Tag: BlairsvilleGOP

The Historical Falsification of the West

gdrthinktankLeave a comment

US-Secretary of State James Baker: “Not one inch eastward.”

From my Writing Room
Copyright © 2022 by Uwe Bahr

Many people do not remember what happened in the recent past, but politicians in high positions of responsibility would actually be obliged to do so. This should be self-evident for a very banal reason: For yesterday’s events become the guide of action for today.

Thirty-two years may be a long time in a person’s life – in the history of the world they are only the blink of an eye. As someone who followed the events at that time very closely and was affected by them – after all, those were the basic conditions for the reunification of my country – I can understand Vladimir Putin today. The entire West – mainly Germany under the benevolent protection of the USA – have deceived and lied to the Russians and rejected Putin’s outstretched hand several times during his first term as Russian president.

Contrary to all international promises and assurances, NATO’s external border has steadily moved closer to Russia, starting in 1999 with the inclusion of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. There was absolutely no need nine years before to exploit the goodwill of the disintegrating Soviet Union in such obscurity. This is not an opinion, but an indisputable, historical fact.

For a short time in 1990, there was even discussion of admitting the Soviet Union itself into NATO. And one should also remember: At the end of a speech in the German Bundestag on September 25, 2001, there was a standing ovation for the German-speaking Vladimir Putin. All forgotten already.

Only a few days ago, the re-elected German Federal President, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, had nothing better to do than to warn Putin of “harsh consequences” in connection with Ukraine. Of course, there should be no more war in Europe, but Russia feels humiliated and threatened. What would be the reaction of the USA if Putin stationed soldiers and missiles in Venezuela? It should be allowed to ask this question.

The link below shows the two foreign ministers of the United States and Germany at the time, James Baker and Hans-Dietrich Genscher, with English subtitles.

May be an image of 7 people and text

Trump’s Stalinist Show Trial

gdrthinktankLeave a comment

From my Writing Room
Copyright © 2022 by Uwe Bahr

At his rally in Arizona, a mastermind named Donald Trump spoke of Stalinist show trials in connection with the investigative committee on the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

I was born into a Soviet satellite state where there were such show trials, as a result of which Stalinists and Communists tortured and murdered people. The victims were neither mentally deranged nor anti-social rioters, but freedom fighters who stood up for the fundamental right of the people.

To compare victims of dictatorship and tyranny with the demented American mob of January 6, would be tantamount to disparaging Stalinist victims – if it didn’t come from the mouth of someone like Trump, who, as a con man, is bent on taking others for fools. Figures like Marjorie Taylor-Greene and Ted Cruz strike the same chord.

The fundamental question is: What brainchild are those who elected and support experts like Trump, Cruz, and Taylor-Greene to positions of ultimate responsibility for their country – political charlatans who don’t shy away from fomenting conspiracy theories no matter what societal damage they inflict?

But such a question cannot actually arise. After all, what can be expected in a country where half of the population (!) completely rejects evolution and instead believes that the world and all life was created by a supernatural ghost?

Calling for more Violence

gdrthinktankLeave a comment

From my Writing Room
Copyright © 2021 by Uwe Bahr

In light of recent developments, the likelihood of an increase in politically motivated violence in the United States is becoming more and more realistic. The refusal of the predominantly Republican members of parliament to set up a commission of inquiry into the events of January 6 is clear evidence that large sections of them are prepared to at least approvingly accept violence even against state institutions and the security agencies that protect them. This is unprecedented in a constitutional democracy.

A bipartisan investigation could also have provided final clarity and evidence on the political background comprising the mob that invaded the Capitol on January 6. Reportedly, more than half of Republican supporters believe that Antifa was behind it as well as other radical left-wing groups, organized by Democrats to “make Trump look bad.” This statement is of course absurd, if only because there is no significant radical left group in the U.S. organizationally and logistically able to plan and implement an action of such magnitude as the capture of the parliamentary seat in Washington D.C. The assertion is one of the usual catchphrases coming from the right-wing political camp, whereby the senders know only too well how unlikely it is that any of the Trump supporters would be able to explain impromptu what Antifa actually means, not to mention the historical context.

The delaying tactics of officials who are responsible for their country and were elected to serve law and justice, sends a pernicious and dangerous signal to the American public because it de facto normalizes violence as a means to achieve political objectives.

What halfway sound person can seriously want that for his or her country? It should be readily apparent how little such an approach can serve the good of the United States.

This is the true consequence of the fact that someone like Donald J. Trump could become president in this country. And there are too many leaders in the Republican Party who will not stop the further courting of an insane man. The question is at which point on the priority list is the interest of their country.

The Grand Old Party, if it indeed remains on this path, will continue to cultivate the crazy, so they can get elected by the crazy. Are there really so many ideologically blinded, pretended patriots in this country who are unable to put one and one together?

Are They Done Praying?

gdrthinktankLeave a comment

From my Writing Room

Copyright © 2021 by Uwe Bahr

Are Trump supporters and voters done praying for a peaceful country?

It was Holy church people who like no other group have allowed and enabled with their vote a clown and criminal to occupy the highest office and who are, of course, thus morally complicit in the hideous insurrection that happened at the Capitol.

By supporting Trump, they have also indirectly fueled the reemergence of a white supremacy, right-wing extremism, which was made socially acceptable through the widely applauded hate speeches (“Send them back”, “Proud Boys: Stand back and stand by”) from the outgoing president. This phenomenon will not disperse overnight considering that a civilized administration is going to take the White House back in a few days. On the contrary: It must be seriously feared that the United States will be confronted with existential domestic terror threats in the foreseeable future.

Let it be understood: Any potential and imminent danger the country faces neither originates from a considerable, extreme political left nor from “radical socialists,” as preferably propagated by advocates of the Republican party. The events of 6 January 2021, at the Capitol in Washington, DC, speak for themselves. The American Republic miraculously escaped a carnage by a right-wing mob showing aspects of a military approach. It was the Republican party and their Trump-mania that have called the ghosts.

In view of the shocking violence and what the country still might be in for – can anyone expect some sort of introspection from those lost characters who have cluelessly trusted an even more clueless charlatan named Donald Trump?

written 2000 years ago to make illiterate people submissive and willing followers of the authority, the Bible to this day, quote: “instructs us to pray for our leaders” (Franklin Graham[1]). If humans living in the 21st century are naïve enough to fall for such elusive nonsense no matter what, then they might as well nail the Bible to their shin.[2]

Independent from that – the clerical instruction manual obviously must have reduced itself a long time ago to a matter of random interpretation. How else could all the evil in the world of Christianity, now and then, possibly happen? I am sure, this Holy Booklet also contains a frivolous paragraph allowing, if not urging, pious people to possess guns and support entire wars – but we are against any abortions. To compare such aberration with a mix of thought disorder and shameless hypocrisy might pass as a generous understatement in the minds of those still able to develop a rational, independent chain of thought.

A person with a minimum level of knowledge and decency did not vote for Donald Trump. But the following is the most devastating part of the American tragedy: Allegedly, 40 percent of those who did vote for the deranged crook think the assault on 6 January was either justified or a logical consequence of “stolen elections.”

That comes pretty close to my estimate: At least half of the American citizenry is unfit for the realities of the 21st century, not even aware of the challenges their country is facing – from a wretched social system to the facts of man-induced climate change, which many are in denial about.

How will you govern your country with people further away from reality than the backside of the moon, Mr. President Biden?

Notes:
[1] Graham, a known American Protestant, evangelist, supporter of the Iraqi war in 2003, and also an instigator of the deepest dye since the days of Joseph Goebbels, a short while ago compared ten Republican lawmakers supporting to impeach Donald Trump with “Judas” – the same lawmakers who are trying to respect American law and the constitution to avert further damage from the United States.

[2] When I attended the millions of people in the fall of 1989 in East Germany kicking the leading members of the socialist political system to the curb, there was not a single person getting the idea of “praying for our leaders.” I considered those leaders back then the most criminal and dumb clique I have ever lived under until I witnessed the emergence of Donald Trump and his hate speeches in the so-called “freest country of the world.”

Relief

gdrthinktankLeave a comment

It’s not for Republicans, it’s not for Democrats: Finally a good, inspiring message for all well-disposed Americans after four years of idiocy, chaos, bullying, and elusive stupidity: Former presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama volunteer to promote confidence in a vaccine’s safety. President-elect Joe Biden asks Americans to mask during the first 100 days of his presidency.

I am not American, but I will mask as I did before not only for my wife’s and my own safety, but also for the safety of others – and also to show my support for the new administration.

The new president will face tremendous problems, but it is nevertheless a relief to feel the normalcy coming back through people in charge who are at least trying to lead. And this is a good message for all Americans, regardless if they are aware of the damage done to the country in the past four years or not.

Kaput(t)[*]

gdrthinktankLeave a comment

From my Writing Room

Copyright © 2020 by Uwe Bahr

This country – the United States of America – has produced an abnormally increased proportion of illiterate, deluded people who are in denial of any reality, inconvincible apparently for mental reasons and, therefore, irrevocably inept to include rational arguments in their conclusions: be it related to science, the severity of a worsening corona pandemic, man-induced climate change, or the credibility of the most recent election. The disease in the public mind is obviously more widespread than the Coronavirus itself.

Reason and responsibility for the American catastrophe not full-blown yet rests not only with the right-wing media propagating falsehood and deception supported by the nuisance about the term “socialism”, but also with religious delusions beget by many churches. This is the pathological combination that has created the foundation for the emergence of a president who bullies, talks, and acts in a manner of a fifth-grader. The man is sick, and so are those who have allowed him the position he is in.

Aside from the majority of lowbrow Trump supporters exists a worse and worse discernible minority of voters ascribed to the educated class and yet in full swing for dull phrases of the political right – come hell or high water. To them, any political path left of the current Republican Party would be a blank check for the American drift straight into socialism. Not only will it be difficult, if not impossible, to dissuade intelligent but ideologically blinded people from their wrong track – the abject failure of the Republican Party altogether in their Trump-mania will leave a dangerous vacuum in the democratic center-right spectrum of the American Republic.

These are the dominant reasons why the United States of America is presently spiraling downward in a faster and more disastrous development than any other country in the modern Western world, coupled with the consequences of a deliberately downplayed Coronavirus and a misaligned “Health Care System”, ruthlessly designed for maximum profit to the advantage of the few versus harm and suffering of the many.

More mischief in the coming months is inevitable.

Notes

[*] “Kaput”, often used in American English, is an expression borrowed from the German language, properly written with two “t,s”: kaputt – meaning something is broken, irreparable, down the drain.

The Handy Merger: American Socialism, Fantasy, and “Alternative Facts”

gdrthinktankLeave a comment

From my Writing Room

Copyright © 2020 by Uwe Bahr

 “We are standing in the breach against socialism.”
Senator David Perdue (R-GA) in a contribution on his campaign web site on 16 November, 2020.

“We are the firewall … We are going to hold the line against socialism, right here in Georgia.”
Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) in a campaign appearance on 20 November, 2020.

“Stop the Spread of Socialism.”
Slogan on a campaign flier distributed by the Republican Party to households in North Georgia on 20 November, 2020.

Note: The author of the following article has spent the first 30 years of his life in socialism in East Germany, the former GDR, until the Berlin wall fell in November 1989.

As richly ironic as it is in the presence of scientific and historic facts versus millions of Americans nevertheless falling for political demagogues radiating hollow slogans, it can be repeated mantra-like over and over again, just to fail as often in appealing to a sound mind:

“Socialism is a System or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state.”
Source: Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (unabridged), page 2162.

It is worth noting here that any legal, accompanying measures within a political system – for instance, a nationalized Health Care System – has as much to do with socialism as a tomato grower in Georgia would have to do with the backside of the moon [1].

This should be easy enough to understand. I personally have – not voluntarily – lived and worked in such a system of socialism, and I can assure that there is nothing even close to that form of society existent or in arrangement in the United States of America. Those Americans suggesting the country is on its way to socialism or this is what the Democrat’s operative, final objective constitutes, are probably equally exposed to the delusion that Satan and Rumpelstiltskin are in existence and on their way somewhere in the woods.

The unsolicited flier from the Republican Party coming to my house could not have been delivered to a more inapt recipient: Having been exposed to dull paroles by the communists throughout my younger years, they did not even reach our minds and, instead, were quickly disposed where they belonged: to the garbage dump of history. At any given time, the vast majority of the people living in the so-called communistic German Democratic Republic (GDR) retained their ability to distinguish between what was right and what was wrong. The historic fact that East German people by the hundreds of thousands in the fall of 1989 took their quest for freedom to the streets, did not simply emerge overnight. It resulted from the ability to think for ourselves and recognize reality, admittedly supported by the proximity of a free, yet inaccessible democratic West Germany, with close relatives living there and the unhampered reception of West German TV- and Radio stations in the East.

As a resident in the United States for now 22 years, the unlikely emergence of someone like Donald Trump as the country’s president has led me to the conclusion: There are obviously millions of Americans literally incapable to think for themselves outside their domiciliary companionship or their churches. This is a frightening perception, for any democracy in the world is in jeopardy if not only the thinking of a few alone, but the thinking of millions operates on a different level of facts and truths. Ironically, the astonishing assertion of former White House advisor, Kellyanne Conway, that there are “alternative facts”[2], has – at least in my judgement – coined the entire presidency of Donald Trump. There were “alternative facts” emerging from the White House almost on a daily basis, including the denial and downplaying of a deadly virus circulating in the US with the unimaginable loss of 255,000 American lives so far (as of this writing).

There are clear signs that the ubiquitous prevarication, accepted as facts in shockingly large parts of the American society, will not vanish with the disappearance of Donald Trump as president. The contrary seems the case, and political windbags like David Perdue are the beneficiary demagogues of such incomprehensible, unbiased gullibility. Perdue is the same man who not only repeats his dull paroles about an alleged socialism he has no clue about again and again, but had childishly mocked vice president-elect, Kamala Harris, this October by repeatedly and deliberately mispronouncing her first name in a campaign appearance. Needless to say that such an individual, behaving like a 5-year-old in Kindergarten, should never have a place in any function of public responsibility.

There is nothing constructive to expect from colorful figures like Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue. They don’t have a concept of socialism; they are using the phrase repeatedly as a catchword to delude the people, knowing about the fishiness widely attributed to any smack of socialism in the US. Lawmakers who have no reservation or conscience to sell their own people for a sucker with brainless slogans for the sole purpose of reelection have their own ego and their own clientele of profiteers in mind – and nothing else.

Notes

 [1] The Second German Empire, founded in 1871 and the first German nation state in existence, is regarded as the ancestral homeland of social security. The Reich’s founder, Otto von Bismarck, introduced the compulsory insurance in 1883, including health care insurance in the same year, followed by accident insurance in 1884. – Bismarck, for sure, was far from being a socialist: Under his instigation and leadership, the Anti-Socialist-Law passed the German Reichstag in 1878, de facto banning social democratic, socialist, and communist associations and activities. – Although I am hesitant to mention it: A widely unknown historic fact is that social security in Germany was significantly extended by Adolf Hitler – the very same leader who sent not only Jewish people, but also hundreds of thousands communists, socialists, social democrats, liberals, unionists, and centrists to the infamous concentration camps.   

[2] The remark is mentioned in Bob Woodward’s 2020 book “Rage” on page 262. – After White House press secretary Sean Spicer had presented false statements about the attendance numbers of Trump’s inauguration, Conway stated in a press interview two days later, on 22 January, 2020: “We have alternative facts.”