pressure on employment and the resulting inequality will only get worse, he suggests, as digital technologies—fueled with “enough computing power, data, and geeks”—continue their exponential advances over the next several decades. “I would like to be wrong,” he says, “but <b>when all these science-fiction technologies are deployed, what will we need all the people for</b>?” (emphasis mine) <i><a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/515926/how-technology-is-destroying-jobs/">MIT Technology Review Magazine</a></i></span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Obviously. from Peter Thiel's personal point of view, democracy and <i>his</i> freedom<i> are </i>incompatible.<br />
<br />
In Thiel's defense we should be grateful for his forthrightness, because Peter Thiel is rather innocent in his sincerity. The crafty Koch
Brothers, for example, would never come right out and express themselves
so frankly, but everything they actually <i>do</i> expresses the same view of democracy
as Thiel's.<br />
<br />
And they are not just sitting on their hands, they are up and doing something about it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The House approved a bill Tuesday that would bar the IRS from collecting
the names of donors to tax-exempt groups, prompting warnings from
campaign-finance watchdogs that it could lead to foreign interests
illegally infiltrating American elections. <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/2016/06/14/house-approves-koch-backed-bill-shield-donors-names/85886164/?siteID=je6NUbpObpQ-LIOixgcOIcpTh7N3xcR.3Q"><i>USA Today </i></a></span></blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">USA Today’s Fredreka Schouten reported that the bill is openly supported by </span><a href="http://www.mintpressnews.com/tag/koch-brothers/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Charles Koch</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">,
the older of the two “Koch Brothers,” fossil fuel billionaires whose
deep pockets hold a notoriously outsized influence on American politics. <a href="http://www.mintpressnews.com/house-passes-koch-backed-bill-aimed-opening-doors-foreign-donors-dark-money/217777/?desktop-version=on"><i>Kit O'Connell - Mint Press</i></a></span></span></div>
</blockquote>
This is nothing new. The <i>democratic state</i>, (government of the people, by the people, for the people) has always been the only possible defense of "the People" facing the powerful, who wish to dominate and exploit them.<br />
<br />
Again, knowing who the Thiels and the Kochs of this world are, who are "the People"? <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The mass of a community as distinguished from a special <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/class" title="class">class</a> (elite); the <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/commonalty" title="commonalty">commonalty</a>; the <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/populace" title="populace">populace</a>; the <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vulgar" title="vulgar">vulgar</a>; the common crowd; the <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/citizen" title="citizen">citizens</a>. <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/people"><i>Wiktionary</i></a> </blockquote>
How long has this struggle between the "Thiels and Kochs" and "the People" been going on?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop">Aesop</a>:</b> A Lion used to prowl about a field in which Four Oxen used to dwell. Many a time he tried to attack them; but whenever he came near they turned their tails to one another, so that whichever way he approached them he was met by the horns of one of them. At last, however, they fell a-quarreling among themselves, and each went off to pasture alone in a separate corner of the field. Then the Lion attacked them one by one and soon made an end of all four. <i>Moral: United we stand, divided we fall.</i></span></blockquote>
This struggle is nothing new and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iAIM02kv0g">it has no end. </a><span style="color: #38761d;"><b>DS</b></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What an irony it would be if the Leave vote led the U.K. to break up
before the E.U. does. But after a remarkable night and morning, that
didn’t seem beyond the bounds of possibility. Very little did. <i><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/brexit-vote-throws-britain-and-europe-into-turmoil">John Cassidy - The New Yorker</a></i></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
British Prime Minister, David Cameron's totally gratuitous decision to convoke a referendum on Britain's remaining in the European Union, Brexit, is a perfectly amazing example of the effects of frivolous stupidity. The rest of us are to be helpless witnesses and perhaps direct victims of his decision for years to come. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a class="meta-per" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/david_cameron/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about David Cameron.">David Cameron</a>, the British prime minister, has no one to blame but himself. In 2013, besieged by the increasingly assertive anti-<a class="meta-org" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/european_union/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about the European Union.">European Union</a>
wing of his own Conservative Party, Mr. Cameron made a promise intended
to keep a short-term peace among the Tories before the 2015 general
election: If re-elected, he would hold an in-or-out referendum on
continued British membership in the bloc. But
what seemed then like a relatively low-risk ploy to deal with a
short-term political problem has metastasized into an issue that could
badly damage <a class="meta-loc" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/unitedkingdom/index.html?inline=nyt-geo" title="More news and information about United Kingdom.">Britain</a>’s economy, influence the country’s direction for generations — and determine Mr. Cameron’s political fate. <i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/22/world/europe/david-cameron-brexit-european-union.html">New York Times</a></i></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
If you like reading history, you'll come across many examples of such frivolity and stupidity doing massive harm to millions of people. George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq is a textbook example. Millions of people have lost their homes or lives and one of the world's most critical regions is in the process of disintegrating. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Could Cameron's Brexit have an effect in any way comparable to Bush's opening the gates of hell in the Middle East? </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Knock-on effects are about cascading disasters. The world's economy is still shaky after the crash of 2008 and in today's globalized finance everything is interconnected. How could Brexit set off a chain of disasters?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
An example: UK capital, London, is today the world's most important financial center:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">London has swapped places with New York to become <a href="http://www.ft.com/indepth/london" title="London fights for its future in depth - FT.com">the world’s leading financial centre</a>, according to a detailed study of 86 cities. <i><a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/eb72290c-61ce-11e5-9846-de406ccb37f2.html">Financial Times</a></i></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It is axiomatic that money hates uncertainty:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">One of the only things we can say for sure after the Brexit decision is that the U.K. and Europe are entering a period of great uncertainty. <i><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/brexit-vote-throws-britain-and-europe-into-turmoil">The New Yorker </a></i></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
It is easy to imagine the <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/50436fde-39bb-11e6-9a05-82a9b15a8ee7.html">knock-on effects</a> of a major disruption of the intricate and intertwined activities of a place where the good and the great of the entire world go to trade currencies, bonds, shares, privileged information, launder and store their money, you name it. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">One likely outcome of negotiations is that banks and financial firms in
the City of London will be stripped of their lucrative EU “passports”
that allow them to sell services to the rest of the EU. <i><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/24/top-eu-leader-we-want-britain-out-as-soon-as-possible">The Guardian</a></i></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You can't imagine the knock-on effects of disrupting such a place? Think Lehman Brothers just for starters. If one major financial institution starts to unravel, the entire shaky recovery of the world economy could collapse.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Leaving Financial Armageddon behind, the ordinary human effects of Britain's leaving Europe are worth describing: British young people will now find it difficult to reside or work in EU countries or study in their universities and talented young Europeans will find it difficult to do the same in the UK. This will have significantly negative effects on generations to come.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The future of Britain's young people is finally the greatest victim of Brexit, but not just the young.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Here is an example of the sort of micro-tragedies that can befall elderly British people here in Spain, where I live. Thousands of British pensioners on retiring have sold their homes in grey and rainy Britain and with their life savings bought homes on the coasts of Sunny Spain, where as members (till now) of the EU, they have a right to residency, socialized medical care and even get to vote in municipal elections. Imagine their distress as they watch all of these rights disappear and even the value of their investment sink.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
All this disruption because of what the President of the European Parliament <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/24/top-eu-leader-we-want-britain-out-as-soon-as-possible">Martin Schultz, calls</a> "a whole continent (being) taken hostage because of an internal fight in the Tory party”. <b><span style="color: #38761d;">DS</span></b></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Muhammad_Ali_NYWTS.jpg/479px-Muhammad_Ali_NYWTS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/Muhammad_Ali_NYWTS.jpg/479px-Muhammad_Ali_NYWTS.jpg" width="159" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Wikipedia</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"Boxing is a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up."</span></div>
</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“They don’t look at fighters to have brains. They don’t look at fighters to be businessmen, or human, or intelligent. Fighters are just brutes that come to entertain the rich white people. Beat up on each other and break each other’s noses, and bleed, and show off like two little monkeys for the crowd, killing each other for the crowd. And half the crowd is white. We’re just like two slaves in that ring. The masters get two of us big old black slaves and let us fight it out while they bet: ‘My slave can whup your slave.’ That’s what I see when I see two black people fighting.” </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up."</span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Muhammad Ali</span></i></div>
<hr />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">What modern athlete, much less one at Ali’s level, has ever talked with such political complexity, ambiguity, or engagement? </span><i style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-outsized-life-of-muhammad-ali?mbid=nl_160604%20Daily%20v2&CNDID">David Remnick - The New Yorker</a></i></div>
</div>
<hr />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Muhammad Ali, a symbol of how racism wastes human potential</b>
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">If I had to find one example to illustrate how deep racism and social injustice is in America's culture, it would have to be that someone as highly intelligent, brave, resourceful, serious and charismatic, with such a massive power of communication as Muhammad Ali, had to end up semi-illiterate with his brains beaten out in the prize ring... while a second rate, B-picture actor like Ronald Reagan or an immature blockhead like George W. Bush could end up as presidents of the United States or that today someone as weird, </span>mean-spirited<span style="font-family: inherit;"> and grotesque as Donald Trump could be seriously considered for that job.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"But things are much better today for young African-American men than they were when Ali was a boy growing up in Jim Crow Louisville Kentucky in the 1940s and 50s", you say.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: inherit;">Are they? In the booming economy of the 1950s, Muhammad Ali like many young black people back then grew up <a href="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/STBFhJfSC_uaHr92UGMUgg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD00Njg7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://l.yimg.com/os/156/2011/09/15/Muhammad-Ali-140911-02_050412.jpg">in a stable two parent family, with a live-in father</a>, where both parents worked, where his family lived <a href="http://wfpl.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Ali-home.jpg">in their own home</a> in a safe, if segregated, neighborhood. How many young black men raised by a single mother in the ghetto neighborhoods of today's USA enjoy those privileges in our present leaky, creaky, drug and gun infested, economy. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"But what about President Barack Obama?" you reply. To which I would humbly suggest that it is quite different to be raised in Hawaii, where there are practically no African-Americans, than to be raised in Jim-Crow Louisville; quite different to be raised in a prosperous, <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e5/Ann_Dunham_with_father_and_children_(enhanced).jpg">white, college educated, middle class family</a> and attend an exclusive <a href="http://img.timeinc.net/time/daily/2008/0808/360_obama_hawaii_0806.jpg">Hawaiian private school</a>, than to attend a segregated school in Louisville Kentucky... or one on the South Side of Rahm Emanuel's Chicago today, for that matter. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is not a criticism of our president, he was fortunate of have <i>his</i> enormous potential recognized early and lovingly nurtured. When that happens, that is the result. Few Americans, white or black... certainly not many African-Americans had that opportunity then or have it now. Ideally, <i>all</i> children should receive that treatment</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In short, if you wanted to analyze the dysfunction, injustice and waste of America's human resources, you could begin by meditating upon and answering at length the following riddle. </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Why could George W. Bush graduate with a C-average from Yale and a man who could say, "No Viet Cong ever called me nigger."”, someone who was that intelligent and amply talented enough, who under the right conditions, could have been or done anything, had to have his brains punched out of his head entertaining the "sports fans" he so lucidly described</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">? </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I think you know why, so do I, but today I'm just too sad to answer that question. <b><span style="color: #38761d;">DS</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
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<a href="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/800/mcs/media/images/57758000/jpg/_57758209_ali_old.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/800/mcs/media/images/57758000/jpg/_57758209_ali_old.jpg" height="425" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To begin with, I have come to believe that simply learning why Madrid is where it is, is the key to understanding thousands of things about Spain, the key to understanding the past, present and future of one of the European Union's most important countries, with deep ties, linguistic, cultural, political and financial to all of the United States of America's southern neighbors.<br />
<br />
There are masses of "facts" about Spain on the Internet: just reading <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain">what Wikipedia has to say about it</a> could keep you busy for quite awhile. I'm not going regurgitate all of that here. What I'd like to do, within my limited abilities, is to give you some sort of feel for the place, a point of view to take with you before you get immersed in all the multitude of facts and cliches about Spain's culture and history. So if and when you really do begin to study, all that you learn might fall more easily into place.<br />
<br />
What do I mean by the "feel" of the place?<br />
<br />
When Spanish people who are going to the States ask me what they should see or do there, I tell them that the USA is more or less like it appears in the movies (except there are no subtitles), that American food is the same junk you can get on practically any street corner of the world and that the only thing they can't get from the films or McDonald's is the feeling of America's unbelievable size and distances. What I tell them to do is to spend a week or two in a Greyhound bus crossing "fly over America". The fatigue in their back muscles and the pain in their nether regions, combined with the conversations they will have with their continuously changing and almost always chatty seat mates... while crossing the Great Plains, day after day, will teach them more about America than reading dozens of books, or more correctly, help them make some sense of all that they read.<br />
<br />
This, their own private "road movie", will make them "feel" America.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Short of that sort of direct experience of Spain, my readers will have to make do with what follows:</div>
<br />
<b>Getting Started</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In the <a href="https://seaton-newslinks.blogspot.com.es/2016/05/to-explain-spain-madrid-i.html">first chapter</a> of this series we looked at <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ymY9BuZcTVSEijUkV4kLwrGv4L31vTXB8YmZTKETcM8tnIxjM9iHrsSvYYik-W8C0vqD9UR2So6GT1ZA6nWJDDhXgDtKEyVKPU3YePiFxRX4E0WFnseMWPREfeSQ7BmxMta7Jg/s1600/population+density+europe+map.gif">a map of the population density of Europe</a>, where we saw that the greater part of Spain and nearly all of its center is as sparsely populated</span> as the outback of Sweden or Finland or the forests and western Steppes of Russia... or the Alps. <span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">And we saw that floating in that emptiness, like an asteroid, is a city of over three million people with a population density comparable to London or Paris.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To put that emptiness into <i>physical</i> context, lets look at a relief map of Spain. Madrid being the tiny, red, dot in the middle of it all.</div>
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</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAwc6euy_UXIoKsJ0lDbjsAX0cLaDTB9kfodnDY-ByCptmorFF1Xmb4wm2O0skpdDazFIdmVfSQtrjkRAzOD_ZBAbjqUq0NDBUrYA89nU1LgOCxj8Z1mstZymVwCQLtfIUN9pf9Q/s1600/Spain-Shaded-relief-map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="556" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAwc6euy_UXIoKsJ0lDbjsAX0cLaDTB9kfodnDY-ByCptmorFF1Xmb4wm2O0skpdDazFIdmVfSQtrjkRAzOD_ZBAbjqUq0NDBUrYA89nU1LgOCxj8Z1mstZymVwCQLtfIUN9pf9Q/s640/Spain-Shaded-relief-map.jpg" title="" width="780" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Relief map of Spain - Madrid, the Red Dot in the Middle </i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Looking at the relief map, the sparse population of the center of Spain makes sense, what is hard to understand is why there is this huge city in the middle of what looks like a moonscape. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Also going there by land is uphill all the way. </div>
<br />
Examine this list of European cities by elevation over sea level.<br />
<br />
1-<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kru%C5%A1evo" title="Kruševo">Kruševo, Macedonia</a> 1,350 m (4,430 ft)<br />
2-<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andorra_la_Vella" title="Andorra la Vella">Andorra la Vella</a> 1,023 m (3,356 ft)<br />
3-<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrid" title="Madrid"><b>Madrid</b></a> 667 m (2,188 ft)<br />
4-<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pristina" title="Pristina">Pristina</a> 652 m (2,139 ft)<br />
5-<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sofia" title="Sofia">Sofia</a> 580 m (1,900 ft)<br />
6-<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bern" title="Bern">Bern</a> 542 m (1,778 ft)<br />
7-<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich" title="Munich">Munich</a> 519 m (1,703 ft)<br />
<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_European_cities_by_elevation">Wikipedia - List of European Cities by Elevation </a></i><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Today's Spain is crisscrossed with modern superhighways and high speed trains, but this is a very, <i>very</i> recent development, even as late as the 1970s getting to Madrid from abroad or even from the Spanish periphery by car or even express train... any way except by air was a tedious ordeal.<br />
<br />
Imagine during the centuries of Spain's imperial splendor, with no navigable river in sight, what it was like getting to Madrid on horseback, by stage coach or even on foot!<br />
<br />
So then, the question arises: why is a city of over three million people and the political, cultural, communication and financial capital of a country of over forty million people and once the capital of one of history's largest empires, <i>so high up in the middle of nowhere</i>? <b><span style="color: #38761d;">DS</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br /></span></b>
<i>(To be continued)</i></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
I'm so sick of writing about Donald Trump that I've decided to write about the country where I live, Spain. I usually don't do this in my English language blog, because what knowledge of Spain I may have achieved by now is very long learned and intensely personal, with plenty of "skin in the game", and I would be loathe to do a superficial, touristy travelogue for English speaking day trippers; coyly loaded with bulls and flamenco and tips on where to dine, etc. That sort of thing makes me squirm.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
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However, I can imagine that I might have some things to say about Spain that someone genuinely curious to learn about one of Europe's oldest and most historically rich and important countries might find useful. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To begin with, forget about all the classic cliches about Spain, from Bizet to Mérimée to Hemingway, and take a close look at this map:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ymY9BuZcTVSEijUkV4kLwrGv4L31vTXB8YmZTKETcM8tnIxjM9iHrsSvYYik-W8C0vqD9UR2So6GT1ZA6nWJDDhXgDtKEyVKPU3YePiFxRX4E0WFnseMWPREfeSQ7BmxMta7Jg/s1600/population+density+europe+map.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ymY9BuZcTVSEijUkV4kLwrGv4L31vTXB8YmZTKETcM8tnIxjM9iHrsSvYYik-W8C0vqD9UR2So6GT1ZA6nWJDDhXgDtKEyVKPU3YePiFxRX4E0WFnseMWPREfeSQ7BmxMta7Jg/s1600/population+density+europe+map.gif" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>European population density</i></span></td></tr>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
You'll notice that most of the center of the Iberian Peninsula has a population density similar to the outback of Sweden or Finland or the forests and western Steppes of Russia... or the Alps... and you see that smack dab in the middle of that vast yellow emptiness on the map, floating like an asteroid, there is a blue star-shaped blob called Madrid (where I live). This is a city with a <a href="http://www.google.es/publicdata/explore?ds=bk0jtrua8ulr2_&met_y=persons&idim=area_5:280796:080193&hl=en&dl=en#!ctype=l&strail=false&bcs=d&nselm=h&met_y=persons&scale_y=lin&ind_y=false&rdim=country&idim=area_5:280796:080193:082248&ifdim=country&hl=en_US&dl=en&ind=false">population of 3.165 million people</a>.<br />
<br />
According to the map's legend, the blue color of the blob shows that Madrid has a density of population similar to Paris or London. Spain has a total population of 46.77 million, while France has 66.03 million, Britain 64.1 million and Germany 81.1 million .<br />
<br />
More or less one out of every 15 Spaniards lives in the blue blob in the middle of nowhere.<br />
<br />
Madrid is not only the largest city in Spain, it is also the political, financial, cultural and communication capital of the country. To put this into an American context, try to imagine if Washington, New York and Los Angeles were all in one city... located somewhere in Montana.<br />
<br />
If you now move your attention to the right toward the Mediterranean coast you'll see a large, long and narrow area with a brick-red color similar to most of Germany and the dynamic northern region of Italy around Milan.<br />
<br />
At the top of the red patch sits Barcelona, the capital of the Catalonian region of Spain which produces some twenty percent of the Spanish GDP.<br />
<br />
So without any knowledge of the history, culture and languages of the blue blob and red patch, separated as they are by a great expanse of yellow, it's easy to imagine the tension that might exist between the blob and the patch.<br />
<br />
My next post on Spain will be about why the blue blob got to be where it is. <b><span style="color: #38761d;">DS</span></b><br />
<br /></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">It would be practically impossible to imagine two more different human beings than President Obama and Donald Trump, but it occurred to me that they <i>do</i> have one thing important in common: they both chose to make their move and go for the presidency when their prime opponent was most probably going to be Hillary Rodham Clinton.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*N8nYmdMaoaaywYEhndQ0MQ.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*N8nYmdMaoaaywYEhndQ0MQ.jpeg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Clinton is now viewed unfavorably by 55 percent of the electorate, according to the HuffPost Pollster average, (...) Only 40.2 percent of people view her favorably, according to that average.(...) The historic comparisons are stark. At this point in the 2008 presidential cycle, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) was seen favorably by 62 percent of voters and unfavorably by just 33 percent. (...) In the most recent Gallup poll, released late last month, her unfavorable number was 53 percent versus only 42 percent who saw her favorably. <i><a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/276078-clintons-dismal-approval-ratings-prompt-dem-fears">The Hill</a></i></span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Most observers agree that however different they may be in every other way, one thing most successful people have in common is that eye for "the big chance", the instinct to catch an opportunity that perhaps only comes once in a lifetime, and I would argue that both Barack Obama and Donald Trump, if nothing else, share that instinct.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Obama has been a successful president and his only stumbling block to having been an even better one has been his inability to deal with the catastrophic obstructionism of the Tea Party infected, Republican legislators. That was always going to be very difficult, but I would argue that Obama could have been even a more successful president if he had spent a few more years in the Senate, learning the ins and outs of how that institution works and building personal relationships with its key members. But if he <i>had</i> stayed, he probably would never have become president. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The moment to run against Hillary would have passed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Donald Trump has been fondling the idea of being President of the United States for the longest time.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Establishment Republicans have watched the rise of Mr. Trump’s presidential bid this year with shock. And yet, Mr. Trump has been telegraphing his presidential ambitions for decades, including when the ever-confident businessman told Oprah Winfrey in 1988 that he would probably win the presidency if he ever competed for it. <i><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trumps-presidential-run-was-long-in-the-making-1456964836">Wall Street Journal</a></i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Seeing an amazingly lackluster Republican field of what the British would call "odds and sods" and waiting for him and at the end of that rainbow... Hillary Rodham Clinton. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Every fiber of his being must have shouted, "go for it".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We can only hope that he will have less luck with it than Senator Barack Obama did. <b><span style="color: #38761d;">DS</span></b></span><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
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<a href="http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article7156580.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Donald-Trump.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i3.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article7156580.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Donald-Trump.jpg" height="211" width="320" /></a></div>
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The Trump voters' message to America and the world could possibly be contained in the two words: "Fuck + You", or then again their message might be described as "nihilism".</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><u><b>Nihilism</b></u>: a doctrine or belief that conditions in the social organization are so bad as to make destruction desirable for its own sake independent of any constructive program or possibility. <i><a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nihilism">Merriam-Webster</a></i></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I'm sure I'm not alone in <i>not</i> finding Trump interesting, but I have to admit that I <i>am</i> fascinated by the people who are fascinated by Trump.</div>
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<br /></div>
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When you come down to it, what is truly amazing is that <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/donald-trump-2016-contradictions-213869">Trump's speech is so contradictory as to be utterly meaningless</a>... and <i>that</i> is the message and the key to his success. The only constant is his aggressiveness, his offensiveness. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Nate Silver, one of America's most insightful political analysts, who admits having constantly "misunderestimated" the Donald, in analyzing his own puzzlement, sums up the heart of Trump's success.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Trump’s main differentiator was doubling down on cultural grievance: grievances against immigrants, against Muslims, against political correctness, against the media, and sometimes against black people and women. And the strategy worked. <i><a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-republican-voters-decided-on-trump/">Nate Silver - FiveThirtyEight</a></i></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Who is moved by this? Who is it working for? Where will it lead?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I know I shouldn't quote myself, but a couple of months ago <a href="http://seaton-newslinks.blogspot.com.es/2016/03/republican-primaries-voyage-from.html">I wrote</a>:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We are looking at exasperated,
paranoiac, xenophobic, racist nastiness, in short a fascistic mentality
of crippled personalities in reaction to changing mores and a failing
economy. </span>All the unhappiness and frustration are searching for moral absolutes.
Moral absolutes are what allow people to kill each other... if only in
their imagination. All this hateful speech and dippy ideas are pregnant
with death, they are about to give birth to a monster, but the
Republicans are only the midwives... They are helpless in the face of
the spirits they have invoked from the country's inner darkness. It is
that darkness not any individual like Trump that should worry us,
something very, very nasty is cooking in it<span style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In short I'm saying that if </span>Donald Trump is <span style="font-family: inherit;">not the genuine old Nick, could he </span>be some sort of dark mirror "John the Baptist" for the very Devil himself?<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">That what is really important is not Trump himself but the forces he invokes.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But returning to the present, aside from Trump's </span>aggressiveness his only other constant is <span style="font-family: inherit;">"<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345479173?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0345479173&linkCode=xm2&tag=trumpartofdealcbc-20">making deals</a>". At this he is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/07/books/books-of-the-times-775087.html">an </a></span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/07/books/books-of-the-times-775087.html">acknowledged</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/07/books/books-of-the-times-775087.html"> master</a>. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Something that has been rolling around my mind for some time. Does he really want to be President of the United States or is he putting together the deal to end all deals?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">For at this moment, for a deal maker, the Donald is in a very sweet if dangerous spot. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Back in February <a href="http://seaton-newslinks.blogspot.com.es/2016/02/is-trump-really-running-for-potus-or-is.html">I wrote</a>:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
Lets look at what's on the table. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
The Republican Party controls both houses of Congress... for the moment,
and a Supreme Court that could mark the ideological slant for a
generation is up for grabs. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
If Trump runs as either the Republican candidate or as an independent,
all poll projections predict an Armageddon for the Republicans, with not
only the loss of the presidency, but loss of majorities in both houses of Congress, perhaps even in state houses too. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Has the moment finally come for doing a "deal"?</b><br />
It seems to me that Donald Trump is now holding the family jewels of
some of the most powerful people in the world in his tiny warm hands and
is squeezing them rather hard. We are talking about a political party
that <i>now </i>controls both houses of Congress and represents the
interests of the top 0.01% of the American economy. What laws could they
write for him (which I'm sure Obama, as a patriot, would be quick to
sign)? Or how much would, say the Koch brothers, or all the conservative
super-PACs, be willing to cough up to kiss him goodbye </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>The shape of a deal?</b><br />
What are the Republicans still in a position to offer Donald Trump
between now and the convention, something which would be more attractive
for him than losing the presidential race by a historic margin and
destroying the Republican Party in the process... in which case they
could give him nothing?</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I should have said "in which case they could give him the same medicine as was given to Jimmy Hoffa". </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Donald Trump has already made some of the most powerful people in America his blood enemies in exchange for what seems to be a slim chance of winning the White House. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Is he insane? </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Is he not insane? </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I admit I don't know which of the two is the worse alternative. <b><span style="color: #38761d;">DS</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/D66D/production/_88939845_trump_afp976.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/D66D/production/_88939845_trump_afp976.jpg" height="155" width="210" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></span></blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The failure of the economy to deliver real progress to middle-class and working-class Americans over the past 15 years is the most fundamental source of public anger and disaffection in the US. </span><i style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35406324">BBC News</a></i> </span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Forty years of hurt has driven some people to answer Springsteen's question, that the American dream is something worse than a lie, and from that bleak answer they are looking for a political leader who echoes their anger. So my answer to presenters' questions whether Trump can win, is now and was before the primaries started: "Yes." </span><i style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35890784">Michael Goldfarb - BBC</a></i></span></blockquote><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b>As of Today</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: justify;">In this the strangest of presidential election years, a poorly flushed Donald Trump pops up out of the backed up drains of the American psyche and the only thing standing between him and the Republican nomination is Senator Ted Cruz, who could pass as Boris Karloff's baby brother. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Republican debate has now moved from the size of Mr Trump's penis to whether the evangelical Mr Cruz sleeps around. And this, far from hurting Trump, is fattening his lead in the polls</span></div></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: center;"><blockquote class="tr_bq"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Mr Trump has succeeded in breaking down the boundaries of political debate. He has drained all civility from politics and licensed a discourse that elides bigotry with patriotism, is derisive of women, scornful of minorities and permissive of racism. The Republican primaries have become a contest in which it is acceptable to throw a punch at those who happen to disagree, to threaten to muzzle the freedom of the press and to make jokes about those with disabilities. Mr Trump has tossed overboard any idea that politics and public service can serve a moral purpose. </span><i style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif;"><a href="https://next.ft.com/content/74280836-ef62-11e5-aff5-19b4e253664a">Philip Stephens - Financial Times</a></i></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"></div></blockquote>If The Donald wins the nomination, which as of today, seems probable, he will, unless a kind providence intervenes, end up facing the most soiled politician in America... except for her husband, of course: Hillary Clinton.<br />
<br />
For no one, not even Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush, has objectively done more to turn Bruce Springsteen's dream into a lie than the Clintons.<br />
<br />
Here is how Thomas Frank lays it out:</div><div style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br />
<img height="380" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cdtku-TWIAEdxel.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="380" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ukraine is considered <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/feb/04/welcome-to-the-most-corrupt-nation-in-europe-ukraine">the most corrupt nation</a> in Europe</td></tr>
</tbody></table></div></div><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">After the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000, the corporate scandals of the Enron period, and the collapse of the real estate racket, our view of the prosperous Nineties has changed quite a bit. Now we remember that it was Bill Clinton’s administration that deregulated derivatives, that deregulated telecom, and that put our country’s only strong banking laws in the grave. He’s the one who rammed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) through Congress and who taught the world that the way you respond to a recession is by paying off the federal deficit. Mass incarceration and the repeal of welfare, two of Clinton’s other major achievements, are the pillars of the disciplinary state that has made life so miserable for Americans in the lower reaches of society. He would have put a huge dent in Social Security, too, had the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal not stopped him. If we take inequality as our measure, the Clinton administration looks not heroic but odious. <i><a href="http://www.salon.com/2016/03/14/bill_clintons_odious_presidency_thomas_frank_on_the_real_history_of_the_90s/">Thomas Frank - Salon</a></i></span></span></blockquote><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><b><br />
</b> <b>The Skinny</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Assuming, as now appears most likely, that Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic nomination and that either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz becomes the Republican nominee, the general-election ballot is set to feature a choice between two candidates more negatively viewed than any major-party nominee in the history of polling. <i><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/an-unpopularity-contest-for-the-ages/2016/04/19/7e1d25a2-0663-11e6-a12f-ea5aed7958dc_story.html">Ruth Marcus - Washington Post</a></i></span></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">The only thing standing between such a nightmare choice for American voters is Bernie Sanders.</span></div></div><div style="margin: 0px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
No two human beings could be more different than Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump and the most fundamental difference between them is that Trump is a very bad man and Bernie is a very good man,<br />
<br />
However what they both have in common is that their campaigns are both propelled by the passionate anger that so many Americans feel at the failure of the "American Dream" and their mounting distrust of the "Establishment", Wall Street, the media and of course the government itself.<br />
<br />
Hillary Clinton's basic problem is that no one incarnates that Establishment so much as she does.<br />
<br />
If it's Hillary versus Trump, America and a watching world will be treated to probably the dirtiest, most depressing campaign imaginable and with the probable, massive abstention of grossed out voters of both the left and traditional conservatives too and therefore with a result infinitely more unpredictable than anyone can now imagine.<br />
<br />
However if Bernie Sanders manages to pull off an upset and the race is between him and Trump, the world will be treated to an all-American, Hollywood-esque spectacle of good versus evil, Batman pitted against The Joker, Saint George kicking the dragon's ass. <br />
<br />
Not only would it change America and the world, it would be tremendous fun.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://cdn.i24news.tv/upload/cache/front_content_header/upload/image/607203eeded0b882fbef472cef444dd4d865da1c.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cdn.i24news.tv/upload/cache/front_content_header/upload/image/607203eeded0b882fbef472cef444dd4d865da1c.png" height="358" width="640" /></a></div></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Probably the most fascinating, indeed endearing thing about the USA is the "let it all hang out" transparency of such a huge beast. What is missing today, unfortunately, is someone like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upton_Sinclair">Upton Sinclair</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Lewis">Sinclair Lewis</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Mailer">Norman Mailer</a> to write about all of this. <b><span style="color: #38761d;">DS</span></b></span><br />
<b><span style="color: #38761d;"><br />
</span></b></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: justify;">"Oppressed beneath the weight of their own corruption and of military violence, they for a long while preserved the sentiments, or at least the ideas of their free-born ancestors." </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; line-height: 18.48px; text-align: justify;">Edward Gibbon, "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"</i></blockquote>
</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I think people are making a mistake if they treat the Republican primaries as serious politics. They obviously aren't, but at the same time it seems to me that they are a more than serious symptom of levels of unhappiness, frustration and confusion among the citizenry that border and frequently cross the border of collective insanity.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Under Richard Nixon's guidance the Republican party executed the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy" style="background-color: white; color: #888888; line-height: 18.48px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Southern Strategy</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; line-height: 18.48px; text-align: justify;">" and took know-nothing, racist-populist America to its bosom and began to win majorities sufficient to implement policies that have led that same voter base of know-nothing, racist-populist Americans to even greater degradation.</span></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now the Republicans are trapped in a nut house of their own creation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Just as an exercise of political science fiction, try to imagine Dwight D. Eisenhower in the midst of these Republican primaries, try to imagine him on Fox news. </span></span><br />
<div style="font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 18.48px;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGrFBqBzjZpHfP96gls6F1CAKQp-ISPvDtVg5IKu6QYPWCM358bB1ZreXsfMbY9AE-E777RnfcCc6zaArLU4tvh7rQm7vTmzfKcJNOBLVytNKW-hIvUCfX8UDZi_41ZYL2jowuTw/s200/Ike.jpg" width="152" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Impossible, right?</span></span><br />
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> When I was a boy the Republicans that lived around me were mostly pallid, though vigorous, high church Episcopalians, solid, smug types who struggled mightily with golf and sedately clipped stock coupons. As to the younger ones, crew cuts and white bucks, energetically embalmed in stifling, <a href="http://gonetworth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/pat-boone-net-worth1.jpg">Pat Booney</a> squareness come immediately to mind.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I cannot think of a better bellwether of America's malaise then that of the party of the formerly priggish, self-contented, self-righteous, self-satisfied, conventional and sensible becoming the party of the paranoiac, the exasperated and the kooky</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A century from now, the years between Eisenhower's and today's Republican party will seem a brief interlude and I'm sure that Chinese historians will puzzle over the swift deterioration of America and its institutions in that time frame.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I am neither Chinese nor a historian and I am puzzled as hell. I was a kid when Ike was president and I am an old man now... Blessed with an extremely good memory, I have trouble associating the America I was born into and the America that withers before my eyes today, as if it were being struck down by a wasting disease.</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I would think it important to separate this new "conservatism" from the traditional variety. Remember the American vice is to use language to hide meaning. </div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
One of the most disturbing things about America is the incoherence of American language, the endless euphemism-laden double talk. American terminology is confusing and perhaps the confusion is deliberate.<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">For example, everywhere but in the USA, “red” is the color of the left, but in America, the term, “red state”, means one that is right-wing and “blue”, which is a color that in most countries is associated with the right, to ultra-right, in the US is used to label what Americans call “liberal”, which in the USA means the left, but which everywhere else is used to label the economic right-wing… These examples are just the tip of a semantic iceberg.</span></div>
<br />
This brings us to the word, “conservative”.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The new <i>conservative</i> is, in plain English, in fact, a <i>neo-fascist</i> and the personality traits we observe on the American right these days are those of a fascist.</span><br />
<br />
What is the difference?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">If a person is born into a well to do, stable family, where the parents respect and perhaps even love each other and treat the child kindly and his/her exposure to traditional religion is benign. He/she is likely to accept the family’s traditions and values unquestioningly.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
From that point his/her attitude will be one of prudence, of not spoiling (for him/her and his/her family) a good thing… and his/her attitude toward the less fortunate than himself/herself may even be benevolent and paternalistic and be expressed in contributions to charity and other good works.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">What we are seeing in the Republicans now, has little or nothing to do with that kind of conservatism. We are looking at exasperated, paranoiac, xenophobic, racist nastiness, in short a fascistic mentality of crippled personalities in reaction to changing mores and a failing economy.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
All the unhappiness and frustration are searching for moral absolutes. Moral absolutes are what allow people to kill each other... if only in their imagination. All this hateful speech and dippy ideas are pregnant with death, they are about to give birth to a monster, but the Republicans are only the midwives... They are helpless in the face of the spirits they have invoked from the country's inner darkness. It is that darkness not any individual like Trump that should worry us, something very, very nasty is cooking in it<span style="font-family: inherit;">. </span><span style="color: #38761d;"><b>DS</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">"My party has gone bat shit crazy"</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sen. Lindsey Graham R-SC</span></i></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo_Hqnd35VJiSnxZb-bNiikMidOMjKY6l194_FjITM-of-Ld31UIO9hFgIQxzfsvs8aKUGPlR5bC44QIKD153Gi4TAbhbNWNpUAALTobruOypUhGyU1fiq-tG1WyEKXax9HLUgMA/s1600/Trump-failure.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="473" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo_Hqnd35VJiSnxZb-bNiikMidOMjKY6l194_FjITM-of-Ld31UIO9hFgIQxzfsvs8aKUGPlR5bC44QIKD153Gi4TAbhbNWNpUAALTobruOypUhGyU1fiq-tG1WyEKXax9HLUgMA/s640/Trump-failure.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>How did he survive all this?... Hint: watch what happens next</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
What makes Donny run? </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
He is known far and wide as a "deal-maker". </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
To most American ears this term "deal-maker" is both familiar and at the same time a bit exotic. In the USA 90+% of Americans go innocently through life paying the price marked on the product they are buying or "shopping around" for a better price and if the price seems correct, this is considered a "good deal". However if you had spent some time haggling over every tomato you bought in the market places of countries like India or Morocco, or visited other cities famous for their "bazaar mentality" where you must even bargain with a pharmacist for the price of a tube of toothpaste, with "and if I buy two?" or "if I pay in dollars?", you would have had to have learned how to make real deals or you would have been quickly skinned alive even by the street urchins, </div>
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We might say that Donald Trump could hold his own in some of those places, but he wouldn't stand out all that much.<br />
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He even wrote a famous book about it, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345479173?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0345479173&linkCode=xm2&tag=trumpartofdealcbc-20">"The Art of the Deal"</a>. <br />
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Here is a review of that book, from the New York Times, by one of America's most prestigious literary critics:<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">He is proud to be at play in the fields of American free enterprise, looking for every loophole in the law and edge on his competitors he can possibly get.(...) He sounds disingenuous when he asserts that he never harassed the tenants of 100 Central Park South, but merely wanted to help the downtrodden when he threatened to move homeless people into the building's empty apartments. <i><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/07/books/books-of-the-times-775087.html">Christopher Lehmann-Haupt - NYT review of "The Art of the Deal"</a></i></span> </blockquote>
Let Donald himself explain how it is done, which he did very thoroughly in his book: <br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">“My style of deal-making is quite simple and straightforward. I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I’m after.” (...) “The point is that if you are a little different, or a little outrageous, or if you do things that are bold or controversial, the press is going to write about you.”(...) “good publicity is preferable to bad, but from a bottom-line perspective, bad publicity is sometimes better than no publicity at all. Controversy, in short, sells.”(...) <b>The point is that you can't be too greedy.</b>(...)<b style="text-align: justify;"> “I discovered, for the first time but not the last, that politicians don’t care too much what things cost. It’s not their money"</b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="text-align: justify;">(emphasis mine)</span></span></i><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><i style="text-align: justify;">Donald Trump - Quotes from "The Art of the Deal"</i></span></blockquote>
Those are all quotes from his best selling book for the 1980s, The Republican Party are living those quotes in their own flesh at the moment.<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345479173?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0345479173&linkCode=xm2&tag=trumpartofdealcbc-20"></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">U.S. Republicans in Washington are coming to grips with what many of them not long ago considered an unimaginable reality: Donald Trump is likely to be their presidential nominee and standard-bearer.(...) Trump has vowed to scrap U.S. trade deals, slap a tariff on imported goods and raise taxes on hedge-fund managers, as well as retain some sort of mandate to purchase health insurance - clashing with the free-market principles that have long underpinned Republican economic policy. Some Republicans in Congress, such as (...) Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said a Trump nomination would do enormous damage to the party and predicted a heavy election defeat in November to the eventual Democratic nominee. "I am like on the team that bought a ticket on the Titanic after we saw the movie,” said Graham, contending that Trump would be “slaughtered” in the general election. <i><a href="http://www.money-marketuk.com/politics/trump-s-march-stirs-growing-sense-of-dread-among-republicans">Money Market</a></i></span></div>
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Very big money is beginning to react:<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A top adviser to the network of donors backed by billionaires Charles and David Koch is joining Republican Marco Rubio‘s presidential campaign, as the Florida senator seeks to rally establishment support.(...)The Kochs, who preside over a network of donors who plan to spend roughly $750 million influencing 2016 races, have said they don’t necessarily plan to endorse a candidate in the Republican primary race(...)a growing question for the Kochs is whether they will intervene to bolster the campaign of a Trump alternative. Mr. Rubio has addressed the network on several occasions. <i><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/02/23/koch-adviser-joins-marco-rubio-campaign/">Wall Street Journal</a></i></span></blockquote>
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Panic is setting in and Trump is ready and waiting for it.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The specter of Donald Trump as an elected nominee for president pushed his Republican opponents to desperate measures on Sunday, two days before a dozen states could vote to give the billionaire a huge lead in the 2016 contest.(...) Both Kasich and Rubio – who trails Trump in his Florida home – suggested their campaigns were ready for a brokered Republican convention in July, in order to keep the delegates Trump needs out of his hands. But that scenario would require a wholesale revolt against Trump by the Republican party, and the billionaire repeated hints that he is prepared to break his pledge not to run a third-party campaign.“If they have a problem, I’m going to have a big problem with that,” <b>Trump said. “If they want to play that game, I can play it a lot better than they can.”</b> (<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">emphasis mine</span></i>) <i><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/28/republicans-attack-donald-trump-marco-rubio-ted-cruz">The Guardian</a></i></span></blockquote>
Lets look at what's on the table.<br />
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The Republican Party controls both houses of Congress... for the moment, and a Supreme Court that could mark the ideological slant for a generation is up for grabs.<br />
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If Trump runs as either the Republican candidate or as an independent, all poll projections predict an Armageddon for the Republicans, with not only the loss of the presidency, but loss of majorities in both house of Congress, perhaps even in state houses too.<br />
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<b>Has the moment finally come for doing a "deal"?</b><br />
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It seems to me that Donald Trump is now holding the family jewels of some of the most powerful people in the world in his tiny warm hands and is squeezing them rather hard. We are talking about a political party that <i>now </i>controls both houses of Congress and represents the interests of the top 0.01% of the American economy. What laws could they write for him (which I'm sure Obama, as a patriot, would be quick to sign)? Or how much would, say the Koch brothers, or all the conservative super-PACs, be willing to cough up to kiss him goodbye<br />
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<b>The shape of a deal?</b><br />
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What are the Republicans still in a position to offer Donald Trump between now and the convention, something which would be more attractive for him than losing the presidential race by a historic margin and destroying the Republican Party in the process... in which case they could give him nothing?<br />
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To answer that question we would have to know things that, for the moment, only Trump himself and possibly his lawyers, accountants and tax "planners" know, but which might become public (IRS-FBI) knowledge in a foreseeable future?<br />
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Stay tuned. <b><span style="color: #38761d;">DS</span></b></div>
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