EVENTS up to the SHAMELESS REEMERGENCE of JIM CROW LAWS
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That is what happens when the Supreme Court
Members of one's Land are so privileged, so
biased and so short-sighted, all being graduates
of supey-dupey institutions, where affluence and
privilege manipulate the "students" and the
"scholars" to do their bidding and avoid any
"controversies", that they think and they opine
that the system of governance and the people
in power have surpassed the atrocious era of
Jim Crow and have moved on and that white
supremacy and mockery and condescension
against our Black Brothers and Sisters are not
a problem anymore. Or do I not recall correctly
that they were the ones that proclaimed that
the Federal Government does not have a role
to play anymore in monitoring "laws" that are
passed "down south" that oppress electorally
(and not only) my Black Brothers and Sisters
and that suppress their views and their votes
because they are the only ones with whose help
we can make our State a Better State, a More
Equal, a Fairer State for All, and because many
in the super-privileged class of their associates,
who are the hoarders of wealth, of governing
offices and privileges despise and fret these
struggles and these aspirations despite rhetoric?
SHAME TO GEORGIA, SHAME TO THE
ABSURD AND SHORT-SIGHTED DECISIONS
OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THIS LAND.
BRAVO TO THE PRESIDENT!! BRAVO TO
FIGHTERS, LIKE STACEY ABRAMS!!
BRAVO TO THOSE GEORGIANS THAT
SHOWED WHERE THEY STAND ON THIS
ISSUE IN THE LAST ELECTIONS!
THE FIGHT IS ON, MORE DYNAMIC AND
MORE VIBRANT THAN EVER. NO ONE IS
GIVING UP, NO ONE SHALL RELENT.
 

I just want to express my clear positions on three
issues that are raised as questions of debate here
at home and on the other side of the Atlantic
and that, in my view, have very clear answers
as far as the Right Things to do are concerned.
1. The E.U. (or at least some States) is debating
    on whether it is the Right Thing to do or not
    to face the health crisis and the vaccine
    response to it jointly or separately. The E.U.
    has a dire need for more, not less, cooperation
    and coordination between its Member States.
    If there have been failures and shortcomings,
    these are not due to cooperation, which has
    the effect of strengthening the response and
    uniting the People and their resolve, but due
    to incompetence and lack of decisiveness at
    the top and that is where criticism should
    be aimed at, not at the joint mode of response.
2. In the United States, we are debating about
    immigration. Those arriving at the Southern
    Border are people determined to work hard
    and succeed and make a life for themselves
    and take advantage of the opportunities that
    our States offer. Let us agree to grant them
    temporary legal status so that they may fulfill
    their dreams and not hide underground and,
    if they prove over some years that they can
    hold gainful employment, pay their taxes
    and raise their families and contribute to
    their (and our) communities in a peaceful
    and orderly fashion, grant them a path to
    Citizenship.
3. I also see a debate about gun control. This
    is a sore, but antiquated subject. With the
    amount of violence in our everyday lives,
    with the impotence of guns as a means of
    self-defense against the will of an ultra
    armed and omnipotent State, and with the
    uselessness of war-grade weapons for
    recreational activities, the debate on the
    Constitutional right to bear arms is not
    only totally out of context, but also very
    damaging and unreasonable. Any type of
    weapon that is intended for anything else
    other than hunting and the possession of
    any type of weapon by people with mental
    issues or criminal backgrounds should be
    strictly prohibited, without second thoughts.


China has to understand and digest that using the
term "re-education" (in the sense it is using it) in the
3rd Decade of the 21st Century is a laughable and
tragic oxymoron and convincing to no one. People
need Freedom to Think, Speak and Assemble and
Express their views. They do not need confinement,
suppression and oppression; not unless they have
been convicted under due process of Law in an open
and transparent way, holding up under scrutiny and
complying with acceptable International Standards.
 

The message from Turkey today is very clear:
An unstable and mercurial autocrat, with his
hands on the National Currency and with his
claws on the Banking Sector, spells disaster for
the currency and has devastating consequences
for the economy. If all other shenanigans and
all other indications and actions have not
convinced the Turkish People so far that an
urgent change of course is needed, perhaps
these latest developments will contribute to
a well deserved, decisive, radical change.
 

BRAVO to Carolyn Maloney, Democratic Representative
from New York, and Gus Bilirakis, Republican Representative
from Florida, who, as Co-Chairs of the Hellenic Caucus, are
supporting the Return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece.
Theft, destruction, bartering and illegal possession of any
Archaeological Artifacts and, especially so, Artifacts of the
Greatest Significance and Inestimable Value to Human Culture
and Human Civilization, are unimaginable and unconscionable.
The United States Congress is doing the Righteous and Right
Thing, adopting the only position anyone could adopt under
the circumstances with Clear Conscience, Moral Standing
and Straight Thinking. The Marbles must be returned and
housed along with their peers in the marvelous Museum under
the Acropolis, where they belong and where they should always
reside. THANK YOU, Representatives Maloney and Bilirakis!


Heartbreaking but very very significant.
The International Community cannot and
must not stand by, but take firm action,
respecting Equality and Sovereignty, to
exert pressure and convince Turkey to
WITHDRAW THE DECISION AND
IMPLEMENT THE CONVENTION
IN GOOD FAITH. Do it for Yourselves and
your own Citizens. No Modern State can
function and compete in the International
Arena, without All Its Citizens feeling Safe,
Protected, Appreciated and Valued on the
basis of Justice and Equality for ALL.


NO TO RACISM, NO TO INJUSTICE, NO TO
INEQUALITY! The President cannot have taken
a more unequivocal and vocal position on the issue.
No racism or discrimination of any kind can be
condoned or tolerated. Besides words, the Biden
Administration has to take bold and courageous
action, not only in the face of carnage, like what
we witnessed in Atlanta, but on an ongoing basis,
to combat racism, discrimination, injustice and
inequality, even when these emanate from the
organs and institutions of the State itself, such
as the brutality and racism of "police" forces or
the biases and discrimination of the "justice"
system of this Nation. Do your work RIGHT
and with DEDICATION, besides strong words.
If you do, it will contribute a lot to both the
understanding and adoption by All Citizens
of those Values and Responsibilities and our
deepest Commitment to Supporting Them
and to Defending Them in the face of danger
and/or adversity.


Let me say that, if he died from Covid-19, given
his record and his absurdities, good riddance!
To be a "leader" and encourage people to gather
in large numbers in public unprotected and to
spread misinformation, falsehoods and totally
unsubstantiated and unscientific statements and
fantasies about something so critical and so very
important for the survival of a Nation is despicable,
unacceptable and completely unforgivable.


All States can work together to address common
problems that require Global responses, and this
should be both our Wish, our Hope and our
Objective in International Relations and Foreign
Policy. On the other hand, this does not require
or imply that we have to accept each other's
Systems of Government, nor that there has to
be universal agreement in the approaches on
all issues. Nor does it imply that, partial agreements
and the decision to cooperate on some issues should
gag or restrain parties from voicing serious, justifiable
and substantiated concerns for grave breaches of
Human Rights and violations of Human Dignity.
The case of assassinations and abuse of political
dissidents in both Russia and China, the mass
targeting and mistreatment of Uighurs in China,
State terrorism in Arabia by the Saud dictatorship,
via directed and orchestrated assassinations abroad,
the mass murder of demonstrators in Myanmar for
simply voicing their political views and demanding
freedom of thought, of expression and of assembly,
the abuses against, and torture, of political opponents
in Iran, and the deplorable militarization of "police
forces" and the systemic racism here at home are
examples of events that should not be happening
in a Civilized World that develops vaccines in a
few months' time for serious pandemics, in this,
the Third Decade of the 21st Century. Every party
must and should watch out and voice loudly its
complaints and dissatisfaction with abuses against
Citizens of All, and take care to improve the
situation with concerns in its own territory.
Watching out and Speaking out for the Rights
of Global Citizens, and against each and every
State's abuses and improprieties, will make the
entire World a more livable and Better Place for
all its Citizens and will Fortify Human Rights.
Here, in the United States, we want and hope
for Global Cooperation, but we care deeply
about these issues and about making progress
on these issues, and, consequently, are neither
willing to set them aside nor ready to be silenced
or compromise on them, and that should be
CLEAR and TRANSPARENT to all our Partners.


Pity. And what is worrisome is that, from the tone
and style of the press release, it seems as if the MP
had not read the proposal voted upon carefully and
is now, after the fact, trying to find dubious and ill
conceived justifications for his positive vote on this
issue. But, as the saying goes, two wrongs do not
make a right, nor can someone, by coming up with
a fictitious excuse, justify an error. The best way is
to admit it and apologize and promise to be more
careful and better informed in the future.


Δε χρειάζεται να είναι "γενικευμένη" η αστυνομική
βία για να είναι καταδικαστέα και κατάπτυστη.
Ακόμα και μεμονωμένα περιστατικά αδικαιολόγητης
αστυνομικής βίας επιδρούν αρνητικά και δρουν σαν
εκφοβισμός και, εν είδει κρατικής τρομοκρατίας,
κατασταλτικά ως προς την ελευθερία σκέψης, την
ελευθερία έκφρασης και συνάθροισης των πολιτών,
και ούτε πρέπει να γίνονται ανεκτά ούτε, πόσο μάλλον,
να δικαιολογούνται από κυβερνήσεις που σέβονται τον
Πολίτη και τα Ατομικά Δικαιώματα των Πολιτών.
Η αστυνομία οφείλει να δρα για την πάταξη της
εγκληματικότητας και της παρανομίας και να κινείται
με προσοχή και σεβασμό όσον αφορά δικαιώματα και
ελευθερίες. Το ότι δρα σωστά στην πλειοψηφία των
περιστάσεων δεν δικαιολογεί καμία κατάχρηση και/ή
κακομεταχείρηση αθώων πολιτών εκ μέρους της.


Frankly, "who are they to judge?"; they have proven
again and again that they cannot prevail over, and are
not even able to prostrate, themselves on these and
other similar and/or comparable issues; so, who cares
anyway about what they say, proclaim or do? It does
not really matter and people should feel free to follow
their own paths, and do whatever they wish and think
is right, as long as they do not cause any harm to others.
Sometimes, seeing them sitting in their armchairs and
behaving the way they do, one would think that we have
not yet reached through Renaissance and Humanism...


Τώρα που είδα αυτό το άρθρο ξαναθυμήθηκα
την κουβέντα που είχε γίνει για αναστήλωση
και ανακαίνιση ετοιμόρροπων διατηρητέων
κτηρίων από το Δημόσιο σε συνεργασία με
το Δήμο Αθηναίων με αντάλλαγμα την
εκμετάλλευσή τους για χρονικό διάστημα
που θα διασφαλίζει, τουλάχιστον, την απόσβεση
του κόστους και κατόπιν την επαναφορά τους
στην ιδιοκτησία των παρόντων ιδιοκτητών.
Τί έχει γίνει μ' αυτήν ιδέα; Έχει προχωρήσει
καθόλου;  Θα υπάρξει το αναγκαίο νομοθετικό
πλαίσιο ώστε να αλλάξει πρόσωπο η Αθήνα και
να μην υπάρχουν διάσπαρτα ερείπια και τα
διάφορα προσωρινά, κακόγουστα και αφερέγγυα,
μέτρα αναστήλωσης και ενίσχυσης με σωλήνες
και ξύλα, που δυστυχώς συναντούνται συχνά;


Minneapolis dished out $27M to the family of
George Floyd. Let me say, once more, that it is
NOT OK having murderous police thugs in the
service of "state" and "city" bosses and machines
murder innocent Citizens and, then, using Public
funds to pay off their families, as if the People
and Citizens of the states and the cities, from
whose pockets the funds are gathered, had been
responsible for the racism, the aggressiveness,
the training quality and the brutality and mean
spirit of the command-givers and those at whose
service and in whose names these killers operate,
and under whose commands, at whose service
and in whose names they brutally harass, injure
and kill as a matter of course. These, by this
time, often recurring payouts and compensations
should come from the personal assets of the killers
and their accomplices and from the personal
assets of those responsible in the state and city
"governments" for providing the heavy war-
grade weaponry and the legal protections and
legal immunity and the general legal framework
that allows their thugs to operate in this heartless,
inhumane and remorseless way, knowing full well
that they can avoid punishment and repercussions
and, therefore, feeling free to harass and murder
at will on behalf of their bosses and commanders.
NO, IT IS NOT OK FOR US, CITIZENS THAT
GASP WITH DISBELIEF AT THEIR BRUTAL
WAYS, TO BE CHARGED FOR SOMEBODY
ELSE'S ATTITUDES AND SOMEBODY ELSE'S
CRIMES. THIS CANNOT BE "JUSTICE".


There are people that consider every encounter in
their lives as an opportunity for spewing racism,
hatred and for displaying disgraceful, ungrateful,
inappropriate, aggressive and hurtful behavior.
At our time and age, they should know that this
is NOT OK and that understanding, kindness
and civility are norms that we cannot live without
and which, as a consequence, advanced societies
have developed to demand of their members in
all their interactions and all their relationships.
 

There is no other option now. Resignation and trial
is a one-way street. He is just delaying the inevitable,
furthering his already disgraceful and untenable
position, causing greater and greater damage to the
Party by the day, and putting his State deeper and
deeper in shame, mud and disrepute, and amplifying
the total mess and the disarray, for which his is solely
responsible and for which he MUST be held accountable.


If I were him, I would presume to speak only
for myself and my own opinions, attitudes and
inclinations. He knows very well that he cannot
speak for others, especially the older members
of the outfit, who have been raised and are
deeply steeped in colonialist and racist views
and ideas. This does not mean that views and
attitudes may not have evolved over time, but
it is certainly not for William to guarantee or
to vouchsafe that no member of the outfit still
nurses, either openly or surreptitiously, such
antiquated perceptions and theories. One would
expect him to be more careful, state his own views
clearly and unequivocally and let others state
theirs on their own initiative, and let them do
their own homework and soul searching.


I am not only devastated and depressed about the
events in Myanmar, but I am shocked that pseudo-
leaders and pseudo-generalissimos, of the kind
that are allegedly "leading" Myanmar, exist in
the third decade of the 21st Century and that
the rest of the World allows them to exist, to
operate and to go about their macabre and
brutal business as usual. I understand the
Principles of Independence, Equality and of
Sovereignty of States, but none should ever be
allowed, under any circumstances and in the
name of any principles, by the International
Community, to commit acts of barbarity and
to massacre Citizens fighting for Freedom and
for Individual Rights. Freedoms and Rights,
if we learned anything from our forefathers,
should dwarf and trump all other principles,
when it comes to condemning atrocities and
to actively defending people and their lives.


Spain has very serious issues with its "royals". Their
arrogance and sense of entitlement and their lack of
both sensitivity and sensibility makes them a very
risky family, prone to scandal and likely to cause
damage to the Spanish State. I would recommend
that the Spanish consider a transition to a genuine
Republic with a non-royal Head of State. Like in
all modern States, having "royals" being sustained
on the public purse simply because of their ancestry,
while tolerating their caprices and their outrageous
and provocative behaviors, is antiquated, unfair and
detrimental and serves no useful purpose whatsoever.


I hope they get to pay maximum penalty and a very
severe jail sentence for helping the disgraced fat rat
escape. It is absolutely no business of an alien Nation's
Citizen to interfere with the Justice System of another
State which is trying, against all odds and against the
well-known rigging and bias favoring the rich and
well-connected, to hold them accountable, by offering
their services and expertise for personal monetary
profit to help them escape and evade Justice. Shame
on them! If that is the best they can do and the best
service they can put their training into, the only right
measure is a very severe and paradigmatic sentence
so that similar incidents do not occur in the future.


YES! That is OUR WAY! That is the RIGHT WAY!
That is the ONLY WAY! Bravo, U.S. and Canada!!


Σας προτείνω να υπογράψετε όλοι το Ψήφισμα για
την παραίτηση της κ. Μενδώνη. Αυτό είναι μεν μία
πολιτική κίνηση, αφού κάθε κίνηση ενός επάγρυπνου,
προβληματισμένου και ενημερωμένου Πολίτη είναι
μία πολιτική κίνηση, αλλά δεν είναι μία κομματική
κίνηση, είτε υπέρ είτε κατά της Κυβέρνησης και του
υπόλοιπου έργου της. ΕΙΝΑΙ ΠΑΝΩ ΑΠΟ ΟΛΑ
ΜΙΑ ΚΙΝΗΣΗ ΠΕΡΙ ΕΥΘΙΞΙΑΣ ΤΩΝ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΚΩΝ
ΜΑΣ ΠΡΟΣΩΠΩΝ, ΜΙΑ ΚΙΝΗΣΗ ΠΟΥ ΕΚΦΡΑΖΕΙ
ΤΗΝ ΑΓΑΝΑΚΤΗΣΗ ΤΩΝ ΠΟΛΙΤΩΝ ΓΙΑ ΤΟ ΟΤΙ
ΔΕΝ ΥΠΑΡΧΕΙ Η ΕΝΝΟΙΑ ΤΗΣ ΕΥΘΙΞΙΑΣ ΣΤΑ
ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΚΑ ΔΡΩΜΕΝΑ ΚΑΙ ΜΙΑ
ΞΕΚΑΘΑΡΗ ΑΠΑΙΤΗΣΗ ΟΤΙ, ΚΑΛΛΙΟ ΑΡΓΑ
ΠΑΡΑ ΠΟΤΕ, ΠΡΕΠΕΙ ΝΑ ΕΙΣΑΧΘΕΙ ΑΥΤΗ Η
ΕΝΝΟΙΑ ΕΠΕΙΓΟΝΤΩΣ, ΑΝ ΘΕΛΟΥΜΕ ΤΗΝ
ΥΠΕΘΥΝΟΤΗΤΑ ΠΟΥ ΘΑ ΜΑΣ ΕΠΙΤΡΕΨΕΙ
ΝΑ ΠΡΟΧΩΡΗΣΟΥΜΕ ΚΑ ΝΑ ΠΡΟΚΟΨΟΥΜΕ
ΚΑΙ ΩΣ ΧΩΡΑ ΚΑΙ ΩΣ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΚΟ ΣΥΣΤΗΜΑ.


Όσο για την κ. Μενδώνη, μετά τις διαστάσεις που
έχει πάρει το εν λόγω θέμα, αν είχε την απαραίτητη
ευθιξία, ανεξαρτήτως προσωπικών ευθυνών, θα
έπρεπε όντως να έχει παραιτηθεί. Επιπλέον, είναι
σαφές πως το έργο της Κυβέρνησης, και η εστίαση
της προσοχής και η συγκέντρωση που απαιτείται
για την επιτυχή επιτέλεσή του και τον συνεχή
έλεγχο και εποπτεία του, έχουν πληγεί από τις
διαστάσεις του σκανδάλου. Επομένως, κατά τη
γνώμη μου, ο Πρωθυπουργός, και μόνο εξαιτίας
της απαιτούμεης ανησυχίας για την πιθανότητα
αποσύνθεσης και αποδιοργάνωσης, έπρεπε να
έχει ζητήσει ήδη την παραίτησή της, αντί, πιθανώς,
να επαφίεται στη δική της καλή θέληση...


Μπορεί κάποιοι να δούλεψαν κατά τη διάρκεια της
κρίσης για να είναι βουλευτής η κ. Τζάκρη, αλλά
σίγουρα κάποιοι δε δούλεψαν και ήρθε η κρίση
και κάποιο άλλοι δε δούλεψαν σωστά και είναι
για χρόνια τώρα αρχιτραπεζίτης ο ίδιος πανάκριβος
και παντελώς άχρηστος άνθρωπος, με ίδιο πενιχρό
και παντελώς ασθενές χαρτοφυλάκιο, που, όταν τα
πάρει και φύγει, ουδεμία ευθύνη θα έχει για τους
τρέχοντες οικονομικούς χειρισμούς, οι οποίοι και
μπορεί να αποβούν ολέθριοι στο μέλλον. Γι αυτό
και ποτέ ξανά δεν πρέπει τραπεζικές θητείες σε
ανεύθυνες θέσεις με παχυλότατους μισθούς να
ανανεώνονται. Αυτό είναι η πραγματική ντροπή
(ειδικά σε μία χώρα με ασθενούσα και ασθμαίνουσα
οικονομία) και εκπλήσσομαι που τέτοιοι άνθρωποι,
τζάμπα προύχοντες, αντί να κρύβονται, έχουν και
το θράσος να μιλούν και να προκαλούν.


Φυσικά και πρέπει να υπάρχει διαδικασία αναγνώρισης,
περιοδικός έλεγχος και εποπτεία όλων των σχολών και όχι
μόνο των καλλιτεχνικών. Αυτό έπρεπε να είναι αυτονόητο.
Στην Αμερική, παρά τις κραυγές και τις φωνασκίες περί
ελευθερίας και δικαιωμάτων, πουθενά η αυτορρύθμιση
(self-regulation) και ο αυτο-έλεγχος δεν έχει δουλέψει
όπως διαφημίστηκε και διαφημίζεται. Όλοι πρέπει να
ελέγχονται από κρατικές αρχές οι οποίες, σε τελική φάση
και σε τελικές διαδικασίες, υπόκεινται σε έλεγχο από την
εκάστοτε κυβέρνηση και άρα, έμμεσα, από τους πολίτες.
 

That is who he is and he has shown it, "up yours",
time and again. People of Texas have to wake up
and not vote for such a person again, the next time
around. If we let arrogant, careless and selfish
people in politics go unpunished, they will keep
thinking that they have the permission and the
right to continue misbehaving and mishandling
Public Trust and the the Public Interest. Give
him a resounding election kick and send him
home with the first electoral opportunity.


There is something disquieting, disturbing and
discomforting about people that contribute in
making their societies worse and filled with
hatred and anxiety, employing populism and
amplifying stereotypes for personal profit and
for the sake of becoming relevant and staying
in the limelight. Good riddance.


Antonis Kaloyannis is with us no more...


A couple of words to the Greatest Powers of our
Time, who, in my view, are not behaving responsibly
and who should comprehend that the Citizens of this
World are expecting them to behave like adults in the
room, facing serious problems that they must work
together on and find cooperative solutions for, and
not like spoiled brats of the type ``You first!"; "No!
You first!", etc., ad infinitum. U.S.A. and Iran, we
cannot accept vicious circles of inaction under the
pretext of expecting one another to do the first step
and give space first. Form joint committees to discuss
issues and work together, far more ambitiously than
only on the nuclear deal. Behave like Friends, like
we all want you to become and be. E.U. and Russia,
stop this nonsense about sending each other's
Diplomats home and then waiting for the other
to back down. Create joint committees that work
together on a standing basis and that raise issues
and worries whenever those are to be raised. We
are Neighbors and Friends and should be working
on multiple fronts together. Stop the pettiness and
the childishness and become serious and responsible.
 

Ιάκωβος Τσούνης και Δημήτρης Γκέρτσος. Άνθρωποι
που σπανίζουν στις μέρες μας. Αν έχετε τη δυνατότητα
και την οικονομική επιφάνεια ή εάν κατέχετε κάποιο
έργο τέχνης, Εθνικής ή Οικουμενικής εμβέλειας, πάρτε
παράδειγμα και εμπνευστείτε από τις κινήσεις τους.
Κ. Τσούνη και κ. Γκέρτσο, ΣΑΣ ΕΥΧΑΡΙΣΤΟΥΜΕ!
 

Those that violate Constitutions are warning
others not to break the Law. Laughable and
deridable. The "generalissimos" of Myanmar
should put their tails between their hind legs
and walk away and a new elected government
should put them on trial and jail them for life.
It is the only fair and deserving punishment
and the only way that would give Myanmar
and its People the Hope and Confidence they
need to move onto the path of Democracy,
genuine Freedom and Human Rights.


Όλοι οι απόδημοι και όλοι όσοι έχουν συγγενείς και/
ή προγόνους απόδημους νοιώθουμε ή οφείλουμε να
νοιώθουμε βαθειά ντροπή και αποτροπιασμό για όλα
όσα συμβαίνουν με γονείς και/ή καθηγητές στα σχολεία
στην Πατρίδα μας. Αλλά και ανεξάρτητα από το ότι
κάθε Έλληνας σχεδόν έχει στην οικογένειά του τα
σημάδια της ξενιτιάς, του ξεριζωμού ή της μετανάστευσης,
και μόνο η Ελληνικότητα (με την Ιδανική Έννοια),
το Φιλότιμό μας και η Φιλοξενία, για την οποία όλοι
καυχιόμαστε, θα έπρεπε να μας γεμίζουν ντροπή και
προβληματισμό όταν ακούμε συμπατριώτες μας να
αναφέρονται σε πρόσφυγες και/ή μετανάστες στη
χώρα μας με τέτοιο τρόπο και χυδαιότητα. Κρίμα.
Κρίμα και ντροπή... Άλλες ήταν οι ελπίδες μας και
οι προσδοκίες μας για την Ελλάδα του 21ου αιώνα...


Kitty Xenaki is correct in her assessment concerning
the new era opening in United States' Foreign Policy.
We now look at the World through a fresh lens, with
Confidence, Strength and Determination, along with
Compassion and, hopefully, a certain degree of so much
needed Idealism, and our goal is to establish and lead
broad Coalitions and Consensus and to tackle, with
Good Will and in Good Faith, Cooperatively, when
and where possible, the burning Global Issues Facing
Humanity and the World today. Let us all wish and
hope for the best. Godspeed, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris
and Antony Blinken, in an ambitious, but necessary
and commendable, agenda and effort.


Needless moves. Completely unhelpful for bilateral
relations and, needless to say, totally ineffective as
far as the internal conditions, lack of Democratic
Values, violation of Individual Rights and Freedoms,
and a stranglehold of all political opposition and a
total absence of tolerance for different views, go.
The Kremlin has to realize that, in a modern and
vibrant State, the voices of the People, their Rights
and their Freedoms, as well as Pluralism in all
sectors of public and private life, are nonnegotiable
and it'd better come to terms with these realities
before it becomes too late for Russia and for the
Regime, exactly as happened with the Soviet State.


Canada is giving negative signals on many fronts,
such as the Environment and Health. This happens
now that at the helm of our own Nation, we have a
caring and knowledgeable Administration that, not
only is determined to restore Decency and Truth
and to reverse many of the heartless and absurd
policies in its predecessor, but is looking forward
with vision, to instituting big plans and significant
changes, Congress willing. It seems that Canada
prides itself and boasts when under comparison
with extremely unfortunate and negative conditions
in its Neighboring Giant Nation, but that it does
not shine very favorably when, under more decent,
forward thinking and well-meaning administrations,
it showcases its selfish and financially driven true
self. We should all ask Mr. Trudeau to change
rote and, now that our United States has a new
administration, idealistic, compassionate and
open to coordination and cooperation in its
foreign policy and agenda, to follow the United
States' Lead and work closely with the Biden
Administration and coordinate its responses and
the way it handles issues for the well-being and
the benefit of not only Canadians, but of All
World Citizens. The time when Canada was a
"bright example", because it was the only light
in our region amidst darkness, is over. Now it
has to shine alongside the United States, rather
than becoming the dark spot in our neighborhood.


Some regimes are without shame. In Myanmar,
it was not enough for the "generals" that they
had implanted their puppet to govern on their
behalf; they wanted to be also the faces behind
the cameras. What greed, what selfishness and
what shamelessness. The population should rise
and send them a strong message that their
behavior and manipulation of politics is totally
unacceptable and reprehensible. And our United
States should start freezing relations again.
 

She was an unfortunate choice to head the
Commission to start with and she did enter
"with the left" and gave rather strong and
unpleasant indications of her mentality and
what was to follow. And, not surprisingly, no
opportunity seems to be left wasted to re-
ascertain, verify and reaffirm the lack of
good management and leadership and the
low expectations established at the outset.
I hope, as many others are, that lessons are
being learned, but the issues may lie deeper.


When he had power and, despite him being
unacceptable and dangerous, every one was,
not only willing but, eager and overzealous
to jump on the bandwagon and to suck up
to the point of polishing and sparkling.
Now that the sadness and misery of the
whole saga have been fully revealed and that
his manipulative power is much diminished
and the real Donald J. Trump has shown its
terrible, ugly and terrifying face for all to
"enjoy", and has left such a frightening mess
for this Nation to mop up, no one, none of
those crappy, ruthless and self-interested
"personalities", even those that were among
the most vocal and ardent supporters and
followers, is willing to get involved or mixed
up. And rightly so.
If only, they had done the Right Thing all
along, our United States would not have
taken steps backwards, totally in the wrong
direction, and the time now could have been
spent to build further and to improve, rather
than having first to undo the nonsense and
mend the damage and dissolution.


How could Fellow Americans send such crap
and refuse in our Nations most prestigious
Houses? Do we not realize the heavy burden
and the Responsibility that comes with the
Right to Vote? Of course it is not the first
time nor will it be the last, but one hopes
that, as our Civility, Gentleness, Civilization
and Caring evolves, such imbecility and such
crassness will find less and less opportunities,
via "populism" and "nonsense", to enchant
Fellow Citizens of ours and to crop up into
our Congress. For now, one can take a slight
consolation from the fact that ugliness (of
heart and soul), crassness, unkindness and
frivolity can only lead swiftly down a path to
catastrophe and disaster and that is certainly
what awaits her, unless she quickly realizes
it and changes rote; Not unlike the fate of
that other ugly, crass and mentally unstable
someone that stood as her major, disastrous
and unfortunate, idol and inspiration.


Συμφωνώ με τον κ. Καταλειφό, ότι οι προηγούμενες
γενιές που προήγαγαν και υποστήριζαν στάνταρντ και
πρακτικές ασύμβατες με Ανθρώπινες Αξίες και με
Ατομικά Δικαιώματα οφείλουν ένα μεγάλο ομαδικό
Συγγνώμη σε όλη την κοινωνία και ιδιαίτερα στα
θύματα των ιδεών, πρακτικών και πράξεών τους.
Και συμφωνώ ακόμα περισσότερο με τον κ. Οικονομάκη
και με τον κ. Καφετζόπουλο, διότι για οποιαδήποτε
βία, ψυχική ή σωματική, ανεξαρτήτως της περιρρέουσας
κοινωνικής ατμόσφαιρας και της εποχής, ειδικά δε αν
αυτή προέρχεται από μορφωμένους και καλλιεργημένους
(υποτίθεται) ανθρώπους και "δημιουργούς", η ευθύνη
είναι κυρίως και πρωτίστως ατομική και δε μπορεί
να απαλειφθεί ή να δικαιολογηθεί χάριν μίας γενικής
και αόριστης συγγνώμης, έστω κι αν αυτή, όταν είναι
καλοπροαίρετη και συνειδητοποιημένη. είναι, κατά τη
γνώμη μου, επίσης οφειλόμενη και εποικοδομητική.


Δε μετράει μόνο το τελικό προϊόν. Μετράνε και
οι άνθρωποι που θυσιάζεις ή τραυματίζεις προκειμένου
να φτάσεις στο τελικό προϊόν. Είναι λοιπόν καλό να
μην ασχολείται κανείς, εκτός κι αν η προσωπικότητά
του και ο χαρακτήρας του του επιτρέπουν να παράγει
χωρίς να θρυμματίζει και να σκοτώνει άλλους και να
αφήνει διάσκορπες "παράπλευρες απώλειες". Η μόνη
εξαίρεση που θα μπορούσα να αναγνωρίσω, αλλά κι
αυτή ακόμα με πολλά ερωτηματικά και με πάρα
πολλούς ενδoιασμούς είναι όταν κάποιος αντικειμενικά
μεγαλουργεί (τόσο μέγεθος που να μην είναι υποκειμενικό,
όπως π.χ., ο Αϊνστάιν ή ο Νιούτον ή ο Γκάους, για να
μιλήσω για παραδείγματα από κει που ξέρω) και,
χωρίς βέβαια να είμαι του χώρου, αμφιβάλλω αν ο
Κιμούλης εντάσσεται σ'αυτήν την ομάδα γιγάντων.
Για όλους τους άλλους η βία (σωματική και ψυχολογική)
δεν έχει θέση, ούτε μπορεί ούτε πρέπει να συγχωρείται.
 
 

 

This was a good sign. Of course, it will be very
positive if the road of cooperation widens with
Russia and, together, we find the right steps to
take and the right global initiatives and policies
to support to tackle the burning issues of our
day. On the other hand, I hope that this frank
communication motivates the Kremlin to rethink
embarking at last on some of those policies that
would improve the United States' Public perception,
predisposition and willingness to support fully our
Government in opening up towards Russia, and
will help dramatically in moving forward our
Bilateral Relations with less restrain and less
doubt and equivocation. I am referring, needless
to say, to Russia opening up its domestic politics
and becoming genuinely Democratic, starting,
first, with the easy steps of allowing Freedom of
Thought, Freedom of Expression and Freedom
of Assembly (for which, apparently, right now one
can be thrown in jail), and avoiding interference
in external affairs, when those concern internal
affairs of other States, such as election procedures
and surreptitiously cyber-attacking, spying on and
/or stealing information from States and Companies.


Negative signs for Canadian Polity and the functionality
of their State. Both the Governor General's shenanigans
and the insistence on the ``pipeline project", which is
understandable from the financial viewpoint, but tarnishes
Canada's image as a State that seemed to aspire to do the
Right Things vis-a-vis environmental protection and the
strive to contain climate change, are negative developments.
As it seems now, Canada cares about environmental
safeguards and the phasing out of fossil fuels only when
the Canadian pocket does not suffer. The change of
Government in Washington presents a unique opportunity
for Canada, if Canada is sincere, to show that it is ready to
share costs and to sacrifice to attain common goals, rather
than do the "right thing" only when it is painless. But their
opposition to side with Washington and withdraw support
is an indication that, to a large extent, Canada does not
have a comprehensive and reliable plan to switch swiftly
enough out of fossil fuels towards a renewable energy
economy so that abandoning the pipeline project and
reducing fossil fuel exploitation be counterbalanced
economically and in term of jobs by developments in the
renewable energy sector.
As Americans, we had been expecting Canada to side
with America's Best and now that we do have our Best
in the White House, Canada does not seem to be able
to stand side-by-side and support the efforts to do Right.


 
 

Ούτε και τώρα το ζητούμενο, δηλαδή να κάνουμε
το απλό και το ευγενικό. Να παραδεχτούμε ότι
κάναμε λάθος, να ζητήσουμε συγγνώμη και να
υποσχεθούμε ότι δε θα επαναληφθεί το γεγονός.
Αλλά πάντα να προσποιηθούμε και να κοροϊδέψουμε
και ούτε η ευγένεια ούτε η απλότητα μας νοιάζουν.
Πώς να προχωρήσουμε έτσι;


I love our United States, but, frankly, If I had been
Mr. Pompeo, having served who he has served for
all this time, I would be ashamed and embarrassed
to be advocating for Democratic Principles and for
the Rule of Law and to be lecturing Foreign Leaders
and Governments on it. I would just be looking -
staring, rather - in the mirror in disbelief at how low
I was able to go and how ugly and dysfunctional and
disgraceful an administration I was able to be part of.
Sorry, Mr. Pompeo, but you deserve no better. You
failed to realize, besides the domestic mayhem, the
damage that your boss' and beloved's behavior and
caprices would inflict on the stature of our Nation
and on our ability to influence and to exercise
steady, dynamic and firm foreign policy. We have
lost and we were injured and it will take time to
mend things, to regain trust and credibility and
to be again in a position to Lead with a Powerful,
Influential and Credible Voice. And for this, it is
first IMPERATIVE TO FOLLOW OUR DICTA
AND OUR BELIEFS AND IDEALS AT HOME,
before dishing them abroad.


Κρίμα που μίλησε όπως μίλησε και ακόμα μεγαλύτερο
κρίμα που, όπως αποδείχτηκε, δεν έχει ούτε καν το
θάρρος της γνώμης του και τα μάζεψε όπου φύγει φύγει.
Η αρχική δήλωση είναι ξεκάθαρη και δεν εμπεριέχει
καμία ασάφεια. Η διόρθωση είναι απλά και μόνο για
λόγους κατευνασμού, αφού έχει προκληθεί η ζημιά.


A State that is accused of creating and perpetuating
an Apartheid regime under its authority is never going
to admit as much, unless that regime gets dismantled.
The saddest of all things is that one expects from a
State consisting of People that have suffered and whose
Rights have been trampled upon and who have been
treated like lesser Human Beings to be the most ardent
and most vocal supporter of the Rights of others and
their most staunch defender. That the Jewish People
have instituted and are allowing this regime to exist
and that they are not outraged and up in arms at the
treatment of other People as second class Citizens by
their own State and regime is beyond reason and belief
and it is extremely hurtful and devastating.
 

I strongly advise against returning. But, he
knows the risks and I am sure people in much
better position than I must have been advising
the same. I, for once, believe that he will be
eliminated, because the regime has proven
again and again that that is how it operates
and we should not expect it to act differently
this time. I think that his relatives, his friends
and his supporters have to also be readying
and preparing for the worst. Alexei, stay out.
You've seen it first hand; you've suffered
enough already; it's just not worth it.


Ξέρετε, μόνο μία μικρή αλλαγή στο σενάριο.
Να σήκωνε ο μεγάλος αδελφός το χέρι, να
γνέψει στο μικρό να καθήσει, και μετά να
ζητήσει συγγνώμη από τον ελεγκτή και να
τον διαβεβαιώσει ότι στο εφεξής θα είναι
πιο προσεκτικοί και κάτι παρόμοιο δε θα
ξανασυμβεί. Πόσο πιο απλό και πόσο πιο
ευγενικό από το να πάρει δυο-τρία άλλα
δρομολόγια, τηλέφωνο συγγενή να τον
αναστατώσει κι εκείνος κάποιον άλλο
να "χρησιμοποιήσει" τις γνώσεις του και
την εμπειρία του για να καλύψει... Σκεφτείτε
το... Κάνετε το πιο απλό και το πιο εύκολο
και το πιο ευγενικό. Πόσο καλύτερη θα ήταν
η κοινωνία μας! Ευγένεια και απλοποίηση,
από τη γραφειοκρατία μέχρι τα προσωπικά
μας. Αυτό χρειάζεται η Ελλάδα, πάντα ήταν
αυτό που χρειαζόταν, αλλά πάντα, ή σχεδόν
πάντα, κοροϊδευόμασταν και δε μας ένοιαζε.


What happened in the Netherlands is totally
unacceptable and families have suffered
unjustifiably and, it seems, many families
have suffered unimaginably and beyond
repair. On the other hand, it is refreshing
that in one State, at least, the Government
is sensitive and cognizant enough to assume
collective responsibility and step down en
mass. I would, of course, prefer to see some
other, more progressive, person assume the
reigns after fresh Elections in the Netherlands,
but I wish the example of this Government
was followed more often World-wide (I do
not mean the mess, which is so often followed;
I mean the aftermath, the assumption of
responsibility and the resignation). If only
the Michigan Government had resigned
en mass after what happened in Flint...
we would have been a much better State
with a much more caring and responsible
and responsive Government. But, alas, it
is so rare and it was not meant to be. Now
we have to work through the Courts for
a degree of Justice and Restitution.


Μπράβο στους Υπουργούς Εξωτερικών! Πάντα
να είναι Καλόπιστες και Αδελφικές οι Σχέσεις
μεταξύ γειτόνων και διαρκώς να αναγνωρίζεται
ότι υπάρχουν περιθώρια βελτίωσης και περαιτέρω
συναργασίας, όσο καλές και ανεπτυγμένες και
να είναι οι Διμερείς Σχέσεις. Και, πάνω απ'όλα
συνεχής συνεργασία και συντονισμός. Χρειάζεται
πολλή δουλειά, όχι μόνο για την εδραίωση και τη
βελτίωση των σχέσεων, αλλά και για τη διατήρησή
τους. Όχι μόνο με τη Βόρεια Μακεδονία, αλλά με
όλους τους φίλους και γείτονές μας. Σιγά-σιγά
γίνονται τα Βαλκάνια Παράδειγμα, και αυτό μας
χαροποιεί και μας ενθουσιάζει όλους. Είναι ο
μόνος τρόπος να εγγυηθούμε ότι θα μπορέσουμε
να παραδώσουμε κάτι καλύτερο απ' αυτό που
παραλάβαμε και τη νοοτροπία και το παράδειγμα
του Αμοιβαίου Σεβασμού και της Συνεργασίας,
προς όφελος της Σταθερότητας και της Ευημερίας
Όλων, ώστε να ακολουθηθεί και από τις επερχόμενες
γενιές πολιτών και πολιτικών.


Excellent news! I hope, for his frivolity and his
demented and delusional attitude, he gets exactly
what he deserves, the rough end of the stick and the
contempt of even the most contemptible man on the
planet. I hope the last episode in this frightening,
unimaginable, terrible and terrifying saga will be
a vicious, mutually destructive and mutually
annihilating court battle about legal fees and other
obligations. It is time the manipulators and the
tormentors get repaid by the same currency they
have been using to pay (or, rather, refusing to pay)
the powerless and the most vulnerable for so long...


Μπράβο, παιδιά!! Μεγάλη Επιτυχία!


This is a Great Day for both Michigan and the
United States. I had been a supporter of the ex
Governor during his first years in office. I thought
that he was moderate and that he had a viable
program for Michigan's economic development.
But the Flint Crisis showed beyond the shadow
of a doubt that his drive on the financial side,
including the appointment of emergency managers,
largely unaccountable and with a mission to save
at any cost, was ruthless and racially biased and
not one of solidarity and compassion. It was an
economic "rationalism" at the expense of all else,
even of the Health of Citizens, especially those
Citizens that are always deemed "expendable"
and of a "lesser value as human beings", those
belonging to minorities and to deprived economic
backgrounds who, until the recent breakthroughs
in Georgia and in Michigan, were deemed
unnecessary and contemptible by the Republican
Party and establishment. Holding the top
accountable in America is the ONLY WAY
TO GO. As they say, when something goes wrong
and rotten, the fish stinks from the head. In this,
as in many other cases, ultimate responsibility for
the damage and the injury and the pain in Flint
lies squarely with the former Governor, his policies,
his deliberate handling and manipulations, coupled
with the eagerness of his stooges to submit to his
demands and whims and their lack of courage in
standing up for their Fellow Citizens and risk
their privileges for the Public Good. One is sadly
reminded of the stooges of the morph, who not
only are unwilling to confront him for his lunacy
and his shenanigans, but, on the contrary, are
willfully and enthusiastically amplifying his
bankrupt delusional attitudes and his immorality
solely for personal profit and political gain and
electoral advantage. THE TOP MUST BE HELD
ACCOUNTABLE. THERE IS NO OTHER WAY.


Rules are rules. That is why UNIONs and
AGREEMENTs of every nature, but primarily
those that make the Lives of Citizens much
simpler and bypass bureaucracy and rules,
are welcome and should not be exited just
because of ideas and "ideals" that have
nothing to do with easing and facilitating
the Lives of Citizens. The Free Movement
of Citizens (including abolition of formalities,
checks and passport requirements), the free
movement of goods and of services and the
Common Currency have transformed the
everyday lives of Europeans in ways that
are so fundamental and so positive that
it is hard to appreciate and describe in
their fullest dimension. Not to mention
that the Fraternity and Proximity, the
integral geographic, social and conceptual
space, that have been created make conflicts
unfathomable and speaks volumes for the
nature of the Future of this Union of States.
Pity that the U.K. is out, but it did choose to
get out and now its Citizens have to endure
and to be patient with the consequences of
their choice, one of the worst, least justifiable
and most inexplicable in Peacetime History.


This is what Foreign Policy, real, open-hearted
and open-minded Foreign Policy, should look
like. Not placing Nations on meaningless lists
of sponsors of terrorism, which have nothing
to do with a State being dangerous or detrimental
to other States' Security, but is all about politics,
in the bad sense of the word. Cuba, not only has
done nothing to warrant its placement there,
but, to the contrary, it has been a Peaceful
Nation, and has been willing to extend a hand
of Fraternity, Friendship and Reconciliation
towards the United States, but we have been
so unwilling and equivocating, and most likely,
unjustifiably so.
For us, what Castro did wrong was to seek
Independence and Freedom for the Cuban
People. These are both Values we cherish and,
if we had not been selfish and short-sighted,
we should have admired and supported him.
As for Freedom, he has seriously erred in
the years following the Revolution, but, our
foreign policy and our insistence on sanctions
and punitive measures, mostly for domestic
political reasons, has not helped the situation
with improving our Relations with Cuba, nor
I am afraid, has contributed much to bringing
changes about or to helping the Cuban People
achieve their aspirations. A genuinely open,
friendly, mutually supportive and mutually
beneficial foreign policy, based on mutual
Respect and Cooperation, would have been
much more constructive and would have
achieved so much more in the long run for
both Nations. With Foreign Policy, we must
have a degree if Idealism, an Open Mind and
a sense of deep Commitment to Friendship
and to Mutuality and a lot of Patience. If
it had been up to me, or was asked to give
some advice, I would encourage the Biden
Administration, with short, but steady, steps,
to re-approach Cuba and to re-approach Iran.
In both cases, we can leave the past behind,
and we can go beyond temporary fixes and
mending; we can become Great Friends and
Allies. Both Nations have Great Histories
and both them and our United States have
so much to learn from each other and could
benefit greatly by peaceful, calm and steady
relations, based on Mutual Friendship and
Cooperation. Not only are we risking only
minimally, having very little to lose, in trying,
but certainly we cannot benefit if we do not.


This is one of those examples that showcase with
clarity how and why many of those that live in
luxury, with money not earned, and are considered
"honest", "geniuses" and "entrepreneurial",
manage their affairs and how money stolen
or laundered begets more and more and more
money stolen or laundered and, thus, the rich,
dishonest, corrupt and ruthless, but well-connected
and well sought-after, operate. Very rarely do Courts,
Prosecutors or States do anything about them or
examine closely their deals, not least because of
entanglements of interests between "business"
and political life, and of direct "contributions",
bribes and other favors, and powerful lawyering.
The World must change. The World shall change.
The average Citizen is furious and outraged that
such behaviors get rewarded by the system we live
in, rather than severely punished. This fury leads
to serious questioning of the status quo and, as
we saw, sadly and unfortunately, undermines
Democratic Principles, because those are mixed
and confused with rampant Capitalism and the
ability to move unrestrained, uncontrolled and
without limitations in illegal or marginal ways
to amass enormous wealth and avoid obligations.


Να και πραγματική ομορφιά μέσα από τους
απαραίτητους, αλλά στενάχωρους, περιορισμούς
και τη θλίψη και τον πόνο που αντικατοπτρίζουν
ως προς τα αίτια επιβολής τους. Πράγματι υπέροχο,
θαυμάσιο αποτέλεσμα! Μπράβο, Κύριε Δασκάλου!!
Ελπίζω κάποια στιγμή να δούμε τα σχέδια ζωντανά
σε κάποια έκθεση στην Αθήνα και, για όσους απο
μας δεν είναι γνώστες των Τρικάλων, θα ήταν πάρα
πολύ ωραίο αν υπήρχε συνεργασία με κάποιον
Τρικαλινό φωτογράφο (υπονοείται σε περίπτωση
που δεν ενδιαφέρεται ο ίδιος ο Κύριος Δασκάλου),
ώστε να δούμε τα σχέδια πλάϊ-πλάϊ με φωτογραφίες
των δομών και των σπιτιών που ενέπνευσαν τον
Αρχιτέκτονα. ΜΠΡΑΒΟ, Κύριε Δασκάλου!!


It is a shame, a huge embarrassment for our Polity
and for our Dignity that this situation, a stark and
piercing inequality, persists in our United States
today. If President Biden, with the Help and Support
of Vice President Harris and the Legal Experts who
will be part of the New Administration, not least
Attorney General Garland and Ms. Harris' husband,
Doug Emhoff, make it to turn the situation around
and create a climate in which Respect, Equality and
Equal Treatment Under the Law prevails, and those
heartbreaking, unfathomable and unacceptable
abuses and murders by "police" of our Fellow
Citizens of color stop occurring and, when they
occur, do not go unpunished any longer, they will
have done more for our States than most other
administrations in recent and not so recent History.
The Hearts of All People in this Great Nation are
with you on this, and it is high time things change
and we tackle this very significant, one of the most
important and highest priority issues, successfully.
(The following is a cartoon by Kostas Mitropoulos
in the Greek press (with my translation). It is heart-
breaking, devastating, that it reflects, to a large
extent, the racial reality and bias of both the out-
going administration and the "police" forces in
our United States today. In the link, I am attaching
a short video from the BBC that showcases the
African American point of view, which all of us,
Citizens of this Nation, would do very well to pay
close attention to, placing, as much is it is humanly
possible, ourselves in their shoes and sensing the
pain they feel for how they are treated and why,
and the fear they live under, even in their attempts
to simply exercise their Rights.)


Μπράβο στους δύο Πρωθυπουργούς! Στα Βαλκάνια
δεν έχουμε τίποτα να χωρίσουμε και είμαστε όλοι οι
λαοί Αδέλφια, γιατί μας ενώνουν ιστορικοί δεσμοί
και κοινό μέλλον και προοπτική. Όταν εργαζόμαστε
όλοι μαζί για κοινούς στόχους, το μέλλον είναι πιο
πολλά υποσχόμενο και πιο ευοίωνο για όλλους.


That is one of the very few wise decisions that
he has made, even though he is making it for
the wrong reasons. It is high time we focus on
the upcoming change, on bringing back some
degree of decency and civility, and leave behind
the disgrace, selfishness, stupidity and mess of the
last four years, totally unfit for and unbecoming
of such a Great Nation, with so much to offer.


By trying to defeat others, instead of supporting
Harmony and Peaceful Coexistence through
Cooperation and Coordination, one is poised
to defeat oneself. In our United States, we have
to realize that in the World as it exists today,
in the World that we, largely, have created and
have encouraged others to actively participate
in, there is no "extreme patriotism", nor can there
be a reasonable idea of "one nation first", but only
pseudo-patriotism and jingoism and self-defeating
frictions, enmity and isolationism. America has
the Universally Respected High Status that
It Enjoys Globally Today because it has worked
with other Nations to move all forward and to
lift many other Nations up from shambles and
from a state of collapse and destruction and to
establish and fortify Peace, Democracy and
Prosperity Internationally through Cooperation.
In our best, we created the United Nations and
we helped rebuild states that destroyed them-
selves through mindless frictions and war.
THAT IS WHO WE ARE. THAT IS WHO
WE MUST CONTINUE TO BE. THAT IS
WHO OUR HISTORY EQUIPS US AND
COMPELS US TO BE. THAT IS THE ONLY
WAY WE DESERVE TO BE.
 

Prime Minister Conte's message to Joe Biden
and Kamala Harris reflects Global Hopes.


I am wondering, are you not all ashamed to
be jumping ship and to be seeing to disagree
now, for a few days, after you enabled, you
encouraged, you empowered and you amplified
this demented, this delusional, this selfish and
uncontrollable behavior for four years? You
think that by abandoning ship for this one last
hour, you are diminishing your responsibility
and guilt vis-a-vis History for the damage done
and the chaos of four years? None of you, who
are now in a last ditch, pitiful and miserable
last moment effort to "seem and look different",
should have taken part in any of this. If the
despicable morph had been left alone and
completely isolated and not spurred on and
supported by a mob of politicians like you,
by all of you, for four years, the damage
would have been significantly reduced.
Think of this from now on; not every cycle,
but think of this always, think of this every
instant; it is our duty and responsibility to
not side with questionable, unstable and
uncontrollable people and to preserve the
Fundamental Principles of our Polity by
opposing frivolity and mindlessness ALWAYS,
CONSISTENTLY AND CONTINUOUSLY.
 


We cannot allow recycling supervisors of killer
cops from one city, where they totally messed up,
to another to oversee the same aggression and
perpetrate the same violence and havoc. Chiefs
of "police" departments cannot be treated like
CEO's and CF**kO's, who, despite destroying
their companies through greed and unethical
practices, always jump to the next post with
higher bonuses, more lavish perks and even
higher salaries. City "bosses" have to realize
that "police" departments deal with Human
Life, not with money and profit, and that if one
fails in the sacred duty to help preserve Human
Life and to protect Citizens, they are not worth
being in that profession anymore. If a cop kills
unprovoked and if an "officer", up to chiefs
and supervisors and directors, has under his/
her belt an unprovoked killing of an innocent
man, (s)he should be ejected from the profession
and entered into a National database so that
(s)he cannot be recycled into a similar job to
another department. Policing (in the right
sense of the word; not intimidation, threat,
aggression and the unjustifiable taking of
innocent Human Life, as it stands for today),
should not be akin to a business. It should
be taken to be as Sacred, as Important and
as Indispensable as Democracy itself, and
as Honesty and Ethics in Political Offices
and Government Positions and Institutions.
If those Units and Principles in a State get
corrupted, eroded and start malfunctioning,
either moving on the fringes or outside the
purview and control of the Law - of an Honest,
Independent, Impartial and Unbribable and
Incorruptible Law - then the State becomes
a non-functional and/or non-well-governed
and/or failed State, and should be viewed as
such and in need of radical change and a
complete and seismic overhaul.


I am not sure whether they realize what really needs
to be done RIGHT NOW, in spite of their being so
privileged and so much bankrolled and so much
pressured by opposing special interests, in our
United States to preserve cohesion and social peace
and harmony. The Biden Administration, with support
from Congress has to change the laws that shelter,
protect and give, practically, total immunity to "police"
killers of innocent black men, without any provocation.
DO THIS RIGHT NOW! And the new Attorney General,
despite being relatively old and having operated in
and served a biased, unjust and corrupt system for
so long, MUST TAKE AN ACTIVIST POSITION
AND PROSECUTE "OFFICER" MURDERERS
TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW, RIGHT
NOW. There is no more tolerance, nor can people
be patient anymore, seeing around us Fellow Citizens
of ours being gunned down by tools and stooges of the
official state and of city authorities in cold blood,
simply because of the color of their skin and the places
where they happen to reside, and the "law" doing
absolutely nothing and serving no Justice; definitely
doing nothing in comparison to the outrage and the
sentences that would have been dished out if a similar
lethal incident involved a white and/or privileged person.


Total mess and total lack of decency. There
is no lower one can go; absolute bottom of
the pit. And yet and still, tomorrow, they
will be asking to be taken seriously and to
be shown respect... Completely delusional and
laughable "personalities" and nonentities, given
sudden, unwarranted and undue importance.


Georgia is giving us a heart attack, but, right
now, things look good. And, regardless of final
outcomes, another first towards Justice and
Equality was attained. Georgia Elected the
first African American Senator in its History.
It was really really high time. Way too long of
a wait for the People of Georgia and for All
Americans that, only in concrete steps and
only through Universal, Dynamic and Active
Participation in Public Life, can they see some
change coming. Words but inaction in other
parts of our country, like, e.g., in Wisconsin,
make us all deeply sad and pessimistic about
the consolidation and strengthening of Ideals
that we cherish and hold sacred, and the Rights
of All Citizens that are, by nature, inalienable.
 

I am 100% behind LeBron and the other kids
on this and share their disappointment and
outrage. Unfortunately, it was all done and
all covered up as expected. The "law" is used
as a pretext to shield the murderous machine
of a "state" that cares more about order and
property than it cares about People, especially
those People that Want and Need Change and
those that are best positioned to shatter the
existing untenable norms of segregation and
of discrimination and to wake society up from
its stupor and its submissiveness and to thrash
its indifference to injustice, to racism and to the
deliberate, organized and well coordinated and
impeccably orchestrated state terrorism and
oppression, clinically directed to a specific
large part of the population of our States.


Yesterday, more than any other day, one must
have realized that, in our United States today,
we have one Party and one Insane Asylum.
This makes us closer relatives to some other
not so positively distinguishable States. E.g.,
we are related to North Korea; only there the
single Party and the Insane Asylum are identical.
Also, with the Arabia of the Sauds; only there the
Party and the Insane Asylum all consist of
certifiable members of a single family. The
major difference is that in the U.S. the Insane
Asylum gets to participate in Elections and,
occasionally gets elected, whereas in all those
other relatives of ours, it is a constant feature
of Government by default. I heard, however,
some rumors to the effect that some advisors
of the Morph are so jealous and envious of those
other cases that they advised him to declare
Martial Law to make us even closer, in polity,
to those other distinguished paradigms by
giving a constant foothold in Government to
our own Insane Asylum...


I have one strong message to send to Iran and to
all other State or private entities that, either for
legitimate reasons or by violating International
Law and Custom, decide to seize private property
or National assets of other States. Whatever you
do, when dealing with Diplomats or Sailors, treat
them like VIPs, resist all attempts at detention,
do not use them as bargaining chips, ask them
where they either want to or must go, and help
them, providing immediate assistance and kind
and courteous treatment, to get there. Those
two professions are the ones that keep the fabric
of our United World together, those that make
us all in this World realize, more than any other
person, that we are Brothers and Sisters and
that, regardless of the wishes and the whims of
specific Governments and Leaders at specific
points in time, the World is meant to move
forward in a Spirit of Unity and Cooperation.
DO NOT HOLD SAILORS OR DIPLOMATS!
ASSIST THEM WITH CARE AND SEND THEM
HOME, OR WHERE THEY NEED TO BE!


Η εκκλησία αρέσκεται στο να αυτοεπαινειται, αλλά
κατά τη διάρκεια της πανδημίας η Ελληνορθόδοξη
Εκκλησία εντός Ελλάδας τα έχει κάνει μαντάρα και
δεν έχει βοηθήσει καθόλου. Αν η εκκλησία είχε από
την αρχή σταθεί στο πλευρό της Υπεύθυνης Κυβέρνησης
και των Δοκιμαζόμενων Πολιτών, συνεχώς υπακούωντας
και ενισχύοντας και επαυξάνοντας τα μηνύματα για
παραμονή στο σπίτι και περιορισμό των κοινωνικών
δραστηριοτήτων, αντί να διαπραγματεύεται συνεχώς
για εξαιρέσεις και μερικές ή ολικές άρσεις στους
περιορισμούς για την πάρτι της. δήθεν εν ονόματι
των πιστών, αλλά κατ' ουσία για ίδιον όφελος,
θα είχε συμβάλλει τα μέγιστα στη βελτίωση των
συνθηκών, στην διατήρηση της Δημόσιας Υγείας
και στην ομαλότερη υπακοή και επιτήρηση των
μέτρων. Αλλά πάντα το χαβά τους τα παπατζιλίκια,
σε άλλο μήκος κύματος απ' αυτό της κοινωνίας και
τις ανάγκες της. Πάλι ρημαδιό εκ προυχόντων, πάλι
σκορποχώρι και παπατζιλίκια. Κρίμα, κρίμα, γιατι η
πανδημία ήταν ευκαιρία να αλλάξουν βιολί και να
δουλέψουν για το καλό του κοινωνικού συνόλου,
αλλά στερνή μου γνώση να σ'είχα πρώτα...


He gave glimpses of his character during the debates
four years ago. Now he's dead set on proving his frivolity
and dubiousness by refusing to certify the results of U.S.
Federal Elections, the only problem, that everyone else,
except this guy (and a small group of radicalized ultra
rightist fanatics), see, being that his choice, the one whom
he adores now for obvious, but questionable, reasons, is not
the one that was elected, because the American People knew
better. Pity, pity... that People in some States of our Union
still elect people like Ted Cruz in our Senate, one of the most
Powerful Bodies of the Republic, some of whom are investing
their best and mightiest efforts to discredit, undermine and
destabilize our Democracy, instead of focusing on a multitude
of problems that have been waiting and must be dealt with.


People immersed up to their necks in the swamp
of special interests are not going to help bring about
or to endorse change. The Biden administration will
be as conservative and as detrimental to progressive
change as most others have been in history. The only
refreshing thing is that there will be decency, some
degree of stability and predictability, and a very
limited degree of compassion, at least to the extent
that compassion for the many does not infringe on
the interests of the wealthy and governing few and
does not threaten their deeply and well entrenched
interests. Entanglements between big business and
government are all around and they are not going
to go, nor is the Biden administration going to do
anything to change and improve the situation that
suits so well the interests of most of its members.


I could not agree more with the outgoing president
that military interventions, and especially this
business of "militaristic, pseudo-democratic,
civilian reconstitution and rebuilding", mostly
by puppet figures and governments, is costly,
ineffective, untenable and, mostly, a big joke.
After 9/11, the United States had a Legitimate
Right, based on International Law, to Defend
Itself and to Retaliate, by bombing Government
Targets and by Annihilating Military Bases and
Installations and Civilian Infrastructure and
Structures used for Governmental or Other
Military Business by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
If George W. Bush had been smarter and if his
advisors had any brains, that is exactly what
they should have done and not get entangled
in ``repairing and rebuilding". They should
have let the Afghanis learn their lesson and
resist themselves to a new attempted overtake
of their State and their Government by such
destructive regimes as the hateful and despicable
Taliban. But, the lack of intelligence and the
overall stupidity that was the hallmark of the
intervention on the ground, and, especially, the
attempted ``rebuilding" by the Bush administration,
was proven beyond the shadow of a doubt by
what happened subsequently in Iraq, where
the United States had no legitimate cause to
even attack. There, the Bush administration
and all its "officials" who knowingly took part
in orchestrated and coordinated campaigns of
lies, propaganda and misinformation, both
against the American Public, but also, against
Allies and the International Community, did
commit a Grave Crime in International Law
by purposefully fabricating and manipulating
evidence and using it to Initiate and Perform
an Act of Aggression, against all legal precepts
and legal obligations set by The Charter of our
United Nations, by which All States Must Abide
Without Deviation, if Peace and Security are
ever to be widely established Globally and widely
Consolidated. We are still paying a humongous
price, both as far as expenses and as far as
ineffectiveness are concerned, for that botched,
illegitimate conflict and "rebuilding" operation.
So, YES, I am with the outgoing president on
this analysis 100%. Let us learn these lessons
of History and let us aim to be much more
deliberate and careful, much more clinical and
more moderate, and let us give much much more
leeway and freedom of movement to our
Civilian and our Diplomatic Representatives
when it comes to making decisions on how to
handle situations and conflicts abroad. But,
at the same time let us keep a reasonably
well-equipped and powerful military, mainly
as a deterrent, a preventive and defensive
weapon against any and all unlawful aspirations
and designs, aiming at either destabilizing or at
threatening our infrastructure and our Citizens
here and/or abroad.
 

It is interesting that "police" in Minneapolis are
releasing uncharacteristically hastily a body cam
recording to exonerate themselves... As if, if they
had been guilty, as they have been so many times
before, of shooting and killing cowardly, without
any provocation, an innocent black man, they would
have felt any remorse or they would have suffered
any consequences... These situations, albeit tragic
and unacceptable, have become a joke, because
the dirtiness, the intentionality and the murderous
disposition of the cops and their civilian bosses
have become incontestable, beyond the shadow
of any and all doubt, and brutally and cynically
lethal for the communities they allegedly "serve
and protect", almost to the point of extreme and
uncontrollable racist hatred and genocidal mania...


Πατριδοκαπηλία και ασύστολο και ασταμάτητο
γλύψιμο, μέχρι γυαλίσματος, στο σουλτάνο και
στην άκρα δεξιά. Ο στρατηγός εκτιμά ακριβώς
που βρίσκεται το προσωπικό του συμφέρον και
η επιβίωσή του, χωρίς κανένα σεβασμό ούτε στη
Χώρα του ούτε στην Καλή Γειτονία. Και φυσικά,
ούτε λέξη για Αδελφοσύνη, για Ειρηνική Συνύ-
παρξη και ούτε καν μία Ευχή από βάθος Καρδιάς
Νά'ναι Αχρείαστες οι Ένοπλες Δυνάμεις, τόσο
όσον αφορά τις Αμυντικές Αποστολές τους, όσο
και τη συμβολή τους σε Πολιτική Προστασία
και σε Αποστολές Έρευνας και Διάσωσης. Νά'
ναι αχρείαστες πραγματικά και στις δύο πλευρές
του Αιγαίου και την  προσεχή και όλες τις χρονιές.


In Sweden, resignations are in order. And they better
come immediately. Sooner-right now-rather than later.


Ορθή η αντίδραση του Κυριάκου. Ας κρατήσουμε αυτό.
Και ας εκτιμήσουμε ότι σκέφτεται και αντιδρά σωστά,
ώστε να διορθώνονται μερικά κακώς κείμενα. Ας το
λάβουμε υπόψιν, τουλάχιστον όσοι έχουν άμεση πρόσβαση
στο γραφείο του, όπως π.χ., ο Αλέξης, και ας προσπαθήσουμε
να του μιλήσουμε, να συνεννοηθούμε μαζί του και να τον
πείσουμε, πριν κάνουμε κριτική και βγούμε στα μπαλκόνια
και στα τουϊτια με φωνασκίες για στείρα αντιπαράθεση, που
δε βοηθάει σε τίποτα, ούτε την πολιτική ζωή ούτε τον τόπο.
Ας αλλάξουμε την Πολιτική Κουλτούρα. Ας επικεντρωθούμε
στο διάλογο ώστε να διορθώνουμε όλοι μαζί, και στο να
γίνεται το σωστό, όχι μόνο στο να κερδίζουμε πόντους
καυτηριάζοντας και καταδικάζοντας, και μάλιστα πολλά
που θα κάναμε κι εμείς το ίδιο χάλια, αν όχι και χειρότερα.
Ας βοηθήσουμε όλοι και ας κάνουμε μία προσπάθεια για
μια νέα αρχή την οποία - στα πλαίσια βέβαια του αναφαί-
ρετου Δημοκρατικού δικαιώματος της δημόσιας συζήτησης
και κριτικής - να προσπαθήσουν όλα τα κόμματα να διατη-
ρήσουν και να εδραιώσουν. Να γίνουμε πιο ανοιχτοί στην
επικοινωνία και στη συνεννόηση ως προς την ουσία, και
καλύτεροι σ' αυτό με αφορμή την πανδημία.


BRAVO, ARGENTINA!! It is not an easy or comfortable
or enviable position to be in to have to make that choice.
But it is a CHOICE ONE HAS TO BE, not only allowed
but, ABLE AND EMPOWERED TO MAKE
. 

Έχουν δίκιο και ο Αλέξης Τσίπρας και ο Βασίλης Κανέλλης.
Ως προς τον πρώτο, επειδή, όπως και ο ίδιος άλλωστε απο-
δέχεται, ο ΣΥΡΙΖΑ αναγνωρίζει την ανάγκη Συνεργασίας
και Ομόνοιας τις δύσκολες και τραγικές ώρες που περνάμε
και με τις δυσχέρειες και τον πόνο που αντιμετωπίζουμε,
θα του συνέστηνα, αντί να κάνει αυτού του είδους την
αντιπολίτευση και κριτική για το θεαθήναι με τιτιβίσματα,
να επικοινωνήσει με τον Πρωθυπουργό, που είναι κι εκείνος
νέος και σίγουρα συγχίζεται με μερικά απ' αυτά που βλέπει
να γίνονται, και να συζητήσει μαζί του. Να του συστήσει
να αποφεύγονται αυτές οι παρελάσεις αξιωματούχων για
τα εμβόλια μπροστά στις κάμερες, που είναι αναξιοπρεπείς
και κίτς και τριτοκοσμικές και, επίσης, λαμβάνοντας και
υπόψιν το άρθρο του Βασίλη, να σταματήσουμε αυτές τις
ελεεινές, επίσης κιτς και τριτοκοσμικές, φιέστες για υποδοχές
αντικειμένων και μη προσωπικοτήτων στα αεροδρόμια.
Να υποδεχόμαστε με Κυβερνητική Αντιπροσώπευση μόνο
Αντιπροσωπείες άλλων χωρών, όπως ορίζει το Διπλωματικό
Προτόκολο, το οποίο απαιτεί την Υποδοχή ως ένδειξη
Ευγενείας, Φιλοξενίας, Σεβασμού και Εκτίμησης προς
Υψηλούς Προσκεκλημένους και άλλες Επίσημες
Αντιπροσωπείες που επισκέπτονται την Χώρα μας.
Τα άλλα, νομίζω και ο Κυριάκος θα συμφωνούσε, είναι
μάλλον "ταπεινωτικά" και "προσβλητικά" για μία
χώρα, της οποίας το επίπεδο, δυστυχώς, παραμένει
αναχρονιστικά χαμηλό, και σ'αυτό σίγουρα έχουν
συμβάλλει και οι πολιτικοί "ηγέτες" και άλλοι, λίγο
ή πολύ, γνωστοί και λιγότερο γνωστοί, "παράγοντες".
Πολιτιστικά, μία τέτοια συνεργασία μεταξύ Πολιτικών
Αρχηγών, που είναι σχετικά νέοι για πρώτη φορά μετά
από πολλά χρόνια, παρ' όλο που δεν κοστίζει καθόλου,
θα ήταν υπερπολύτιμη και, ως παραπροϊόν, θα είχε μία
κοινή πρωτοβουλία, που, πιθανώς, να οδηγούσε και σε
μία πιο ευρεία συνεργασία σε περισσότερα ζητήματα
όπου η συμφωνία είναι εύκολη, αλλά πολύτιμη, τουλά-
χιστον για κάποιος σκοπούς κοινής, προφανούς αποδοχής.
 

Shame on the Arabia, currently under the stranglehold
and dictatorship of the Sauds. At the time when Hope is
emerging globally, due to the vaccine, and Science and
Progress, due to the vaccine, are firmly established as
front players and protagonists, we have darkness and
dark-age mentality persevering in the Saud "family"
and their obsolete and antiquated regime in, and hold
on, Arabia, shaming Humanity and Its forward leaps
and advances. FREE LOUJAIN NOW!


Μπράβο σε όλους που κάνουν ή που θα κάνουν το
εμβόλιο μόλις έρθει η σειρά τους. Είναι μία πράξη
Αλληλεγγύης και Ανθρωπιάς, όπως είπε και ο κύριος
Πέτσας, αλλά και Συνειδητοποίησης, Ευσυνειδησίας
και Υπευθυνότητας. Εύχομαι η Ελλάδα, όπως και
στην αρχή της πανδημίας, με την εξαιρετική και
πειθαρχημένη αντιμετώπηση και προσήλωση στα
μέτρα, πήγε πολύ καλά και αποτέλεσε παράδειγμα,
έτσι και τώρα να συγκαταλεχθεί δικαιωματικά
στην κορυφή των χωρών που δείχουν προσήλωση
στον Άνθρωπο, στις Αξίες και στην Υπευθυνότητα.
Ας είμαστε πρώτοι, ή ανάμεσα στους πρώτους, εκεί
που αξίζει και εκεί που τα Ιδανικά μας μας επιβάλλουν.

I strongly applaud everyone that has already been
vaccinated or is in line to do so, waiting their turn.
It is a act of Brotherhood, Solidarity, Conscience
and Responsibility. I hope that, despite the frivolity
and irresponsibility that our current, outgoing
administration, and, especially, those at the top, have
shown in handling the pandemic, and despite our bad
rap and damaged reputation as super spreaders of
conspiracy theories against perfectly safe, thoroughly
tested and satisfactorily effective vaccines, our United
States become one the States in the World with the
largest percentage of inoculated People on our
Planet. We deserve a First in a matter that really
counts and shows that we still believe in Humanity,
in Science, in Values and Ideals and that, despite
recent appearances, we are still dedicated to Helping
our Fellow Human Beings and still Care about the
Well-Being and the Health and Safety of All.
 
 

Representatives and Senators, COMPROMISE IN A
SMART WAY! Reduce spending on covid relief by
funding only unemployment benefits and those with
extremely low incomes and cutting out all freebies to
companies and businesses. Reduce foreign aid by
cutting out, via a smart analysis, all aid to States and
all aid for purposes that could wait for better times,
more fortunate financial circumstances and more
appropriate conditions. NOW, YOU MUST FOCUS
ON DOMESTIC AFFAIRS to get over the bump.


Heartbreaking... How could humans do this?
You would say they can do much worse and
you would be right... But still, it is so hard to
believe, so hard to imagine, so hard to witness...


A terrible, frightening nightmare concluding with
a suitably horrendous and absurd ending. Let us
hope that lessons were learned. NEVER AGAIN.


Russia has to seriously ponder about the climate
in International and Bilateral Relations. In the
United States, we do not have some inherent
problem with Russia or with Russians. Unlike
Russians, many of us (if not most) have met and
are familiar with Russian People (even though we
may be unfamiliar with the mentality and the
general attitudes, if such exist, of the Russian
Nation), and we have no particular reason to
single them, or their Homeland, out for special
negative treatment. So the Russian Government
should take a minute to think about where those
attitudes of Russo-phobia, that they claim are
observing in American attitudes, come from.
Is it possible that they stem from actions and
from behaviors that the Russian State and the
Russian Government is engaging in? Is it at all
plausible that Russia itself is responsible for the
response elicited and that, if its Government is
sincere in its proclamations of wanting cordial
and warm relations with the United States and
close cooperation on many issues, we can
certainly do it, if they refrain from those
negative moves? I think that any intelligent
and informed person understands this really
well, but just to be sure let me point out:
1. Assassinations and attempted assassinations
   and intimidation of dissidents. You may argue
   this is an internal Russian matter. Unfortunately,
   we are sensitive about these issues, and we are
   used to acting in embracing and protecting the
   Rights of Free Speech and of Free Expression
   of every Global Citizen and cannot tolerate
   anyone being gagged or punished for speaking
   out and expressing their thoughts and opinion.
2. Cyber warfare. Why do it? Is there a need
    to embarrass a Nation that has the Good Will
    to cooperate and whom you also claim are ready
    and willing to cooperate with? And the time of
    Trump, when you could claim that it was not you
    who did it and look him in the eye and have him
    duped (or threatened, who knows?) into claiming
    that he believed you, despite all evidence to the
    contrary, is over. Now you have to show restraint
    because, with evidence, accountability shall follow.


The pardons business, for both non-violent crimes
and for homicides, are disgraceful and the United
States Constitution should be amended to do away
with those disgraces which are antiquated and which
the American Public, being in favor of Equality and
Equal Treatment for All Under the Law, does not
support in any way. They are a disgrace for two
very important reasons. First, they emphatically
undermine the Principle of Equal Treatment for
All Under the Law and they accentuate the already
known fact that those affluent and those very well
connected, willing to lie and to perform favors for
their despicable and criminally inclined bosses and
the system they serve can get away with it with no,
or at best with minimal, consequences, unlike the
general public. Second, they create a Presidency
and a cohort of other related High Political Offices,
whose holders are, in essence, immune from any
liability and any accountability, regardless of
whether infractions occur in the performance
of one's duty in Good Faith, with the only exception
being the consequences of the vote at election time.
(They would have done away with this also if they
could while claiming not to undermine Democracy.)
If one knows that they can do anything, even engage
in criminal behavior, when profitable or convenient
or politically expedient, and not be held accountable
for it, then there is absolutely no incentive for them
to behave ethically and to abide by any Laws and
any Regulations or by any Custom. This leads to
a state of full and complete anarchy in government
and in complete impunity and chaos in delivering
Justice to those high up. And in a democracy, it is
especially important, in fact a sine-qua non for a
well-functioning Democracy and a well-functioning
Polity and State, to hold those in Government even
more accountable than the general population, since
they hold the fates of the entire population in their
hands, at least while in office and in command.
 

Good riddance. Do not dare to give advice in public
to millions of people, even useful and scientifically
sound advice, on what to do and what not to do, if
you are not ready to abide by your own guidelines
first and to provide an example. Good riddance.
By the way, this is one of the major and foremost
reasons why many Republicans and right-wingers
are despicable and suffer politically. They, very often,
tell, mainly on matters of ethics, to others what to do
and how to lead "pure" and "sanctified" lives, but,
on the first occasion and whenever convenient, or
inconvenient, as the case may be, are ready, and
more than willing and eager, to bypass all advice
and all guidelines that so sanctimoniously, fervently
and fanatically try to impose on others and so
righteously and aggressively to codify into Law
(apparently for others to follow).


I agree neither with Congress nor with the President.
The President is not right in wanting to send without
targeting, indiscriminately a large check to most
American Families, needful of not, like the last time
around. Financial Aid should be focused to people
on unemployment and those with extremely low
incomes. The rest have to learn to forego expenses
on amenities and luxuries, which are nice to have,
but one can do without when one's neighbors are
getting furloughed, losing their jobs and are on the
verge of losing their benefits and cannot even afford
the basics. This is time for restraint; not time to spend
extra money provided gratis from a Government that
does not have it in the first place and from a People
that have lost track that these funds, that we view
as a windfall, are being borrowed from our kids
and from our grandkids by placing our State as
collateral, thus putting, on the one hand, our own
in financial peril and jeopardy and risking their
well-being and the well-being of our United States.
Second, even though the morph may be right that
some foreign aid should have been withheld or
postponed, there are occasions and there are
Nations that face calamities worse than ours and
which we can help and we should help urgently,
not least because their stability and their well
being is inextricably intertwined with ours and
with our credibility. I am not an expert, but I
suspect that some of the Nations in our Southern
Neighborhood are among those, and they have
faced, apart from the financial meltdown, also
natural disasters they need urgent help with.
Congress is responsible because they act in a
completely mindless and absurd way that verges
on both the comic and the ultra-tragic. Are you
serious in sending a 6,000 page bill to the Members,
responsible for spending or squandering, whatever
the case may be, $1.5 Trillion of our Nation's Wealth
(on loan), allowing them a few hours, in which
most of us cannot even read a pleasantly written
and relaxing novel, to go through it and to examine
it and its provisions and articles critically and to
make up their minds? You surely are nor expecting
them to be able to do this and you surely are not
expecting them to give any feedback or to express
their thoughts and their disagreements. Bottom
line, a terrible, but, in all reality, extant bottom
line, is that it suits the authors and manipulators
behind this bill, and most other bills that are voted
hastily into Law, who, I suspect, are those least
thoughtful, most powerful and best connected
in Congress, and who are the most responsible
for the financial and other mess that out Nation
finds itself in, to have a free hand, taking great
advantage of perks, benefits and other financial
(or other) emoluments, in composing unhindered,
unscrutinized and unrestricted so that they can
satisfy lobbyists and regional interests enough to
be able to benefit later personally in a quid pro
quo fashion. Like, e.g., a situation, unfortunately,
by no means rare, by getting appointed, when they
retire, with fat salaries and luxurious perks and
benefits, to advisory boards and to boards of
"companies", whose business they have favored
and benefited, allegedly for the public good, while
in office.  In addition, Congress is also responsible
for the waste in spending money for needy and
for non-needy alike, indiscriminately. This must
be avoided. Target expenditures in helping and
in providing relief to the very weak few, to those
that really need it, and try to provide help for
them deeper in time, rather than spending so much
in short-term "relief" to many people, some of whom
are in real need, but most of whom are not.
A SHAMEFUL SITUATION ALL AROUND.
SHAMEFUL BECAUSE, INSTEAD OF BEING
REASONABLE AND THOUGHTFUL, WE ARE
INDISCRIMINATE, UNINTELLIGENT AND
WASTEFUL AND WE TOLERATE THIS MESS.
 

Άνθρωπος. ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ. Ειθε να πιασουν τοπο οι
Ευχές του και μακάρι να τον ακούσουμε προσεκτικά
και να υπακούσουμε ΌΛΟΙ. Να'σαι καλά, Γιάννη, και
να επιτελείς με Ηθική και Επιτυχώς τα καθήκοντά σου.


Heavens help them make the right decision. When a
gadget of this scale and this complexity is designed
with critical deficiencies, interventions, tweaks and
patches may improve its functionality and its reliability,
but it will never be the same as a soundly built plane
from the ground up, with everything checked correctly,
honestly and with value placed in safety and not in
fattening the pockets of crooks and the dishonest few.
The lesson we must draw from this disastrous and
catastrophic affair is that companies that hold the
lives of millions of Citizens in their hands should
possess the right mentality and honest commitment,
and should hire the right personnel, especially skilled
and well-educated engineers, and should try to avoid
altogether, or at least minimize, hiring parasitical
administrators, PR-idiots and lobbyists, whose only
role is to advance profit at whatever cost to clients
and to the public, and who have no place in enterprises
of a critical mission and critical importance, such as
infrastructure and transportation.


Could either our State Department or Presidency or
the Russian Foreign Ministry or Presidency publish
the full text of the congratulatory message sent by
President Putin to Joe Biden? It seems, that, despite
delays, inexcusable from our point of view, but very
understandable from the point of view of domestic
exploitation and propaganda in Russia, the telegram
was heartfelt, heartwarming and hopeful. May the
hopes and wishes expressed by the Russian President
pave a way forward for the benefit of both States and
their People as well as the entire World Community.
The United States and Russia still wield tremendous
power and persuasion on the International Stage.
They have unique, distinct and weighty responsibilities
as Permanent Members of the Security Council of
our United Nations and, now more than ever, if they
come, at last, to a workable mutual understanding and
a state of coordination and cooperation, despite some
issues that the Kremlin must address (such as the
Human Rights of dissidents and political opponents
of Putin inside Russia), the World has an awful lot to
gain and many burning issue could be much more
easily, effectively and efficiently addressed by
joining forces and joint efforts. Do not waste time!
Form exploratory committees right away and get
to the essence of issues where joint work can begin.


John le Carré, the Espionage Genius, is with us no more...


I understand why this huge backlash has occurred.
I just want to say, irrespective of Dr. Biden's merit,
whose work I do not know and I have not studied,
that, as, in society, we have Humans, some of whom
deserve the name and some of whom do not, likewise
in Academia, we have Doctors some of whom have
earned and deserve the appellation and some of
whom do not. Those of us that have been around long
enough and have had our eyes and ears open have met,
I am certain, both kinds. If I may add an anecdotal
piece of information, without proof or statistical data
to back it up, in general, those that are the least
deserving, it has been my experience, are the ones
who tend to be the most prone, and who feel the most
urgent need, to hang their degrees the highest on office
and on house walls and to tout their accomplishments
the loudest, simply, perhaps, because they are not
immediately recognizable...


Brainless, incorrigible, professional liars and perjurers
who do not miss any opportunity to reaffirm, reassert
and verify their repulsive and reprehensible personas.


This is not fit for a "state", a "theocratic" monarchy,
which, unfortunately, despite having one of the Greatest
Histories, one of the most Magnificent Cultural Heritages
and having accumulated Remarkable Wisdom during
the Past Centuries, has learned no lessons from History
and has devolved and degenerated into a homicidal,
torturing machine that takes "joy" and "pride" - the
Iranian way - in sham trials and in slaughtering the
Most Valuable and the Most Courageous among its own.
SHAME ON THE IRANIAN STATE... SHAME ON
THE MURDEROUS, HOMICIDAL MULLAHS,
which are unfit for leadership, power or, even, life.
Their time is coming, sooner than they expect, sooner
than even Ruhollah himself was hoping for... Iran
deserves Greatness and, under these monsters, under
this monstrous, uncivilized regime, Iran cannot achieve
the Status and level of Recognition its Citizens aspire to.


We have killers and racists employed and legitimized
by our "police" departments, because they find it very
convenient to terrorize the neighborhoods of our Cities,
especially those neighborhoods that are restless and
full of vitality and demand change to the status quo,
a status quo that suits the States' interests and many
of the "residents that count" interests in the Cities of
our Nations. Other than that, they object to the term
and to the notion that it is a deeply rooted, "systemic
racism", but how else can one call a racism that is
cultivated in the academies, fostered in practice,
encouraged in action,  and tolerated in courts and,
thus, systemically perpetrated and perpetuated by
the system's machines, stooges and apparatuses?
The States' and Cities' "police" forces consist, with
the ultimate blessings of the State Governments and
the City Governments, by inhumane gangsters and
criminals in the service of bosses and outfits who
are morally responsible and equally culpable as
their paid executioners, whose last priority is to
help and protect and whose first gut reaction is
to shoot, injure, maim and kill, the more innocent
the victim the more appropriate and better the
target, preferably a moving black target and
preferably shot as he is fleeing the scene and
always, invariably, shot cowardly at the back.
RICO was used to hold the underworld outfits
accountable for extortion, for bootlegging, for
grand theft, for gambling and prostitution and
for murders (even though many of their victims
were either members or associates of the outfits).
Why is RICO not being employed to punish the
bosses and the higher-ups in City Governments,
that employ, in a deliberate and organized way and
that train unmistakably in cruelty and savagery in
their academies, killers and assassins to go around
and terrorize cities' neighborhoods and kill innocent
civilians? The answer is clear; on many occasions
they are not even prosecuted, let alone punished,
because they are the ones that hold the strings and
that command the, otherwise, "impartial" and
"respectable" "justice system" of this Nation, you
know, the one some of whose citizens still believe
and declare that systemic racism does not exist.


Joe Biden should understand that a critical part
in his successful electoral campaign was played by
the American Public being tired of arbitrariness
and of either ignoring or bypassing rules and
custom and by wishing to return to a sense of
political normality, with Rules, Principles and
Regulations being respected and obeyed. The
choice of both General Austin at Defense and of
Governor and Secretary Vilsack at Agriculture,
irrespective of who they are and their credentials,
does not augur well for a different Ethos in this
incoming administration, one where PRINCIPLE
is respected and taken into account and in serious
consideration before decisions are made.
1. Austin has not been out of active duty for at
least 7 years and this, in PRINCIPLE, disqualifies
him for serving as Secretary of Defense. This rule
should have been respected. It is there as a rule
for a reason; not to be waived every time one
wishes to bypass it and do the opposite.
2. Vilsack exploited his political office and his
political clout and positions to help himself as
a member on a board of a company/lobbying
organization, with potential conflicts of interest
with his previous (and future) role. This should
have been a red line that the incoming Biden
administration should not have crossed. The
fact that everybody does it does not provide
either a satisfactory justification or an adequate
excuse for continuing the practice of constant
and persistent entanglement of interests and
for not standing up and instituting a change and
altering the political culture, when such a change
is urgently needed to restore Public confidence in
Government. PRINCIPLE matters and when
principle is shunned, then the person must
become ineligible and disqualified.
THE MOST REFRESHING THING WOULD BE
IF BOTH PERSONS, COGNIZANT OF THE
MESSAGE SENT AND WISHING A GOOD
START TO JOE BIDEN AND THE INCOMING
ADMINISTRATION, ON A REALLY SOLID
ETHICAL FOOTING AND FIRM PRINCIPLES,
WOULD REALIZE THE IMPORTANCE, EVEN
THE SYMBOLIC IMPORTANCE OF SUCH A
MOVE, AND WOULD STEP DOWN AND ALLOW
ALTERNATIVE CHOICES TO BE MADE. THIS
IS THEIR FIRST TEST BEFORE THE TEST.
SOMETHING TELLS ME THEY SHALL FAIL
IT AND EVERYTHING SHALL GO ON AS
BEFORE, AS HAS HAPPENED SO MANY TIMES...


Some exploit economic collapse and financial tragedy
to unload owners in financial woes of their property
at reduced prices. Others exploit a precipitous political
situation to coerce the new owners to sell at a bargain.
When one is a dealer, these tragedies, be it because of
civilian calamities or social or military disasters, happen.
Admittedly one side may have suffered greater injustice
than another, but no one of those with staggering wealth,
who are disproportionately influential, are innocent when
a financial or a political system collapses; they are in fact
the ones that bear the greatest burden of responsibility.
One thing I would like to add, for what is worth, when
it comes to important artifacts of great Cultural and
Historical Value: THEY SHOULD BE HOUSED IN
MUSEUMS and not in the basements and the private
collections of wealthy and unscrupulous individuals.
They should be OPEN FOR THE EDUCATION AND
THE ENJOYMENT AND THE RUMINATION OF
THE MANY, not for the pride, the boasting and the
enrichment of the arrogant, privileged, ruthless few.
If the Jewish Claimants, whose forefathers "owned"
this collection, want to do the Right Thing vis-a-vis the
People of Europe and the People of the United States
and the People of the World, and wish to truly Honor
the Memory of those in whose hands this part of the
World Heritage found itself at one moment in this
World's History (and not simply to make an extra
"million bucks", as most of us believe, but which they
are tearing their garments off to deny), they should be
asking, instead of litigating, for a very simple favor:
For a Legally Binding Guarantee from the German
State and from the Foundation operating the Museum
that THESE TREASURES SHALL NEVER AGAIN
BE SOLD, no matter how dire the circumstances, and
that THEY SHALL ALWAYS REMAIN OPEN AND
ACCESSIBLE TO THE PUBLIC AND THE WORLD.
DO THE RIGHT THING! WITHDRAW THE SUIT
AND ASK FOR THOSE GUARANTEES ON BEHALF
OF THE PUBLIC AND YOUR ANCESTORS!!
 

Partly because of senility and partly because of
greed, excessive ambition and paranoia, he has
ended up a pariah and an unprecedented huge
embarrassment to Italian-Americans, to the City
and to the State of New York and to our United
States, a stain to our Democracy, to our National
Pride and a reminder to all Americans how one
can get dethroned and derailed in no time and
how quickly one can surrender their sense of
decency in the altar of service to catastrophic,
demented "leaders" and descent into an abyss
and degenerate into dust, political irrelevance
and personal ridicule. Sorry for not having a
nicer, more favorable, eulogy for someone who
had a chance of leading a distinguished life.
 

Ο κάθε κουζουλός είναι και "influencer" (που να
παρει και να μας σηκωσει) και η καθε γυμνη, που
αυτοπροβαλλεται και βγαζει ετσι και κανενα
φραγκο online δειχνοντας το κορμι της, νομιζει
πως εχει  πιασει τον αρχιεπισκοπο απο τα εν λογω
και οτι ειναι επιτυχημενη "επιχειρηματιας"
επειδη, λεει, εχει και μυαλο και κορμι, ενω ειναι
σαφες, ξεκαθαρο και ηλιου φαεινοτερο οτι οφειλει
τα παντα στην εμφανα, οτι δε θα εβγαζε φραγκο
αλλιως και ουτε θα της εδινε κανεις αλλος σημασια
αν δεν ηταν ολοι οι χαζοι που καθονται με τις ωρες
και θαυμαζουν το αποτελεσμα της συμπτηξης του
DNA των γονιων της, στο οποιο αποκλειστικα και
μονο οφειλεται η φημη της.
Και σαν να μην εφταναν αυτα, αλλα εχουμε και
(δηθεν) ευυποληπτα media και φυλλαδες που
καθονται και ασχολουνται με την καθε μια και
τον πασα ενα αφερεγγυο, λες και ο κοσμος δεν
εχει εκατομμυρια αλλα πιο σπουδαια θεματα με
τα οποια να ασχοληθει, να κατσει να συζητησει,
να ακουσει και να απολαυσει. Τι να πει κανεις...
Σημεια των καιρων της τετριμμενης, ανοητης
και ευκολης "απολαυσης" και "ενασχολησης".

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing is with us no more...


Western analysts are confused. They think that Russian
influence in its geographical neighborhood is weakening
and that "other players" are feeling free to muscle in.
But they are making a mistake. A calm and deliberate
force is not a sign of weakness, nor is it a sign of a lack
of resolve and determination. Some Nations are wise
enough to not get entangled and to not waste resources
where their interests are not the greatest and where
their influence is not vital. Other states get too impulsive,
too panicky, too arrogant and too carried away to allow
a fair evaluation of a situation and to estimate correctly
whether they should get involved and what form their
involvement should take and how long their involvement
should last. Looking at Russia in this respect may be
delicate to appreciate, but one may draw very important
conclusions and learn very good lessons, as far as foreign
policy and military involvement and commitments go.
 

IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION. These are unacceptable
behaviors and there is no way by legalese and by cherry
picking to reverse the damage and to divert and deflect
attention from immorality, from arrogance and from
hypocrisy. STEP DOWN! If not, I hope the People of
Austin shall send a strong message if and when you dare
show your face in the ballot again. Some sense of SHAME
and some sense of RESPONSIBILITY, so much lacking
from so many of our politicians today, never hurt anyone
and never put off any voters.


Israel takes a hundred, a few hundred, at a time,
even though it has promised to take in thousands.
And, in their eyes, that is OK; that is Israeli
immigration policy, the inalienable right of a
sovereign state to steer its own future. Rage
and thunder to those other states that may have
chosen to treat Jewish People, immigrants and
refugees in a similar way. The holocaust would
have been immediately brought to the fore and
accusations of racism and of antisemitism and
of not doing the right thing by the victims of
History would have echoed and reechoed all
over the place. A State has to always put its
money where its mouth is. Double standards
have always been an eerie and unpleasant
characteristic of the Jewish State, but double
standards are not acceptable in the policy of
Nations, especially as far as its treatment and
its chastisement of other Nations for things that
it itself is far from perfect are concerned...
 

Esther Cohen, the oldest Greek Auschwitz-Birkenau
survivor, is with us no more. Her story, the crashing,
demoralizing, but also extremely courageous, story
of so many innocent souls, was told in detail in one
of her interviews so that no one ever forgets what
brutality humans are able to perpetrate and what
injury humans are able to inflict, so that humanity,
all of us, look ourselves in the mirror, and so that we
may all join forces to ensure that we do the Right
Thing so that what she, and so many of our Fellow
Human Beings went through, NEVER HAPPENS
AGAIN. NEVER EVER HAPPENS AGAIN.
 

The "foreign minister" of "saudi arabia", the current entity
of the brutal Saud rule, under whose stranglehold chokes the
Arabian Peninsula and its People, stated that "it is not the
policy of Saudi Arabia to engage in assassinations"...


Conservative and ultra-religious prove to be equally
hypocritical on both sides of the Atlantic. Congrats
to Hungary, the bastion of "morality" and the arch-
defender (with Ms. von der Leyen) of our sacred,
"European way of life", which the venerable M. Orban
so often and so vehemently touts and so religiously and
so devotedly swears by... No opportunity goes wasted
for you to show your true selves when chances arise.


That is exactly what it means, by definition, to be
delusional. And that is exactly why it is dangerous to
have such morphs leading nations, let alone the most
Powerful Nation on Earth.
 

Another shameful spat and debate for nothing.
It seems that, even when there are no worthwhile
reasons for Nations to quarrel, States are adept
at discovering issues to pick up bilateral fights
just to keep themselves in the limelight.
Come to your senses!
Global synergy and close communication and
cooperation are now more necessary than ever
before. Instead of throwing at each other petty
and meaningless accusations and fomenting
frictions and escalating tensions, stay in the
limelight and become newsworthy by making
wise decisions and embarking in joint work on
pressing Global issues that demand immediate
and urgent solutions and on which discussions
cannot and should not be postponed.


Do not "rewrite" it! JUST SCRAP IT!!
Leave FREEDOM and the RIGHTS OF
MAN unrestricted and untrammeled!!
That is who the French are and that is
definitely the mandate with which
Emmanuel Macron was elected. Nothing
less will do, nothing less will guarantee the
absolute Freedom of the French Citizens,
and nothing less will shield and protect the
French Public from "police" brutality and
"police" arbitrariness. Think twice before
you become the legislative body on whose
neck and on whose conscience hangs a new
normal of abuse, cruelty and state terror.


Joe Biden is a Good Man and we cannot but wish
him a fast recovery. BUT, it is sad that the biggest
Party in the Politics of our Nation right now was
unable to find a younger, capable, eloquent, visionary
and promising politician to file for the Highest Office
of our Nation and had to resort to "tried solutions"
and to "old news". On the other hand, because Joe
Biden is such a decent man and because his own
life experiences have fortified him with an acute
sense of brittleness and vulnerability and because
he is wise enough to know and to understand deeply
the transience and temporariness of Humanity,
one is certain that Kamala Harris will be Ready
and Thoroughly Prepared and Properly Equipped,
if and when she is called to step in to fill those most-
difficult-to-fill, and most-important-to-fill-properly,
shoes in our Nation's Polity.


It is not only shameful, but, unfortunately, a sign
of our weird and mindless times, having Montenegrin
and Serbian Governments reach the point of expelling
each other's Ambassadors. First, expelling Ambassadors,
even between Nations in serious conflict, should be an
act of extreme necessity and a last resort and not taken
lightly. These are positions whose role in times of Peace
and Cooperation and, even more so, in times of frictions
and disagreement are key and irreplaceable. Second,
minor verbal disputes and disagreements between two
States with Historically Brotherly Cultural ties, as
close as those between Serbia and Montenegro, should
be able to be managed and ironed out by providing
simple explanations, statements of misunderstandings
and apologies, accepted by both sides in Grace and
with Good Will. Such Fraternal ties are hard to come
by and no one, no person and no government, has any
right, let alone interest, to place under risk and to
tamper with. Finally, what a shame to talk in a State
like Montenegro about pro- and anti-Serbian Parties
and Governments. In my view, this is tantamount
to speaking in our United States about pro- or anti-
Canadian Parties. There may be different approaches
and different views on how Fraternity and Cooperation
between two Nations which are Brotherly, which are
Historically and Culturally so inextricably connected
and which are Geographically, Economically and
Politically so intimately interdependent, should be
reinforced and strengthened, and but it is nonsensical
and totally absurd and baffling to even hear of, let
alone actually witness, pro- and anti- Parties.
It should be a Given and a Sine-Qua-Non that All
Parties and All Citizens in both States share the
same Fraternal Feelings and the same Good Will
towards one another. States, which are by default,
in a sense, "twin states", like Serbia and Montenegro
and like the United States and Canada, are those
that shall remain standing by one another, even
in times of great peril and when all else fails, and
their Citizens and Leaders should be aware of those
ties, and the former should urge the latter and the
latter should make sure that those ties are taken
very very seriously and not jeopardized by such
minor spats as this Serbo-Montenegrin Family dispute.


The despicable lawyers of the morph campaign,
who, based on unfounded allegations and the
mule-like stubbornness of a preposterous and
unacceptable "leader", are knowingly undermining
Democratic Principles and lending their training
and skills in degrading attempts to disenfranchise
millions of their fellow Citizens, are now resorting
to inarticulate cries "to SCOTUS!". They may be
willing to sacrifice more of their dignities and to dig
further and further and deeper and deeper into the
ground any remaining specks of their decencies and
self-esteems in the service of a moron, but they already
know that they have crossed a perilous boundary and
that they have already reached the kingdom and
the realm of jurisdiction of  the deepest "skotos".


Rogue, gangsterous and gangrenous "states" that
think that it is their prerogative and their sovereign
right to do A, but that it is not in anybody else's
power or within anybody else's sovereign right to
do the exact same A. Simply because one is
powerful enough to get away with gangsterism
and state sponsored terrorism and assassination,
does not either mean or imply that one has the
license to exercise them and engage and get
absorbed and obsessed with them. But such is
the "wisdom" of some "states", that brag about
long "histories" and "ancestral" and "paternal"
rights and entitlements, that they even fail to
digest and absorb one of the most Fundamental
and Universal Truths of History: That the powerful,
the rulers and the arbiters of today are not always
(or, rather, are almost never) the powerful, the
rulers and the arbiters of tomorrow and that,
entitlement, over-zealousness, excessive pride,
unjustified and unlimited self confidence and a
belief in an imaginary, self-proclaimed, supernatural
authority, which lead to arrogance, abrasiveness and
arbitrariness in one's relations with others, result
invariably in doom, failure and destruction.


These are the "public officials" that give our United
States today a bad name for hypocrisy, dishonesty,
fraud and for telling voters to do and to follow what
they themselves refuse to do and to abide by. I do
hope, with all my heart, that, when the time comes
around, the Citizens of Denver shall send a loud and
clear message that Truth, Honesty and Leadership
are not only Valued, but are Demanded by All our
Public Officials who are deserving of the Name and
who stand even a remotest chance of reelection to
Public Office. NO MORE PRETENTIOUS ***
HOLES THAT TELL PEOPLE TO DO WHAT
THEY FIND INCONVENIENT AND CHOOSE
NOT TO DO THEMSELVES, EVEN IN THE
MIDST OF UNPRECEDENTED TRAGEDY AND
DEVASTATION AND A PUBLIC EMERGENCY.


It is unacceptable and preposterous that the French
legislature, that of the State which aspires to be known
for Freedom and purports to be a Defendant of the
Fundamental Freedoms of Speech and of the Press,
is adopting such measures. In a Western, Free and
Democratic State, such laws should be completely,
unequivocally unconstitutional and totally and
blatantly unacceptable from the Public Opinion's
point of view. I call on the French Government and
on the French Authorities to ponder, even for a second,
what would be the situation if the American Public
and the American Press were forbidden from taking
or from disseminating or from distributing photos
or videos of Police Brutality and Police Abuse
incidents and took the "word" of "police" on what
happened in the streets of our Cities at face value.
And if your argument is that "France is not America"
and that "in France there is 'greater respect' for the
citizenry and their rights" or that "French know
better", please, think again and think twice before
you make such naive and such imbecilic arguments.
If it had not been for Freedoms and the strong Legal
Framework that guarantees and protects them, at
least on paper, and the serious consequences incurred
by breaking the Law, there would have been total
and complete lack of accountability and total and
complete disregard for Individual Rights on the
part of "police" forces, be it on this or on that
side of the Atlantic. Words without strong legal
protections don't stick and promises cannot replace
the Law. Shame on the French legislature.


As I was reading yesterday a section of the
Penguin History of the United States by the
brilliant Historian Hugh Brogan, a few
paragraphs relating to the prejudices, the
demagogy, the maliciousness, the selfishness,
the lasting effects and incalculable, lasting
damage on the United States, its standing
in the World, its foreign policy and its
decision-making ability in subsequent
decades following McCartyism, sounded
not only too familiar and too close to home,
but, also, too eerily recognizable in the present
era and of present value, a wake up call, a
warning of an imminent threat emanating
from like-minded and equally threatening
quarters in our political life today. The fact
that the morph lost the 2020 Elections does not
imply that his roguishness, his ruthlessness, his
unscrupulousness or his self-serving populism,
demagogy and dangerous ideology, and their
popularity in many quarters, were eliminated.
Reading this excerpt is illuminating and
empowering. This is, in my view, WHAT
HISTORY CAN DO and HOW HISTORY
SHOULD BE READ, with an open mind and
with a view towards learning lessons and
exercising caution and care and vigilance
when circumstances and events that led to
disasters and serious regrets in the past
reappear and threaten to create new regrets.
"Το δις εξαμαρτείν ουκ ανδρός σοφού"...


I wish All Our Astronauts, All Four of Them,
Good Luck and a Healthy, a Pleasant and a
Productive Stay at our International Space
Station. I also want to Congratulate All the
Workers at Space X that made this launch
a seamless and successful operation. On the
other hand, I have to say that I am deeply
sorry that NASA has chosen to outsource to
the private sector research and development
of Technological Innovation and Know-How
that clearly belongs to the Public Domain
and research that is and should be done for
the Betterment of All Humanity. In this way,
it has opted to make itself and its projects and
plans ultimately dependent on the caprices,
the volatility and the continuing well-being
and robustness of a few individuals, and has
subjected and subjugated its long-term stability,
effectiveness and progress to the whims and
the demands of people that it has very
little control over. This does not augur
well for the Future of American Space
Technology, Technological Innovation,
and Space Exploration, but it is definitely
something that Government Agencies and
the Government Sector, in general, have
attempted and have chosen to engage in
before (albeit not in the Space Industry),
with mixed results. Oftentimes the outcomes
have not worked as touted and as promised,
nor had those promises been made in good-faith.
Unfortunately, when the sums at stake are
humongous, a lot of the motivations, the string-
pulling and the decision-making is done behind
the scenes and, oftentimes shady interests and
self-interested and unscrupulous individuals
get involved and the whole enterprise starts
to, first, stink and, then, sink.

 

All of you idiots, who believe in those scams and
go and trust and deposit and bequeath you money
and your properties to these repulsive and ruthless
frauds and criminals dressed in sacred garments,
you should see this and resolve not to give a penny
to anyone that preaches the "gospel of wealth" and
are themselves wealthy. True churches and true
believers are those that live in poverty or, at the
most, in relative moderation and humility, and
dispense all, or at least almost all, their revenues
for good deeds; not to buy houses and cars and
fill in their own and their family members' private
bank accounts...


Greeks, Cypriots of Both Communities and Turks,
we are all Brothers and Sisters. Remind the sultan
that Venizelos and Mustafa Kemal divided what
there was left to divide. Neither side of the Aegean
needs or wants anything more than what they already
have. All WE want now is to live in Peace, in Security,
in Fraternity, in Democracy and Freedom, without
the oppressive and constant fear of being arrested
and incarcerated for expressing our opinions and
for speaking our minds. WE demand the Right
Conditions conducive to Prosperity and the Pursuit
of Happiness. If the sultan is not willing to cooperate
and is unable and/or unwilling to work towards these
Priorities and towards establishing and strengthening
those Ideals, it is time he packed his stuff and retired,
and let someone else do the job, before it is too late
and the damage inflicted difficult to repair.
 

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
is big news, not only because it includes a large part
of the World's Economies and the World's Population,
but also because it provides a forum, dealing in the
main language - unfortunately - that most States
and most Leaders can understand unequivocally,
and can sell to both domestic and to foreign audiences,
i.e., the Economy and the policies adopted, the indices
measured and the repercussions incurred related to it.
Such International Fora, speaking in a language that
all participants, but also all observers, understand and
whose impact is measurable, provide the opportunity,
indirectly, or from the back door one might say, as a
by-product, to discuss and to negotiate on other
burning issues and other emergencies in the Relations
Between States. This open communication line is, in my
view, a Great - perhaps The Greatest - Advantage.


On this 72nd Birthday occasion of Prince Charles,
instead of wishing him Happy Birthday, let me say
how wonderful it would be and what a marvelous
example it would set if, when his time came, he
stepped aside and made room for the Duke of
Cambridge to take over. Us, the older generations,
are clinging to power for too long and are monopolizing
power to the detriment of both our States and of
Younger Generations. If we made room and did
not stick to power till death, our Leaders would
be more alert, more responsible and responsive
and, yes, more idealistic, more attuned to the
realities of our age and would have a much higher
stake when creating and deciding on policies.
Right now, when people get to govern or to share
substantial responsibility, which is rarely before
their 50's, they have been sidetracked and waiting
for so long to get a chance, that they are already
spent and corrupted and ready to dive into the
spoils. Imagine how powerful it would be to have
a new generation of younger people, not yet
having shed their idealism and not yet having
been completely disillusioned by realities,
work to institute changes to make their world
closer to how they dream of it, how they wish it
had been, rather than wasting most of their time
micromanaging and thinking of small and
insignificant changes that result to minor
improvements, at best, if not further worsening
and deteriorating the conditions they inherited.


WOW!!! Breathtaking findings in Egypt today!!
One of the Greatest Civilizations that have ever
existed on our Earth never stops amazing us and
never ceases to take our breath away and to arrest
our hearts by its offerings so many centuries (2-3
millennia) later. WAY TO GO EGYPT! WAY TO GO
EGYPTIAN SCIENTISTS AND ARCHEOLOGISTS
AND ALL HELPING HANDS! KEEP ENRICHING
US ALL WITH YOUR SECRETS & YOUR FINDINGS!
 

Russia played its part in brokering a ceasefire
between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The heart-
breaking and unjustifiable cost in Human Lives
on both sides has stopped and this, by itself, was
a success and remarkable. No Human Life is
worth fighting for a cause that leaves no side
better than before and augurs ill for peaceful
and fraternal and cooperative coexistence
between two Nations that Geography and
Destiny have forced and will be forcing to
live side-by-side forever.
Let us now turn our eyes to Ethiopia and Its
Neighborhood. Permanent Members of our
United Nations Security Council, do not turn
your eyes away! You have now challenging,
but sacred, duties and responsibilities. This
World's Citizens DEMAND THAT YOU
TAKE THEM SERIOUSLY. Safeguard
PEACE, maintain SECURITY and preserve
HUMAN LIFE above everything else. Your
Leaders, together with our Secretary General,
must agree on a strategy, involving coercion,
if all else fails, to stop the regional conflict and
the mindless bloodshed and loss of life. Human
Life is EQUALLY VALUABLE, be it in the
fringes of Europe or in Eastern Africa or
anywhere else. Put pressure on Governments
and Groups to lay down their weapons and
oversee a transition to PEACE and a return
to SECURITY so that People can live their
lives in safety, without fear, and be given a
the chances they deserve to fight for their
goals, their ideals and aspirations, under basic
Peace and Security and under Humane Conditions.
 

Russia has done well in brokering a ceasefire between
Armenia and Azerbaijan. The real test is whether Russia
will be able to bring together the two Communities so
that it may make itself redundant and create a bilateral
Authority representing both people and working for
All Citizens on an Equal Basis and for the Benefit of
All. Unfortunately, the experience from Super Powers
so far has been disappointing. First, with Great Britain
and France, and, later, with the United States and the
Soviet Union, it has been the case that, when they
interfere or mediate, they use divide and conquer
techniques to ensure that their presence is needed
in perpetuity and that their interests, which often
do not coincide with those of the governed, are
safeguarded, protected and advanced. I hope that
Russia does things differently and is able to handle
Power back to Two United Peoples living Together
Under Self-Government Working for All. But
experience and History do not allow High Hopes.
 

Good riddance... He has overstayed his welcome and
by the perpetual nature and totally failing performance
of his task has been a disgrace and a disappointment to
both the Palestinian People and the International
Community and has inflicted significant damage to
Palestinian Goals and Aspirations. The same applies
to his boss, and I hope he realizes it and steps down,
before we have to write exactly the same comments
about his legacy in an obituary.


America is open for Politics and America is open
for Business again! America is open for Negotiations,
America is open for Treaties and for Agreements,
Bilateral and Multilateral, America is again ready
to Lead, to Participate and to Co-operate with a
steady hand, with predictability and with consistency.

Negotiate with us with Good Will and in Good Faith,
in a spirit of Fraternity, in a spirit of Equality and in
a spirit of Coordination and Cooperation. As we shall,
so you must, take your promises seriously and implement
your commitments Faithfully and Responsibly and, in
a spirit of openness and with willingness, allow the
entire International Community to monitor and to
oversee implementation and progress. When we are
earnest, when we have Fraternal feelings and when
we are all working together in Good Faith, we should
have very little to hide and we should have very little
to be embarrassed by and to worry about. Do not
forget that negotiating means "give and take", not
only take, take, take and give nothing in return,
and do not forget that Parties do not need to break
each other's will and spirit and create anger and
vexation by their intransigence, their stubbornness
and their hostility to induce or to force each other
to negotiate. We are all Brothers and Sisters, we
have so many issues to work on and to face and to
stand united against and to try to resolve together.
We can decide to work together collectively on many
of those and we can work and negotiate and discuss
on a continuous, ongoing basis, not through threats
and fear or only under pressure. Remember the
tremendous Value of International Organizations
and of International Fora in bringing us together.
REMEMBER THESE! FOLLOW THESE!
AMERICA IS ON YOUR SIDE. BOTH US
IN AMERICA AND YOU, IN THE REST OF
THE WORLD, ARE BETTER OFF WHEN
WE ALL SHOW RESPECT, WHEN WE ALL
ABIDE BY THESE GUIDELINES AND WHEN
WE DECIDE TO ALL WORK TOGETHER!
And forgive us for the recent past. As you do, we
also learn from mistakes, and we are constantly
trying to readjust, to attune and to atone, to
improve our Polity and to make things Right!
 

Van Jones on CNN captured very accurately
and with an outpouring of emotion, the relief
at the reaffirmation and at the reassertion
that those Values that Americans hold dearest,
and that are non-negotiable for Americans and
for America and its Fundamental Character,
still matter in American Politics, at least as far
as the Vast Majority of Americans today are
concerned. It is exhilarating to realize that
nice words alone, coupled with superficial deeds,
such as claims of "devout Christianity", as the
republicans perceive it, a peculiar and repulsive
mixture of lies, of selfishness, of greed and
egoism, mixed with extreme insensitivity and
extreme disregard for the position, for the
suffering and for the misfortune of others,
a concoction that leads, with Mathematical
precision, to bigotry, to racism and to the
rejection and the vilification of anything
different, are not acceptable in America
today, an America that is overwhelmingly
and predominantly Caring, Compassionate,
Tolerant, Fraternal and strives to Cooperate,
to Build and to Preserve; not to destroy, to
demolish and to demonize.


  
 

Georgia is the tip of the Iceberg. In Many States
of our Union, even with razor thin margins, it
is a Great Honor and to the Great Credit of the
American Electorate that the Majority sided with
Decency and Truth and discerned and opposed
lies, propaganda and constant cries of bigotry,
racism, anger, divisibility and malicious, raw,
uneducated and uncultured, sewage, pouring
day in and day out through twitter and through
conservative platforms and media.
All the States that are turning, through the
counting of mail-in ballots, have also shown
how seriously voters are taking Health issues
and Health concerns and how, by choosing
to mail in their ballots, have contributed,
responsibly, to lessening cramming and the
danger of spreading further the virus during
and around election day, without eschewing
their duty as responsible and determined
Citizens.
In view of the latest attempt at sowing chaos and
at bequeathing burning ground, in a panicky and
an intentionally malicious, but typically morphic,
retreat in the face of loss, it is important for US,
AMERICAN VOTERS, to focus on the positives
of the process, primarily on the fact that Citizens
on both sides, UNITED, came out in the largest
numbers, with dedication and with TRUST and
CONFIDENCE in the process, to cast their ballots
and to show their preferences. Both sides were
aware that they could win and that they could
lose and both sides, in RESPECT and AWE of
the process, contributed, to their credit, to its
completion in an orderly and decent manner.
WE DO DEMAND from the morph and his
campaign to lay down their weapons, to act
decently, with the same AWARENESS of its
HISTORICAL DUTY and the same respect to
AMERICAN DEMOCRACY that voters from
both Parties have exhibited, and to do their duty
and play their part to the orderly conclusion.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. LEAVE COURTS
OUT OF IT. "Unto Ceasar those that are
Constitutionally Ceasar's".


It is time, high time, we amend the Constitution
to create an even more perfect Democracy than
the one we inherited and to stop this folly and
this charade of suits and counter-suits each time
to influence and to tilt the despicable institution
of the electoral college. WE MUST ELECT THE
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, both
to become a truly Democratic Country, one where
"every vote counts, every person counts and
has a vote with an equal weight as every other
person" is not just a cliche, but a true statement,
and where the outcome is clear every time and
not decided by Courts and Lawsuits, DIRECTLY
BY THE POPULAR VOTE. The person whom
most Americans favor should become the next
President of our United States. That is what
DEMOCRACY means and that is THE WAY
DEMOCRACY SHOULD FUNCTION in a
truly Democratic Polity deserving of the name.


It seems unlikely this morning, but, even if Biden
wins, the message for the Democratic Party is
quite clear, given the fact that, even helped by
the pandemic and the resulting failures in health
policy and in economic measurements, they were
unable to capitalize proportionately. The Party,
the Democratic Party, appeals to voters of younger
generations, that are not "comfortable" and have
not yet cozied up and benefited by the status quo
enough to have a stake in preserving it and, hence,
are taking American Ideals, especially those that
are remaining on paper and have not materialized,
very seriously and want to see them implemented
and applied. In this, they are motivated both by
the ongoing demographic changes and by their
open-mindedness and close contacts with folks,
friends, classmates and fellow Citizens of diverse
backgrounds, races and personal characteristics.
To support and satisfy such an electorate it is
not enough, nor is it wise, to throw into the
race whoever, in this case an almost octogenarian
gentleman, who may be a kind and caring Human
Being, but stands far away from that generation
and who has clear indications of an onslaught
of dementia and is, in any case, a tired older
person and too cozy and comfortable with a
system that has fed him for too long and which
he has served faithfully for many years as a
leading stooge. The Democratic Party needs,
by its electoral support and the composition
of its voters to make a permanent commitment
to look at younger politicians for its candidates
for high office. The bitter taste we are left with
this morning is that a person, fiery and more
progressive, denounced by the dominant Party
machine (who is afraid of losing some of its
own privileges and influence, that are, naturally,
tightly connected with and dependent on the
continuous dominance of the old guard of the
Party) as "unelectable" and too "leftist" and
"radical" and too "outside the main stream",
but who are ready to suggest and support big
and substantial changes and to introduce radical
ideas, like, e.g., the incumbent Representative
from New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,
would have energized and motivated the corpus
of Democratic Voters much much more effectively
and with much much greater enthusiasm, energy
and passion than we have seen emanating from
the Biden camp, and, hence, more successfully.
Too bad that the younger generation has been
set aside and too bad that, when it is given the
opportunity to play a leading and significant role,
it is likely to be approaching middle age and a
level of coziness with power and social comfort
that shall make them reluctant and hesitant, as
well-connected and as "seasoned" politicians
usually are,  to support the kinds of changes that
are needed urgently in America today. By setting
aside and bypassing the younger generation today,
not only does the Democratic Party shoot itself
in the foot, but America also loses big time in
terms of energy and inspiration for betterment,
for evolution, for modernization and for urgently
needed substantial changes in various sectors.

Αυτό στην Ελλάδα έπρεπε να έχει γίνει χρόνια, ειδικά
με την ευκαιρία των Ολυμπιακών Αγώνων της Αθήνας,
αλλά ποτέ δε δκεφτόμαστε "διαφορετικά" ώστε να
λύσουμε προβλήματα χρονίζοντα για δεκαετίες με
πρωτότυπο, αλλά εποικοδομητικό τρόπο. Είναι σωστό
και απαιτούμενο να προχωρεί το κράτος σε προσωρινή
δήμευση εγκαταλελειμμένων οικημάτων, να τα ανακαινίζει
με κρατική δαπάνη, να τα εκμεταλλεύεται ωσότου κεφάλαιο,
τόκοι και κάποιο κέρδος εισέρχονται στα κρατικά ταμεία,
και στη συνέχεια να τα επαναχωρεί στο νόμιμο ιδιοκτήτη
ή στους κληρονόμους του. Αυτό έπρεπε να είχε γίνει προ
πολλού, όχι μόνον για τα παιδιά που χάθηκαν στο σεισμό
και για να αποφευχθούν άλλα θύματα, όχι μόνο για τον
εξωραϊσμό πόλεων και κωμοπόλεων, αλλά και για τα
διατηρητέα, που ρημάζουν και γκρεμίζονται εγκαταλε-
λειμμένα και στερούν την Ελλάδα και τις επόμενες γενιές
από πολύτιμη κληρονομιά και αποτελούν ανεπανόρθωτες
και αναντικατάστατες απώλειες. Μπράβο στον Κυριάκο
και στα Υπουργεία Περιβάλλοντος και Υποδομών.
Πολύ καλές κινήσεις σ' αυτόν τον τομέα. Να μη δούμε
όμως εξαγγελίες που δεν υλοποιούνται στην πράξη
ως συνήθως. Πράξετε και πράξετε αποτελεσματικά
και με κέρδος για το Δημόσιο. Οι ευκαιρίες είναι μεγάλες
και οικονομικά, αλλά και πολυτιμότατες πολιτιστικά και
οικιστικά και περιβαλλοντικά.


These are, in a nutshell, two of the biggest issues
that we have in America today when it comes to
racism:
1. Either we ignore or do not understand History;
    We either do not know at all or, on purpose,
    distort or misinterpret or rewrite History to
    fit our own perceptions and narratives;
2. We dare speak about other folks with vastly
    different experiences than ours and try to
    place them and think of and about them
    as if they and their ancestors had been
    walking in exactly the same shoes as ours
    and exactly as if us and our ancestors had
    been bought and sold, had been chained in
    the same shackles and beaten by the same
    whips and raped by the same bosses and
    the same owners as theirs.
HOW DARE WE? HOW DARE WE?
Especially if we are allegedly educated and
especially if we hold, for better or, more likely,
for worse, positions of power and influence?
I STAND WITH SPIKE LEE! I STAND
WITH PEOPLE OF COLOR AND ALL
MINORITIES! I do not pretend to know
their predicaments, nor to feel their pain,
but my only recourse is to listen closely
to what they have to say and to empathize
and to sympathize and to try to stand firm
for the Values that we praise but that we
are not faithful servants of, in action, like
Equality and Equal Treatment Under the
Law and Equal Opportunities for All.
GO OUT AND VOTE TOMORROW if you
have not already. A LOT, AN AWFUL LOT
IS AT STAKE!


We should not only remember the rhetoric of
Peace, Fraternity and Solidarity after Natural
Disasters. We should always think of Fraternity
between Neighbors and Nations, that Destiny
calls for Coexistence, for Cooperation, for
joint work towards common goals and common
aspirations. Not one victim from man-made
disasters should be allowed to befall Neighboring
Nations, not one person, civilian or military, should
be sacrificed for pseudo-dilemmas and pseudo-
Nationalistic feelings that contribute to no goals
and shall leave no Nation in a better shape than
before. Not between Greece and Turkey, nor
between the Greek and Turkish Communities
in Cyprus, nor between Armenians and Azeris
in Nagorno-Karabakh. Neighboring States and
Communities of Neighboring Nations, come to
your sense and put pressure, constant, intense
and relentless pressure, on your leaders to give
up the despicable rhetoric of hatred and
incitement, to abandon the divisive and
destructive logic of trying to own everything
in this World, where sharing makes much more
sense and is much more reasonable and much
more productive than dividing and partitioning.

Unfortunately, under various motivations and
misguided opinions, it seems like authorities
in the United States have adopted the option
of Herd Immunity and are not doing very
much to either adopt or enforce stricter
measures. The sad and devastating thing
about this option - and, in my view, totally
unacceptable in a modern Humanistic society
which respects and values its Elders - is that
it allows those that can, because of either
better treatment or because of better immune
systems and predispositions, to survive, while
sacrificing knowingly and recklessly the lives
of the elder, the less fortunate and those with
preexisting conditions, and putting the medical
infrastructure and medical staff under pressure
and at great risk. Too bad! A developed society
with more compassion, and higher levels of
responsibility, of caring and solidarity should
not have let its leaders to either resort to, or
to get away with, this strategy, but should
have forced them, instead, to take active and
stricter measures to avoid the spread and to
protect and save lives; not jeopardize them.


Germany is one of the most Beautiful States on
the Planet. Some of its Towns and Cities and
many of its Medieval Castles seem to us now,
in terms of their History and Architecture and
the way they fit in their delightful surroundings,
as coming right out of the beautiful, amazing
pages of  an illustrated story book and, of
course, they do carry interesting, intriguing
and fascinating stories and Histories.


The American People that I know, especially my
fellow Citizens in the Mid-West, but I have no
doubts that the same applies to other Regions,
are mostly Kind, Caring, Tolerant and Eager,
Ready and Willing to Help their Fellow Human
Beings. So it really, really puzzles me, stresses
me, makes me wonder, and I constantly ponder
and agonize over the fact that, out of this
exceptionally generous and caring whole, we
are monstrously able to produce "cops", which,
with their aggressiveness, racism, intolerance
and brutality, seem almost like a foreign body
to the general Public, the general United States
Population that I know. What is it that goes
wrong when a person who is brought up to
have the general kindness and eagerness to
help, as is observed in the general population,
is trained and brought up to be an aggressive
brute, ready to injure, maim and kill, even those
suffering and mentally unstable Fellow Citizens
of ours, and to brutalize and mistreat Minorities
and those least fortunate and well-connected,
instead of helping and protecting them, after
a few years in those "academies" and "schools"
he attends and graduates from? Something is
tremendously amiss and something critically
wrong at that "preparation"stage, where, it
seems that a despicable and horrifying creature
is born or created out of an ordinary Human Being.


Λευτέρη και in.gr, γιατί κάθεστε και ασχολείστε με
έναν παντελώς φαιδρό και αναξιόπιστο "πολιτικό",
που εντός ολίγου, αν ο ΣΥΡΙΖΑ, ο Πρόεδρος και
τα στελέχη του δε θέλουν να καταντήσουν κι αυτά
φαιδρά και απαράδεκτα, θα φάει φύσημα και θα πάει
κατευθεία σπίτι του; Είναι κρίμα, ως να μην έφταναν
τα φαιδρά και στυλ "έκλασε η φοράδα στ' αλώνι"
άρθρα που κάθεστε και γράφετε για τις σελέμπριτις
και τι κάνουν η μια και η άλλη και τι γράφουν στο
ένα και στο άλλο τουίτ και με ποιόν ή με ποιάν
μαλώνουν και ποιος ή ποια ποζάρει γυμνή ή με
την κοιλίτσα της εδώ κι εκεί, που δεν έχουν θέση
σε σοβαρά έντυπα και μέσα ενημέρωσης, τώρα θα
έχουμε και τα άρθρα παρομοίου ενδιαφέροντος για
αναξιόπιστους, ροζ και ψηφοθήρες, τριτοκοσμικούς
και υποκοσμικούς "πολιτικούς" της εμβέλειας
Πολάκη; Λίγη ντροπή και λίγη εγκράτεια στη
δημοσιογραφία και λίγη ευθυκρισία στις επιλογές
αντικειμένων δε βλάπτει...

Turkey, such a Great Nation, did not deserve
this mess. This "leader" is demented and a
total mess and, unless he fudges with elections
and falsifies the results, there is absolutely no
way that he will get another term in office.
It does break one's heart to see a Nation re-
created and re-established under Kemal on
a much sounder footing and with much
warmer and much more visionary relations
between Itself and Its Neighbors, and with
such promising prospects for playing a Key
and Peaceful and Stabilizing Role in Its
Region, being run to the ground by a lost,
incompetent demagogue in less than a single
generation's lifetime... So sad, but a huge
lesson and a huge warning to every other
Nation and State of what is possible in a
very short time, what kind of catastrophes
are awaiting, when voting in elections is
done thoughtlessly and irresponsibly and
is not taken as a serious duty, as serious
as any other a Citizen has vis-a-vis his/her
State. What a disaster, what a powder keg...


Tsipras is Right! Poland and the 21st
Century are not the best of Friends. But,
Poland has a Fascinating History and
Accomplishments and the Polish People
deserve much much better... and,
definitely better than this. It is a wonder
and worth pondering how a People, who
so adeptly relied and used religious beliefs
and their ties with the Catholic Church
for progressive and revolutionary goals
in the 20th Century and before, are now
influenced by this same institution into
becoming one of the most conservative,
backward looking and antiquated societies
in the Heart of Europe and our Union.
And to realize that, at the same time,
under Jorge Bergoglio, Papa Francesco,
the Catholic Church and the Holy See
are going through one of the least rigid,
most open and reform-minded and most
politically active and engaging periods in
the entire Vatican's History!
 

Very, very good news from the banking sector!
One of the worst run and most untrustworthy
banks in the history of banking, with almost
zero respect for consumers and with a very
negative record, as far as greediness and
ruthlessness for making money, is losing big
time. And to add to what should be occasion
for rejoicing, they are thinking of charging
for basic services, i.e., resorting to one of the
main techniques, which are contributing to
their loss of public trust and their downfall,
and, thus, through their incompetence and
stupidity, compounding, and accumulating
further on, their woes. Excellent motivation
and reason for their remaining customers to
switch financial institutions and abandon
this despicable institution.
If you have the opportunity, MOVE YOUR
BANKING ELSEWHERE, TRUST A BANK
WORTH TRUSTING, AND CONTRIBUTE
TO THE FURTHER DOWNFALL AND
DISGRACE OF THOSE TOO GREEDY
AND TOTALLY UNWORTHY BY A FULL
BOYCOTT!!


It makes us all hopeful, restless and expectant.
Let's see what the Chileans can make out of it.
Let's see what kind of a rabbit they will be
empowered and enabled to pull out of this hat.
Sometimes high hopes are vindicated, but,
oftentimes, expectations lead to disappointments.
CHILE, WORK HARD! CHILE, CONTINUE
GIVING US HOPE! CHILE, CHOOSE WISELY
AND MAKE IT WORK, CREATE A BETTER
POLITY, WITH FREEDOM, DEMOCRACY,
FRATERNITY, SOLIDARITY, EQUALITY &
PROTECTION OF BASIC INDIVIDUAL
RIGHTS AT THE CENTER OF IT ALL!!
A really, really tall order, but you took the
first step on the High Road. Finish the job,
with Determination, Decisiveness and Will.

I hail and applaud Chile and Chileans for their
overwhelming endorsement of the Process of
securing a New Constitution for their State.
The fact that Education, Health and Housing
are among their highest priorities shows that
the People of Chile are focusing on those three
aspects of our lives that are substantially, by far,
the most important and this is a Good Omen.
If I had an advice to give to the People of Chile
(and this has nothing to do with Chile specifically,
but it is one of my strong opinions for any newly
written Constitution) is to make their document
relatively brief, incorporating into it only the
Basic Ideas, Principles and Structures that
they want their Polity and Political System
to be imbued with. Resist the temptation to
incorporate lesser issues and details, that can
always be delegated to Law, and should be
allowed to be revised and to evolve with time.
In these recommendations, I take heed from
the United States versus the Greek Constitution.
I have read several times the United States
Constitution. It is brief, contains the Basic
Tenets of our Democracy and Structures and
it is a marvel and mesmerizing to read, to think
about and to digest. On the other hand, the
Greek Constitution is so detailed and so long,
containing many things that could, possibly,
have been left to Law-making, that I have not
had the courage and the stamina to read in
its entirety, back-to-back, in one sitting. This
is already a failure. In composing a Constitution,
one of the basic desiderata, in my view, apart,
of course, and secondary, perhaps, to its
Functionality and Endurance, is to enable
All Citizens to Read it, to Embrace it, to
rejoice reading it as many times as needed
to understand its articles, and to take Pride
in being part of the Decision and/or the History
related to its Composition and its Adoption.
I am not comparing here various Constitutions
in terms of contents and the style of Polity they
aim to establish. I am just arguing about the
underlying Constitutional Philosophy and Style
adopted by the Authors and, in my opinion,
the United States Constitution's Brevity, focus
on Substance and Elegance wins hands down.


If those governing do not do what they preach, how
on earth are they expecting the Public to abide by
the instructions and the recommendations given?
The question is "do they really care that the Public
do follow those guidelines and recommendations
or not at all?" And if they do not care about what
happens, knowing that the virus is serious and that,
when, especially Senior, Citizens contract it, they
may suffer and pass away, do they even give a rat's
a** whether Citizens (and these are their followers
mostly that they expose to their exhalations and
emissions) survive intact or suffer the consequences
for going to their rallies and gatherings? Truth to
be told, at the beginning of this devastatingly
unfortunate morph saga, this bad dream, this sad,
but brief we hope, nightmarish parenthesis in the
History of our United States as a Great and Focused
Nation, I thought that Pence was a decent, albeit
deeply conservative, man. Now I know that, not
only, despite his "professed" religious zeal, he has
absolutely no qualms and inhibitions lying for his
boss, but, in addition, it seems like he is not even
serious and composed enough to face real and
urgent challenges in the proper, focused way.
In other words, I now know that he was chosen
by the comico-tragically laughable and ridiculous
morph for a reason; his behavior and character
being so akin to that of a charlatan and a pariah,
exactly as those of his boss.


Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
With Honduras becoming the 50th Signatory to
Ratify the Treaty, this important Agreement is
slated to come into force in three-months time
per its Article 15 declaration.


Mustafa Kemal, who was a Master and Pioneer,
and had so many political, economic, social and
cultural accomplishments to rely upon, was focused
upon creating a Modern, Secular State and Tradition.
Recep Erdogan, a minion, a midget in comparison,
with cunning, but dubious political skills, with
aggressive and suppressive inclinations, but almost
subzero negotiating and diplomatic skills, whose,
supposedly main accomplishments, in the economic
sector, are coming down like paper edifices, among
his other idiotic moves and policies of friction and
provocation, even against Superpowers, where one,
especially, a smart one, should know its comparative
strengths and weaknesses, and behave accordingly,
has resorted to religion and to religious fanaticism
in trying to salvage the unsalvageable.
Unfortunately, Turkey is a very good example to keep
in mind, when one tries to discern and to understand
how, in politics, incompetence, corruption and utter
inefficiency, which should naturally lead to public
dissatisfaction and to a change in governments in
well-functioning and genuinely Democratic States,
are manipulated, masked and concealed via abuses
and misuse of religious fervor and fanaticism.
Religion has been and is used as the opium of the
masses, especially uneducated and unsophisticated
politically masses, to deflect attention from personal,
professional and political incompetence and various
other abuses, failures and shortcomings. The more
incompetent, the more autocratic, the more inefficient
and ineffective a regime and/or a political "leader",
the more fanatical and the more religious and
professedly "pious" their nature and inclinations.
Those that perform and are not afraid to be judged
on their records and accomplishments do not need
to rely on religious faith and stir up religious fervor
and passions to turn people against one another in
order to win the day and to save their exposed and,
ultimately, unsavable ``legacies" and reputations.
 

Βασίλη, πάλι με συγκίνησες πάρα πολύ, γιατί λες
πάρα πολλά σωστά και αλληλένδετα. Γράψε, όμως,
νά' σαι καλά και για την Αλληλεγγύη και για τον
Ανθρωπισμό, που αντιμάχονται τα τρωτά, που
σωστά και δίκαια εξορκίζεις και υποδεικνύεις,
και πες μας για τις ιστορίες εκείνων των Aνθρώπων
που δίνουν μάχη καθημερινά για την Ανθρωπιά, για
την Αλήθεια, για την Αγάπη και για τη Διακιοσύνη,
για το όραμα και την ευχή του Σεφέρη.  Και το λέω
και το ζητώ, γιατί τα έχεις πει αλλού και ξέρω ότι,
όπως καταδικάζεις τα κακώς κείμενα, εξυμνείς
και εξαίρεις ακριβοδίκαια και τα καλά και τις
αρετές, όπου τις παρατηρείς. Γράψε μας για τις
Γιαγιάδες στη Λέσβο, που έδωσαν την σωστή
απάντηση στη Σφίγγα της μισαλλοδοξίας και του
ρατσισμού, γράψε μας για τους Προέδρους των
Δικαστηρίων, που έδωσαν τη σωστή απάντηση
στη Σφίγγα των ρατσιστών, των μισανθρώπων
και του νεο-ναζισμού, γράψε μας για εκείνους
τους Υπεύθυνους, Ευσυνείδητους και Ευαίσθητους
Πολιτικούς, έστω και λίγους, που δίνουν τη σωστή
απάντηση στη Σφίγγα της αδιαφορίας και του
ζεμανφουτισμού για τη Δημόσια Υγεία και για
την ίδια τη Ζωή των ηλικιωμένων μας, των
γιαγιάδων και των παπούδων όλων μας, και
γράψε μας και για Εκείνους, που με θάρρος και
με διορατικότητα προάγουν την Ομόνοια και
την Αδερφικότητα μεταξύ των Λαών και των
Γειτόνων και δίνουν τη σωστή απάντηση στη
Σφίγγα του διεθνούς λαϊκισμού, του ψευτο-
εθνικισμού, των ψευτο-διλημμάτων και της
διχόνοιας μεταξύ συνανθρώπων και συμπολιτών
της παγκόσμιας οικογένειας, όπως εκείνους που
υποστήριξαν τη Συμφωνία των Πρεσπών και
εκείνους, όπως ο Βενιζέλος και ο Κεμάλ και πιο
πρόσφατα, μεταξύ άλλων, ο Μίκης, που μας
έδειξαν, με τη στάση τους και τις πρωτοβουλίες
τους, το μονόδρομο, λες και είναι απαραίτητο να
δείξεις σε κάποιον ένα μονόδρομο, και όμως,
που όπως φαίνεται, είχαμε την απόλυτη και
άμεση ανάγκη να μας υποδείξουν...
Ναι Βασίλη, σιγά σιγά ο Άνθρωπος, ο Έλληνας,
όπως τον εννοείς, που ίσως είναι μία ιδέα, μία
εξιδανίκευση, ένα όραμα, που ποτέ να μην
υπήρχε, το φιλότιμο, η φιλοξενία και η
περηφάνεια, γίνονται ολοένα πιο σπάνια και
πιο δυσεύρετα. Όμως από τα μικρά μέχρι και
τα μεγάλα, από τα ατομικά μέχρι και τα συνολικά,
έχουμε επιτυχίες από τις οποίες μπορούμε να
πιαστούμε και να αντλήσουμε κουράγιο και
έμπνευση σε μία συνεχιζόμενη και καθημερινή
προσπάθεια αναστροφής και βελτίωσης. Και
έστω και λιγοστές, όταν αυτές οι επιτυχίες
έχουν να κάνουν με τόσο μεγάλα Πράγματα,
με πραγματικές τιτανομαχίες για Αξίες και
Αρετές (σκέφτομαι και τον Καζαντζάκη μας),
πώς μπορούμε να μην είμαστε, έστω και
με λίγες, ευχαριστημένοι και ευγνώμονες;


75 Years since the Founding of one of the Most
Valuable, Most Visionary, Most Idealistic and
Most Inspiring, because of Its Vision, Its Mission
and Its Successes, Organization in the History
of Humanity. A Message from the Presidency
of the Hellenic Republic in Celebration:


These despicable, "devoted Christian" liars
take us for fools and, by telling us half-truths
in a critical period before election time, think
that we'll take their half-truths and lies at face
value. I hear this despicable, sly and slimy
fracking tycoon, Harold Hamm, whom, like
all other magnates, we should view under the
wisdom that the tobacco health crisis, the
Enron affair and other companies' collapse
in 2008 and the totally disastrous changes in
the climate and the devastating effects to its
stability, due to global warming, have gifted
and empowered us with, claimed that ``if
Biden gets in, consumers lose"... I am
wondering, why Mr. Hamm, intentionally
kept secret the fact that he, personally, stands
to lose much more than "his dearest consumers",
whom he pretends to care so much about, but as
long as his profits keep coming in, undiminished,
he really does not give a f**k about, are going to
lose? First, they are going to lose because their
businesses shall lose subsidies and because
their humongous profits may be reduced, as
they should, since, eventually, they will be held
into account for the abuses they are committing
and for the information, relating to the effects
of their techniques on the environment and to
climate change, that they are misinterpreting,
and either impeding from coming into the open
or hiding, exactly as it happened with big tobacco
and health, which were eventually forced to admit,
after decades, what was, by then, public knowledge,
but they were still dead set at denying and hiding.
Second, they stand to lose under Biden, because
their taxation would significantly increase
under Biden, as it should: After all, it is really
outrageous what is happening with the morph,
and other ``businessmen" like him and many
in his entourage of associates, leeches and
supporters, paying close to nothing and
leaving all the burden for the investments that
help primarily them, and others like them,
profit disproportionately, on the backs of
"Mr. Hamm's dearest middle-class consumers",
whom he cares so much about, as long as they
shoulder his bills, despite the fact that his
disproportionate wealth should, by Right,
make him, and others like him, the most
responsible for subsiding the Public purse
before dishing it on middle/lower class Citizens.
Like the President, this strategy of throwing to
us crumbs and small gifts, like $1,000 checks
and $100 or $1,000 decreases in taxes, cannot
fool us from the fact that, while they are doing
those - on the back of the United States, and not
their personal wealth, which shall demand that
we or our sons and daughters pay it back some
day through taxes - they are, at the same time,
cutting from their own tax bills and their own
dues and liabilities hundreds of millions of
dollars. These are the real gifts, but, because
a large number of lower and middle class
people have learned to live in poverty and
destitution in our United States, and are so
kind that they feel grateful when someone
throws them crumbs and pittance here and
there, and are kept uneducated with few, if
any, analytical skills, they cannot analyze,
calculate and comprehend what is truly at
stake here. When they cut taxes and when
they pretend to advocate for "the consumer",
all they are doing, in reality, behind the veil
and pretense of Public interest and caring,
is protecting big time their own humongous
financial interests, investments and vast wealth
and trying to keep "consumers", with defective
arguments, on their side for, of course, as long
as they need them, since, then, they forget all
about them, like in 2008, and focus on their
own greed and insatiable appetite for more
and more, despite their already possessing
so much that is enough for 1000 lifetimes
and more, and enough to bequeath to 100
generations and more. If you, slimy leeches
and liars, dare, then dare to tell the Public
the Whole Truth and dare to Wake them
up from their stupor; Make them see what
you are, in reality, trying to achieve and
what, in reality, and whom, you are trying
to protect and defend. Do not treat them
like sheep and donkeys and dish them lies
and unprocessed raw garbage...


Greek-Russian relations have always been,
are currently, and will always be extremely
important and the feelings between the
Greek and Russian People very warm and
fraternal for many reasons. On the other
hand, Greeks maintain those feelings despite
efforts from the Russian side and its Polity
to undermine Russia's Stature and Image
in World Affairs, both by its absolutist
political system and domestic assassinations
and abuses of Human Rights and persecution
of Political Opponents and Dissidents and by
uncalled for International interference in
affairs of States, where Russia has political
and military stakes, but, otherwise, no
business in meddling. Greeks have no
illusions that, being one of the remaining
Superpowers, Russia is far from playing
an ideal game in the International Stage,
but Greece stays engaged and does all in
its very limited power, given its smallness
and relative insignificance in World Affairs,
to influence Russia and all its Allies to behave
better, more ideally, and to abide by the Law
of Nations and the Principle of Equality and
Sovereignty of All States under Law, and to
Respect and Protect, instead of abusing and
trampling on, Human Rights and Freedoms.


If Mustafa Akinci wins, the World hopes that
Negotiations start as soon as possible for a Just
and Viable Resolution of the Cyprus Issue in
the Framework already embraced by both
Communities and by the relevant United
Nations Resolutions. It is a pity, at the start
of this third decade of the 21st Century, to
have an island of the size and population of
Cyprus, with Fraternal and Peaceful Residents
and Communities, not being able to find, in the
multitude of issues at stake and the Common
Historic and Cultural Ties,  common ground
to come together and Administer their Home
Land for the Well-Being and Benefit of All,
not just Greek and Turkish Cypriots, but
all inhabitants of the various Nationalities
that now reside in this ultra-cosmopolitan
islandic society.


Chardalias was right! The Government, like
the overwhelming majority of the Public, are
struggling and giving their best to combat the
virus and keep the Public safe. Unfortunately,
some of our Fellow Citizens choose to evade
and/or ignore the measures, or apply them
with a lower sense of responsibility and less
vigor and less consistency, and this puts into
jeopardy both the efforts of the majority,
which are by no means easy, and the Public
Health of All, which justifiably angers those
who are in charge of protecting it and whose
stakes and burden are the greatest, personally
and professionally, in combating this pandemic
successfully with the least casualties possible.


STOP THE FIGHTING! FIND COMMON
GROUND! Neighbors, Brothers and Sisters,
what kind of idiocy gets into you to accept
your Politicians' meaningless, bankrupt,
antiquated pseudo-Nationalist arguments
and turn your Love into hatred and take
weapons to inflict misery and devastation
on one another and one another's Families
and Communities? Can't you see two steps
ahead? Can't you see that Neighbors are
predestined to live in Brotherhood, in Peace
and Cooperation and that those who die on
the way are unnecessary sacrifices in
unnecessary, temporary conflicts and
political games which help no side and
enhance no cause? Lay down your
weapons, observe the cease-fire, sit
down NOW and find common ground
and a mutually acceptable solution that
would lead to a Just and Lasting Peace!
Administer the disputed territories as if
they belonged to All and for the Benefit
of All, regardless of religion and ethnic
background, and Let People Live their
Lives without carnage and devastation.
PERMANENT MEMBERS OF OUR U.N.'s
SECURITY COUNCIL, DO NOT RELAX
YOUR EFFORTS! WORK NIGHT AND
DAY FOR PEACE! IT IS NOW YOUR
DUTY & SACRED RESPONSIBILITY!


Congratulations to Ms. Ardern on a Historic
and Formidable Accomplishment and, of course,
Congratulations to the People of New Zealand,
who gave us, amid such adversity and stupidity,
a ray of Hope. Of course, I am, among other
things, including isolationism in a Globalized
World, referring to Science being questioned
and doubted, for the first time with such spite,
vehemence and vigor by many, including many
of whom would have not been here (because so
many of their forebears would not have been
here or would not  survived to have issue), had
it not been for its all-encompassing power,
effectiveness, focus and fruitful and divine
gifts to Humanity.  THANK YOU, NEW
ZEALAND! THANK YOU, KIWIS!!
We are all looking forward to the next three
and some years of your elected Prime Minister's
Tenure, and hope and wish that her Humanity
Gentleness and Compassion, if not some of her
Reason and Open-Mindedness, will influence
other Political Leaders, not so adept, and that,
after her tenure, her performance and her
accomplishments would be judged by all of you
positively and the World and New Zealand would
be, partly due to her Leadership and Influence,
in an even better shape than it is today... A tall
order, but one she is well-equipped to meet.


Δε θα πανηγυρίσω για το ότι η κακομεταχείρηση
των ζώων γίνεται κακούργημα, παρ' όλο που, όπως
πολλοί Συμπολίτες μου, έτσι κι εγώ, νοιώθουμε
αποτροπιασμό και αγανάκτηση κάθε φορά που
ακούμε ότι κάποιος στην κοινωνία μας βιαιοπραγεί
και συμπεριφέρεται με βάναυσο τρόπο έναντι αθώων
και απροστάτευτων όντων. Το ζήτημα είναι, εκτός
της τιμωρίας, πρώτον να εξακριβωθεί ποιό είναι
το πρόβλημα - κοινωνικό και ψυχολογικό - με τους
Συνανθρώπους μας που καταφεύγουν σε τέτοιες
συμπεριφορές και να δοθεί κάποια βοήθεια ει
δυνατόν, και, δεύτερον, να κατανοηθεί από όλους
ότι τίθεται σοβαρό θέμα παιδείας και θέμα ευθύνης
και συνειδητοποίησης. Ας σκεφτούμε τί μπορούμε
να κάνουμε όλοι μαζί, με πρώτους ίσως εκείνους
τους Ανθρώπους που έχουν αφιερώσει τις Ζωές
τους στην Φροντίδα και την Προστασία των
Ζώων. Μήπως θα ωφελούσε, όπως οργανώνουμε
εκθέσεις βιβλίων και άλλες εκδηλώσεις για να
καλλιεργήσουμε στα παιδιά, αλλά και στους
ενήλικες, ευαισθησία και αγάπη για κάποιο
αντικείμενο, όπως π.χ., λογοτεχνία, μουσική,
ζωγραφική, αλλά και τις επιστήμες, να κάνουμε
πιο συχνά ανοιχτές εκδηλώσεις, όπου εκείνοι
που ασχολούνται με τα ζώα και την προστασία
τους να φέρνουν κατοικίδια από οίκους προστασίας
σε επαφή με το κοινό και να μας λένε τις ιστορίες
τους και κάτι για τη ζωή τους και τα κοινά με
εμάς και τις σχέσεις μας χαρακτηριστικά;
Ίσως να βοηθούσε, όπως βοηθάει κάθε παιδί να
αγαπά κάτι όταν έρχεται σε στενότερη επαφή μ'
αυτό και αρχίσει να το καταλαβαίνει. Και τότε
αναμφίβολα, αυξάνεται και η γνώση, ο σεβασμός
και η αγάπη για κάτι, αλλά και η κατανόηση,
που είναι κλειδί για το σεβασμό. Απλά κάποιες
σκέψεις, ίσως ελπίζω πιο εποικοδομητικές
από το να καταφεύγουμε για τη λύση απάντων
προβλημάτων στην τιμωρία και τον εγκλεισμό,
άμα το περιστατικό και τη βαρβαρότητα.


Μίκης: "Ο αγώνας κατά του φασισμού συνεχίζεται.''
"Φαρισαϊσμός, Φασισμός και Φανατισμός εμποδίζουν
την ασφαλή πορεία προς το μέλλον." "Τόσο τα εσωτερικά
μας προβλήματα όσο και οι διεθνείς εξελίξεις απαιτούν
να έχουμε τα μάτια μας ορθάνοιχτα, τη σκέψη μας
ανεξάρτητη και απαλλαγμένη από ιδεοληψίες και τις
καρδιές μας καθαρές και αμόλυντες από το εμφύλιο
μίσος, καθώς ταξιδεύουμε σε αχαρτογράφητα νερά."


Έχουμε μεγάλο πρόβλημα στην Ελλάδα με
συμπολίτες μας που δε σέβονται και δεν
θεωρούν χρέος τους την προστασία των
ζώων, κατοικίδιων και μη. Ως Ανθρώπινα
Όντα, έχουμε χρέος την προστασία της Ζωής,
κάθε Ζωής, όχι μόνο γιατί το επιβάλλει ο νόμος,
όχι μόνο από φόβο για τις συνέπειες, αλλά γιατί
είναι το Σωστό και Δίκαιο και, συνεπώς από
τις πιο σημαντικές Υποχρεώσεις μας. Ποιός
ο λόγος και ποιές οι αιτίες που, δυστυχώς,
πολλοί καταφεύγουν στην κακοποίηση και
στην κακομεταχείρηση και ενίοτε στη άγρια
και βάναυση δολοφονία αθώων και
απροστάτευτων Όντων και Συντρόφων μας;
Πριν κάνετε ο,τιδήποτε, σκεφτείτε ότι το να
κακοποιήσετε κάποιο Ζωντανό είναι σα να
βιαιοπραγείτε εναντίον Συνανθρώπου σας
και Συμπορευτή σας στη πολλή σύντομη
πορεία που διανύουμε κάτω από την ίδια
στέγη, μοιραζόμενοι Όλοι Μαζί.

On the one hand, I am Honored and Proud that
so many Citizens of our United States take their
Voting Rights and Responsibilities so seriously
and they are so keen and enthusiastic in becoming
a part of The Most Important Choice we all have
and part of, by far, The Most Important Feature
of a Well-Functioning Polity and Democracy. On
the other, I agree with commentators, analysts
and the public who believe that the unbelievably
long lines are part of a process of concerted
voter intimidation, an attempt to discourage
voters, especially those, and in those areas, that
the local powers to be consider hostile to their
causes and their interests and are afraid of, and
they want to use any means to disenfranchise
and to discourage (and, occasionally, disallow)
from voting. In that respect, judging from the
arbitrariness of local rules and regulations and
from local modes of voting - and I say this
cognizant of its heavy weight and with a very
heavy heart and the deep wish that it had not
been true - our United States today, in electoral
rules, electoral procedures, gerrymandering and
other opportunities for distorting the wishes of
the People per district and region, and in the
despicable - and antiquated for a Modern and
Vibrant Democratic Process - Electoral College,
does not seem that far away in manipulation
and (dys)functionality from election processes
in developing States and in much less affluent
and less developed States than ours, where the
Democratic Traditions are more recent and
less well-established than American Democracy.


Αραγε τους πέρασε από το μυαλό, αναρωτήθηκσν
καν, το μέγεθος της ζημιάς που θα επέφεραν στον
τόπο τους και την Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία ως μέλος
της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης, που τόσο συχνά, και
μάλιστα σχίζοντας τα ιμάτιά τους, επικαλούνται;
Κι όλα αυτα για μια χούφτα ευρώ, που κανείς
απ' αυτούς τους αχρείους δεν τα έχει ανάγκη.
Δυστυχώς το συμπέρασμα από τα λεγόμενά τους,
κι αυτοί ξέρουν καλά γιατί αυτοί κυβερνούν, όχι
μόνο μη Ευρωπαίοι, αλλά Τριτοκοσμίκ και με
τη βούλα... αλλαγή ονομάτων και αγορά ιθαγένειας
ως σε γνήσια μπανανία από λαπάδες και μπανάνες.


After almost 9 years of hard and fruitful work
for the consolidation and further strengthening
of Canada-Greek Bilateral Relations and close
International Cooperation on multiple burning
issues, Ambassador Dimitris Azemopoulos is
returning home. THANK YOU, AMBASSADOR!
There is nothing more valuable one can offer his/
her State and Nation than establishing and/or
developing Friendship, Brotherhood, Solidarity
and Cooperation with other States, Nations and
Organizations, within ones capabilities, powers
and responsibilities, for the Benefit of All.
 

Ο Βασίλης έχει απόλυτο δίκιο και η αλήθεια είναι
ότι με εκπλήσσει το ότι ακόμα, κατά τα λεγόμενά
του, δεν έχουν γίνει ΕΔΕ, έτσι ώστε όλοι οι ένοχοι,
που είτε υποστήριξαν είτε υπέθαλψαν τη "χρυσή
αυγή" ή μέλη της, είτε με την Αστυνομική Ιδιότητα
είτε ως Πολίτες, δεν έχουν ακόμα τιμωρηθεί ή
παραπεμφθεί στη Δικαιοσύνη. Αν η δοικηση της
ΕΛ.ΑΣ. επί εποχής ΣΥΡΙΖΑ ήταν αδιάφορη, αμελής
και/ή αναβλητική, ας κάνει η Κυβέρνηση Μητσοτάκη,
ο Χρυσοχοίδης και η τωρινή Διοίκηση της ΕΛ.ΑΣ.
το σωστό. Να ανοίξουν ξανά οι φάκελοι, να εξεταστούν
τα στοιχεία, να παραπεμφθούν οι ύποπτοι εκείνης
της εποχής και να αποδοθούν ευθύνες στους ενόχους
και παραδειγματικές τιμωρίες. Όταν σοβαρές
παρατυπίες μένουν ατιμώρητες και ανάρμοστες
συμπεριφορές αγνοούνται σε μία τόσο σημαντική
υπηρεσία, που χρειάζεται να ενεργεί και να υπηρετεί
το Δημόσιο Συμφέρον με Διαφάνεια, Ειλικρίνεια
και Αποτελεσματικότητα, ώστε να εμπνέει την
Εμπιστοσύνη των Πολιτών και της Κοινωνίας
και να απολαμβάνει την Υποστήριξη του Συνόλου,
δεν είναι δυνατόν να έχουμε θετικά αποτελέσματα,
τα πράγματα θα χειροτερεύσουν και το μέλλον
θα αποδείξει την βαρύτητα της αστοχίας τόσο
στη λήψη έγκαιρων μέτρων όσο και στη διαφύλαξη
και ενδυνάμωση των παραπάνω Αξιών ως εκ των
ων ουκ άνευ στην Εύστοχη Λειτουργία της ΕΛ.ΑΣ.
Μην περιμένετε άλλο, λοιπόν. Κάνετε το σωστό τώρα!!


What stayed with me from the, otherwise unmemorable,
vice-presidential debate was how far, even in simple and
obvious matters, a "devout Christian" is willing to go
with lies to protect his boss as an obedient servile leech.
Mr. Pence was shameless and unscrupulous enough to
dare convince the American Public (as if we are idiots
that cannot understand) that the President's sayings,
comments and quotations appear negative because they
are taken "out of context". I do not think that anyone
is buying this. It is a fact that he said, e.g., that he did
not appreciate "soldiers who get captured", i.e., POWs,
and there was no context behind that to alleviate the
weight of that statement and the devastation which
I am sure it has caused to the American POWs who
heard him and who realized who the current commander
in chief is, what he stands for, how he thinks and how
much - or how little in this case -he values and appreciates
their sacrifices. I guess what the servile "devout" Pence
wanted to say is that regardless of the fact that - or
rather because of the fact that - his boss's mind and
fingers run faster than his demented, semi-functioning
or non-existent mind, one should not take his statements
and proclamations at face value, but rather look at his
record and his actions (and not that those disparaging
and abject statements or tweets were never made or
were misunderstood, since they are on record and
Pence abjectly lied in trying to justify them or enlighten
them or twist their unambiguous and clear meaning). 


Ναζιστή, αλήτη, εγληματία συμμορίτη, σας καταδίκασαν
για τους φόνους, τη βία, τη μισαλλοδοξία, το ρατσισμό και
τη βίαια και βάναυση συμπεριφορά σας και ιδεολογία, που
είναι ανάρμοστη σε μία Ευνομούμενη, Δημοκρατική και
Πολιτισμένη Κοινωνία. Αλλά και μόνο για τις Ιδέες σας,
το Ναζισμό και το φασισμό, την απολυταρχία και τη
χουντολατρεία, που έχουν καταδικαστεί ομόφωνα και
κλειστεί στα Ελληνικά, αλλά και Διεθνή, χρονοντούλαπα
της Ιστορίας, να σας είχαν καταδικάσει, πάλι η Ελλάδα θα
αισθανόταν Μέγιστη Τιμή και θα Γιόρταζε εξίσου.
Και πάλι Συγχαρητήρια στην Ελληνική Δημοκρατία και
στην Ελληνική Δικαιοσύνη. Όση ντροπή, φρίκη και φόβο
μας γεμίζουν τα Φασιστο-Ναζιστικά μορφώματα. με τόσο
Μεγάλη Χαρά και τόσο Μεγάλες Προσδοκίες μας οπλίζουν
οι αποφάσεις του συνόλου των Πολιτών και της Δικαιοσύνης.


Σήμερα, είμαστε όλοι Περήφανοι για τη Δημοκρατία
και για τη Δικαιοσύνη της χώρας μας. Όμως θυμόμαστε
ότι όλοι μαζί και ο καθένας χωριστά, και στην καθημερινή
ζωή μας και στις εκλογικές υποχρεώσεις μας, έχουμε βαρύ
ρόλο και χρειάζεται να δεσμευτούμε ότι το αίσθημα της
Ευθύνης και της Επαγρύπνησης για τη Διαφύλαξη των
Δημοκρατικών Θεσμών και των Ανθρωπίνων Δικαιωμάτων,
της Ισότητας και της Ελευθερίας Όλων των Κατοίκων της
Ελλάδας δε θα μας εγκαταλείψει ποτέ. Ο καθημερινός
αγώνας ενάντια στο φασισμό και το ρατσισμό, ενάντια
στη ξενοφοβία, την ανισότητα και τις διακρίσεις συνεχίζεται,
πάντα στα πλαίσια του σεβασμού του Πολιτεύματος, που
τόσο δύσκολα και με τόσους Αγώνες και τόσες Θυσίες
εδραιώθηκε, και πάντα στα πλαίσια Αναγνώρισης των
Αναγκαίων Περιορισμών που απορρέουν από τη διαφύλαξη
και το σεβασμό των δικαιωμάτων των άλλων και των
δικαιωμάτων και των υποχρεώσεων του συνόλου, όλων
μαζί, μηδενός εξαιρουμένου, μηδενός παραγκωνισμένου.


If the news about Zaev's purchases in Chalkidiki,
Northern Greece, are accurate - and it does not
matter at all if his name or his wife's or his brother's
or that of another relative or business associate
is on the title; we've long known of these tricks that
corrupt and unscrupulous politicians employ to hide
their ill-gotten earnings and their shady dealings -
this constitutes a mega-scandal in North Macedonian
political affairs and Justice in our Neighbor should
intervene, investigate, condemn and incarcerate.
The buying of such properties, probably costing
in the order of tens of millions of euros, is not
within the means of a politician living on the
public purse, especially one whose State is lagging
behind EU States in financial well-being and other
financial indices. It must surely have come through
embezzlement, corruption, illicit dealings and
favors, unbecoming of a politician, and worth
an investigation, an uncovering of the truth,
and exemplary punishment proportionate to
the illegal worth and illicitly elicited, gotten
and amassed fortune, whomever's name it was
gathered under and whatever the cover used to
gather it. JUSTICE SYSTEM IN NORTH
MACEDONIA, DO YOUR JOB AND
INVESTIGATE IMPARTIALLY, AND, IF
IMPROPRIETIES ARE DISCOVERED, BRING
THE GUILTY TO TRIAL. DO NOT LET THE
TRUST OF THE PEOPLE IN THE POLITICAL
AND JUDICIAL SYSTEM GO DOWN THE
DRAIN. THEN, IT WILL BE TOO LATE AND
THE EROSION TOO DAMAGING FOR BOTH
THE POLITICAL SYSTEM AND FOR JUSTICE
IN NORTH MACEDONIA TO RECOVER.


Our United States is in an election period. The
President is sick and, despite the fact that his
contracting the disease is to a large extent due
to his stupidity and his irresponsibility, we all
wish him the best and hope for his recovery,
as we do for all other fellow Citizens of ours
and for all Human Beings around the Globe.
But, without making a political statement, but
purely looking at the facts: We have a person
that does not care about the Health or the
Safety of his Family, his Associates and his
Entourage; this becomes plain by his constantly
and consistently ignoring the advice of the experts
about Safety and Precautions and not behaving
around his Family and his Staff in a way that is
consistent with a behavior that shows worry,
care and concern. Second, we have a person
who does not abide by the directives and the
recommendations that are rolled out and all
the rest of us are supposed to live by in these
difficult times. Those who have been in close
contact with a positively tested person (let
alone those that are sick) are supposed to
self-isolate for 10-14 days. The morph, even
though sick, goes on a ride. Those that do not
have support have to rely on friends, neighbors
and relatives, or, sometimes, even on public
services, to get provisions while in isolation.
The morph that has hundreds of servile
leeches doing his bidding around him, not
to mention the official public employees of the
Presidency, find it hard to do what others must
do and are mostly doing, even through hardship.
I AM ASKING YOU: JUST COMPARE FOR
A SECOND... HOW MANY OF US WOULD
BE ABLE TO PLACE TRUST IN A PERSON
THAT DOES NOT KNOW OR WANT TO DO
RIGHT BY HIS OWN TO DO RIGHT BY US?
HOW MANY OF US WOULD BE ABLE TO
TAKE COMFORT FROM THE BEHAVIOR
OF ONE OF THE MOST FORTUNATE
MEN ON THE PLANET BREAKING THE
RULES, WHEN MOST LESS FORTUNATE
MEN ABIDE BY THEM OUT OF A SENSE
OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND CARE
FOR THE WELL BEING OF THEIR FELLOW
CITIZENS, EVEN THOUGH, OCCASIONALLY,
UNDER TRYING CIRCUMSTANCES AND
WITH GREAT PAIN AND DIFFICULTY?
Just take a second to think about these facts.
Think about them and reason whether you
would feel honored and safe to lent your
support to such a person and such a character
and whether you could trust anyone of that
sort and such personality to lead our Nation,
and draw your own conclusions.

Pity, heartbreak, unnecessary death, carnage and
destruction. Neighbors, Brothers and Sisters on the
Same Planet, in the Same Region, under One Roof,
and, instead of forming a Federation to all Live
Together and to all Leverage the Great Power that
results from Unity, Harmony and Cooperation to
attain Common Goals of Fraternity, Peace, Stability
and Prosperity, are led by mindless, short-sighted,
ignorant, divisive and exploitative "governments"
and "representatives" to kill one another in the
name of meaningless and dubious "values".
PITY AND DISAPPOINTMENT THAT, AT THIS
STAGE AND AGE, AMID SO MUCH OPENNESS,
INTERACTION AND INTERDEPENDENCE IN
AN INTERCONNECTED WORLD, PEOPLE HAVE
NOT YET DIGESTED FUNDAMENTALS THAT
SHOULD LEAD THEM TO REFUSE TO TAKE
UP ARMS AND DESTROY THEIR BROTHERS,
THEIR FRIENDS AND THEIR NEIGHBORS.


I am so pissed off and outraged at their shallowness,
their pretentiousness and their blatant and utter
disregard for any precautions, despite their holding
offices, and, therefore, their despicable lack of any
sense of responsibility in terms of emitting the Right
Signals and Messages to the Public as far as what to
do to protect one another and one's Family and
Loved Ones. All the rest, "sending love", "sending
wishes", "saying prayers" etc. are meaningless
bulls**t; if you'll excuse my language. What sense
does it make not following the basics and ignoring
elementary recommendations and, then, when it
is kind of too late, sending "love", "wishes" and
"prayers"? The photo below is from the ceremony
at our Nation's First House for the replacement of
Justice Ginsburg. No distances kept, no masks worn,
no basic precautions taken and no advice heeded.
What can anyone say??... Ignorance, arrogance,
lack of sensibility and of basic intelligence??...


I wish the morph well, like I would any Human
Being, even of the worst possible character, if they
had been in an unfortunate situation and/or in
distress. However, one has to acknowledge that
of the notorious deniers of the severity of the
Global Pandemic and of the cues of Science, he
has been the only one that had not gotten it yet,
after Boris "the Charlatan" and Jair "the Neo-
Nazist" all fell through their own imprudence,
carelessness and cracks. As he, himself, would
say, as far as his health goes, we'll have to wait
and see. That's what happens to all of us when
we do not heed, due to inability and/or ignorance
and/or incompetence, and either by choice and/
or by arrogance, the warnings of experts.


I find myself asking again and again the same
question. Why is it that Jimmy Carter has been
the only LEADER who was capable of leveraging
effectively the enormous influence of a Big and
Successful Nation in getting his way, when the
Right Thing to do, even if very difficult, was very
clear in a given situation? The Five Nations that
I mentioned below (U.S., Russia, China, the U.K.
and France) wield together Enormous Economic
Power and Overwhelming Resources and Influence.
HAVE, or FORCE, YOUR WAY for PEACE,
FRIENDSHIP, SETTLEMENT and SECURITY
in the Caucasus; Do not wait until agreement
comes from parties that have political, ethnic,
military and economic interests to destroy one
another and procrastinate. Since it is the Right
Thing to do and since you have the Power to
do it, make the decision to act in concert and
agreement and act immediately. Get the U.N.
Security Council together and decide, not in
advice, but by a Binding Resolution, for the
Immediate Halt in Hostilities and for a
Compulsory Referral to the International
Court of Justice for a Permanent and Lasting
Agreement that will lead to Reestablishing of
Relations, for Peace, Friendship and Security.
THAT IS THE ROLE YOU ARE CALLED TO
PLAY. IT IS A SACRED ROLE IN A NEW
WORLD. DO THIS NOW, ALL TOGETHER, 
AND ENFORCE IT NOW!!


These are situations where All Citizens in this
World are expecting all Superpowers that still
count, the United States, Russia, China, the
United Kingdom and France and their Leaders
to come together and demand Peace and force
the warring parties to refer all their regional
and territorial disputes to the International
Court of Justice for resolution. The World
cannot tolerate anymore unnecessary deaths
and conflicts, and large exodus of refugees.
Presidents and Prime Ministers, perform
your duties and take the responsibilities of
your offices seriously. Intervene in the Spirit
of Peace and Cooperation and resolve the
crisis Peacefully and Amicably, by forcing
your hand, if necessary.


Κρίμα για τον Κούλη, τον οποίο νομίζαμε κάπως
σοβαρό, αλλά όταν χειρίζεται με τέτοιο τρόπο,
χειρότερο κι από τριτοκοσμίκ, την Εξωτερική
Πολιτική, είναι, όχι απλά φαιδρός και γελοίος,
αλλά πραγματικός τσαρλατάνος και πινόκιο.
Κρίμα... Το ίδιο και για τον "υπουργό εξωτερικών".
Αυτό είναι κατάντια, ξεπάτωμα ανευ προηγουμένου.
Η Συμφωνία των Πρεσπών είναι πραγματικά
"ΙΣΤΟΡΙΚΗ", είτε κάποιος συμφωνεί είτε
διαφωνεί με το περιεχόμενό της ή με ειδικά
σημεία του περιεχομένου της. Η ιστορικότητά
της βασίζεται, από πρακτικής σκοπιάς, στο
γεγονός ότι επίλυσε ένα χρονίζον πρόβλημα
με αμοιβαίες υποχωρήσεις και δεξιοτεχνία,
πραγματική Διπλωματία θα έλεγε κανείς,
και, από θεωρητικής, ότι είναι ένα πραγματικό
επίτευγμα στην Εξωτερική Πολιτική στα Βαλκάνια,
που θα μείνει στην Ιστορία και, μεσοπρόθεσμα και
μακροπρόθεσμα, θα αποβεί εξαιρετικά ωφέλιμο
και εποικοδομητικό για την Καλή Γειτονία και
την Ανάπτυξη όλων των Κρατών της Περιοχής.
ΚΡΙΜΑ, ΤΟΣΟ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΜΙΚΡΟΨΥΧΙΑ, ΟΣΟ
ΚΑΙ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΜΙΚΡΟΝΟΙΑ ΚΑΙ ΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΕΙΨΗ
ΔΙΟΡΑΤΙΚΟΤΗΤΑΣ. ΚΟΥΛΟΣ ΚΟΥΛΗΣ ΚΑΙ
ΠΑΝΤΕΛΗΣ ΑΠΟΤΥΧΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΕΞΩΤΕΡΙΚΩΝ.


I love Italians and Italy is (one of) my most favorite
States on the Planet. With all due Respect to Italians
(I hope they understand what I mean), when Italians
advise you, even tongue-in-cheek, to be serious, then
there must be something seriously wrong; you must
be a veritable charlatan.
 

That is what we are all and always asking: If you are
going somewhere to help and to intervene to save a
life, as you allege, why do you go carrying a gun?
Why the hell don't you send someone trained to
help and to protect and not to attack, harass, maim
and kill, like you train your officers to do, without
even thinking and without any regard for human
life and dignity, and, definitely, as their highest and
most urgent priority, way and above helping and
protecting the Citizens that, like idiots, cover their
paychecks?


Top 3 most offensive, most scummy, worst run and
least reliable and legitimate banks in the entire history
of "legal" banking, hands down. They have proved
time and again that they care little about rules and
regulations, almost not at all about customers and
their well being, and very deeply - to the detriment
of all other considerations - about their own profits
and their own pockets - and they are often run by
idiots:
1. Wells Fargo
2. HSBC
3. Citibank
If you have other options, boycott those at any cost.
Do business with other banking organizations.


Juliette Gréco, a legend of French song, is with us no more...


Look at the terms that our "grand" and "marvelous"
polity finds when they want to exonerate their own
murderers and liars and to appease the justifiably
indignant, angry and outraged public: "WANTON
ENDANGERMENT". Take a second to think how
many black men or Citizens, without powerful and/
or skillful and experienced legal representation have
been charged with "WANTON ENDANGERMENT"
in homicides in this country of ours... In efforts at
appeasement, I guess, we have heard before expressions
like "peace with honor" and "peace for our time" in
the midst of catastrophic events, just to beautify the
unacceptable, the despicable and the unthinkable.
That is exactly how we should think of these rap on
the wrist for one killer and no charges for the rest.


Prince Harry made a statement that his spokesperson
"clarified" was not partisan. We can take this at face
value. But, just imagine how difficult it must be for
someone that is married to an African American, or
any person that is in a multiracial relationship or is of
multi-ethnic background, or for someone that supports
firmly and unequivocally, on principle, Fraternity and
Equality between All Races and Ethnic Backgrounds,
and Harmonious and Cooperative Coexistence and
Cooperation in our Societies, to support a candidate
who instigates hatred and divisiveness through open
statements referring to ``good genes" and bankrupt
and antiquated eugenic arguments, and who, amidst
devastating and heart-wrenching police brutality and
police murderous rampages, instead of taking openly
the side of the Citizens, especially minorities and the
most unfortunate and most vulnerable, always goes
and visits and congratulates the murderers and their
representatives, without even keeping a semblance
of a balanced attitude and approach. Just think a bit
how hard it must be...


Of course Russia is going to welcome Navalny back;
in fact, Putin's Russia is going to be moaning, purring
and rubbing its hands in extreme happiness and ecstasy
if Nalalny decides to go back. The only problem, based
on past experience, is that, if Navalny is so stupid as to
get back in, he is never again getting out alive.


Βασίλη, αυτό που πήγε στραβά είναι ότι, ενώ
ήμασταν παράδειγμα προς μίμηση στην αρχή,
αποφασίσαμε, όπως σχεδόν πάντοτε συμβαίνει,
να ακολουθήσουμε τους άλλους και στα καλά,
αλλά, δυστυχώς, και στα κακά. Και ως γνωστόν,
στην Ελλάδα, όταν υιοθετούμε τα αρνητικά, το
κάνουμε με περισσότερο ζήλο από τις χώρες
από τις οποίες δανειζόμαστε, και χωρίς κανένα
μέτρο. Η απόφαση λοιπόν να ανοίξουμε πλήρως
όταν αποφάσισαν να ανοίξουν όλοι οι άλλοι
και να υποδεχτούμε άπαντες και να τριγυρνάμε
και να κάνουμε πάρτι χωρίς περιορισμούς και
ενδοιασμούς, σε στυλ "μπάτε σκύλοι αλέστε"
και σα να μην υπάρχει αύριο, είναι αυτή που
μας κόστισε και μας κοστίζει ακόμα. Αντ'αυτού,
η προσαρμογή έπρεπε να είναι πολύ σταδιακή
και πιο ήπια και η εξαγγελία επαναφοράς
μέτρων και περιορισμών, ακόμα και σκληρών,
και η επιβολή τους σοβαρή και όχι, όπως τελικά
αποδεικνύεται, μάλλον χαλαρή και πάρα πολύ
διστακτική. Ναι, η οικονομία μετράει και, ναι,
η οικονομία χρειάζεται να λειτουργεί, αλλά,
αφ'ενός υπάρχει η δυνατότητα να κινηθεί σε
μεγάλο ποσοστό εξ' αποστάσεως, και αφ'ετέρου
αποδεικνύεται ότι όποιος έβαλε την οικονομία
πάνω από την υγεία, δε μπόρεσε να αποφύγει
την τακτική της "ανοσίας της αγέλης" και τις
εκατόμβες, κι έτσι τώρα θρηνεί εκατοντάδες ή
χιλιάδες απώλειες, ανάλογα με το μέγεθος της
χώρας, όπως, δυστυχώς, στην από'δώ πλευρά
του Ατλαντικού.


I like a lot Sharon's entry that won the Google
competition this year. She captured very nicely
and elegantly the spirit that makes our societies
better, more harmonious and more powerful.


From the names that I have seen floated for
replacing Justice Ginsburg on the Supreme
Court, I strongly support Judge Lagoa with
substantial difference. Of course, like many
other people, I am appalled at the double
standards followed by the "leader" of the
Senate, acting depending on who is in power,
instead of following firm, ethical principles
and taking a consistent stand. If, in one case
upcoming elections necessitate a wait period
for nominating a new Justice, the same should
hold in another identical case. Playing with
words and circumstances to do one's own
thing, not based on principle, but based
on political and party calculations and
interests, is unbecoming of any Leader and,
especially so, when it concerns a body as
sacrosanct and as above political games
as our Land's Supreme Court. But from the
current Senate "leader" one should not have
expected more.


One of the most beloved Justices of the Supreme
Court of our Land and a Passionate and Faithful
Servant of the Law is with us no more...
 

There are many misfortunes that have struck the
Turkish Nation from the overstaying, beyond his
welcome, of Erdogan in power. First, the fact that
slowly, but steadily and methodically, he is set and
intent on destroying the legacy of Mustafa Kemal.
Second that, by thinking that he is invincible, he
is leading the Turkish Nation down a disastrous
path both in terms of domestic affairs (the financial
situation is disastrous and corruption rampant
and unchecked, especially with regards to his
family members and associates) and in terms of
foreign relations, where instability, unpredictability
and personal whim and political games, have left
Friends and Allies of Turkey guessing at what the
next unreasonable or unpredictable move of his
might be and how to cope with it and contain
its unpleasant consequences. Finally, and perhaps
worst of all, with his megalomania and egoism,
he is subjecting the Turkish People in an eternal
servitude to the presidency and the state. Just
think of, not only the expenses in building multiple,
useless state palaces, which one may argue might
eventually become useful by being converted
to museums or other building with general
public access and public usefulness to their
grounds, but the humongous expenses that will
have to go into their maintenance and upkeep
and of the long term expenditures in servants
and other workers, whose salaries will have to
be covered by the Turkish State. All these will be
in service, in the worst possible meaning, almost
in servitude, to the President and his entourage,
who will have almost absolute power over their
appointments and their livelihoods. In many
respects, these games on the backs and at the
expense of the Turkish Public is scandalous and
provocative and one wishes that his time is fast
approaching that a more reasonable administration
would put an end to these extravagances.


NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT OR THE AUTHORITY
TO PLAY JUDGE OVER ANYBODY ELSE'S LIFE.
BE IT GOD, STATE, GOVERNMENT OR PEOPLE
WITH JUSTIFIABLE OR UNJUSTIFIED TRAUMAS
AND GRIEVANCES. PERIOD. MANAGE YOUR
ANGER AND HOLD YOUR FIRE. SHOW THAT
THE CITIZENS OF THIS NATION ARE SUPERIOR,
BETTER EDUCATED AND MORE CIVILIZED
THAN THE BRUTAL, MURDEROUS POLICE
FORCES THAT THE CITY BOSSES AND THE
STATE GODFATHERS UNLEASH ON INNOCENT
PEOPLE, INTENT AND ARMED SO THAT THEY
MAY MAIM, INJURE, HARASS AND KILL AT WILL,
UNPROVOKED, AND WITHOUT - OR AT BEST
MINIMAL, FAR BELOW WHAT THE CRIMINAL
LAW DICTATES FOR THE AVERAGE CITIZEN -
CONSEQUENCES AND REPERCUSSIONS.


I am very sympathetic towards Chinese students
in this predicament that they find themselves in,
simply because I hold the quest for Knowledge,
for Open Minds and for Personal Betterment in
very high esteem, up there as one of the priorities
of any individual, after food, shelter and clothing
and the right to decent and affordable health
care. On the other hand, I understand that the
goal of preventing Chinese students from aiding
global Chinese dominance and superiority, which
the current Government and State Department
have set as a priority, conflicts with the goal of
an open U.S. Education System, where students
of the "Global Village" come freely to the
"Capital" of the "Free World" to get the best
Education they possibly can. The truth is
that, with the current Chinese political system
and the current Chinese National ambitions and
aspirations, every Chinese student who returns to
China, having acquired very high, cutting edge,
technological and other skills in the U.S., is very
likely to, almost impossible not to, cooperate
and coordinate with the Chinese State and
Government, if (s)he wants to get ahead in
that Country.  So, this is indeed a difficult
situation and a difficult juggling act, but my
gut sense and hunch is that, barring solid
evidence to discriminate those 1000 among the
370,000, there must be something fishy on how
one decides that everybody else does not pose a
similar "risk" (in the sense of "risk", as
described above, which other Administrations,
with a more open and a more Global view, may
not have even interpreted as a risk, but as a
privilege and honor for the American
Educational Systems and America's
Global position). 
Let me close by making the philosophical remark
that, perhaps, a better way to address the fear of
Chinese dominance in the World than preventing
Chinese individuals from becoming more open
minded, better skilled and better educated would
be to take increasingly more potent measures to
better America's Global position, both in advancing
the Education of its own Citizens and otherwise, so
that, as both (and other) Nations improve their
positions and both (and others') Citizens' skills get
better over time, America still finds itself in a better
position to cope with International Challenges and to
preserve, if not its absolute dominance, at least its
competitiveness in all aspects of public life. In this
way, it will have nothing to fear from openly competing
with any other Nation in an open and free Global
Society, where students, scholars and businessmen
can move unrestricted without barriers and take
advantage of global opportunities and face together
(with their Global Colleagues) global challenges..


I just cannot understand, I cannot understand at
all. DON'T THEY HAVE KIDS OR RELATIVES?
HAS NONE OF THESE INHUMANE BRUTES,
INHUMAN KILLING MACHINES AND SUBHUMAN
BEINGS EVER EXPERIENCED PAIN, FAMILY
ISSUES, FAMILY EMERGENCIES OR DURESS?
OR IS THEIR TRAINING AS MURDERERS AND
KILLERS IN THIS COUNTRY SO EFFECTIVE
AND EFFICIENT THAT THEY HAVE LEARNED
TO KILL EVERYBODY ELSE WITHOUT A
SECOND THOUGHT, OR CONSIDERATION
FOR RIGHT AND WRONG, AND WITHOUT
REGARD TO PAIN AND TRAGEDY?
The situation has reached such proportions and such
scope that there cannot be gradual improvements
and there is no expectation of reform; only complete
destruction and dismantling of what exists and the
institutionalization of a completely different and
radically new, in philosophy and attitude, task force
might be able to regain - after a long time and
measured and smart responses - the confidence
that is needed and the credibility to work together
again with the Public and instill minimal public
confidence. Right now everything is demolished
de facto, even if City bosses and State godfathers
resist actual demolition de jure and radical
rebuilding, and have the shamelessness to pay
lip service, while their gangsters and their cold
bloodied, rabid, trained and armed to the teeth,
killers cause rampage and wage war unprovoked
inside the Great and smaller Cities of this Nation.


In my view, these are disgraced individuals, whose
"defiance" does not count for anything. The fact
is that they had ample time to institute reforms to
humanize the brutal, neo-nazi killing machines over
which they presided and which they commanded
and the results show that they failed miserably
and that, under their vigilance, the same old
ways, methods and techniques of brutality and
suppression and complete disrespect for the
Citizens, especially the most vulnerable and the
most unfortunate, and total disregard for their
Humanity, continued unabated. The fact that
you are a person of color neither excuses nor
alleviates your responsibility, nor does it
exonerate the fact that your forces were using
the same racial, discriminatory and neo-nazi
tactics. In fact, being of such a racial, ethnic or
religious background, which classifies one among
groups who have suffered and were persecuted
the most and who have been subjected to the
heaviest inhumanity, brutality and injustices,
increases one's responsibility and one's duty
to do more than those coming from privilege
and affluence to correct and undo injustices.
This "chief" clearly failed miserably. So, now
be as defiant as you wish and want to be; you
did get your time and your chances and failed.
GOOD RIDDANCE for the Citizens of Rochester
and for one more of our tortured Cities.


The ANC responded and, perhaps, they felt compelled
to do so. But, in reality, no response was needed. Even
without the despicable servant's book, the facts speak
for themselves. How could anyone, with eyes to see and
some intelligence to judge, even start comparing one of
the least self-centered people on the Planet, who did
sacrifice his life and his well being, being dragged in
and out of prison, to Defend a Nation, Freedom and
Equality and the Rights of Man, with the most self
centered clown in the History of "leadership", one
that cares only about profit and self-aggrandizement
and constantly and persistently belittles all people
who fight for Ideals, who Sacrifice for their Country
and who have a Sense of Public Good and a Deep
Commitment to Something Larger than their
pocketbooks and their own profit and pleasure?
All World Citizens feel the Deepest Respect for
Madiba and the Highest Honor for having lived,
on the Same Planet and, at least part of our lives,
at the Same Time with this Superb Being. Most
Americans, on the other hand, feel the greatest
shame and the greatest embarrassment and deep
humiliation for having elected in the Highest Office
of our Land a person unworthy for even much more
lowly tasks than this, let alone, Political Leadership
and National Stewardship, and, this coming November,
our pledge is to try and do our best to atone, even
though we acknowledge that this stain shall be hard,
perhaps almost impossible, to completely erase.


I am stupefied, unable to comprehend how it is
possible, after one serves a guy of the caliber that
he is describing and aiding him to become President,
to the detriment of his Country and of his Nation,
instead of feeling so embarrassed as to commit
suicide, have the shamelessness and the audacity
to write a book, as if these doings had been none
of his fault. I guess the only convincing explanation
is, as the Italians so successfully describe in 3 words,
"una faccia una razza". One is fully characterized
by extreme egocentrism, unchecked egomania and
subservience to profit, and the other by the exact
identical qualities. Both can be described most aptly,
in a nutshell, by the very same word that they used
to describe African Nations...


Security Forces, DO NOT HARASS, ARREST or
TORTURE YOUR BROTHERS & SISTERS!
Tomorrow, in a free and open Belarus, you do not
want to be seen as enemies and to have made bitter
foes of those that today are fighting to open up the
society you all live in, while you, on duty, are seen
as defenders of a tyrant. At least, stay temperate,
cold and neutral and, whenever it is in your power,
do surreptitiously offer help and support to those
that are fighting for ALL BELARUSIANS, for
a better, more vibrant and more open society for
ALL, including you, as their kith and kin.
 

A Sham-Jury is set up to investigate. Have
we seen this charade and travesty of "justice"
before? Do we know what that means? Read
my lips. This is the code word to prepare us
once more that NOTHING WILL HAPPEN,
as in almost all previous cases of brutality
and abuse... ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

Nothing Ever Happens

Del Amitri
Post office clerks put up signs saying "position closed"
And secretaries turn off typewriters and put on their coats
And janitors padlock the gates for security guards to patrol
And bachelors phone up their friends for a drink
While the married ones turn on a chat show
And they'll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow
Gentlemen, time please, you know we can't serve anymore
Now the traffic lights change to stop, when there's nothing to go
And by five o'clock everything's dead
And every third car is a cab
And ignorant people sleep in their beds
Like the doped white mice in the college lab
And nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all
The needle returns to the start of the song
And we all sing along like before
And we'll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow
Telephone exchanges click while there's nobody there
The Martians could land in the car park and no one would care
Close-circuit cameras in department stores shoot the same movie every day
And the stars of these films neither die nor get killed
Just survive constant action replay
And nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all
The needle returns to the start of the song
And we all sing along like before
And we'll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow
And bill holdings advertise products that nobody needs
While angry from Manchester writes to complain about
All the repeats on T.V.
And computer terminals report some gains
On the values of copper and tin
While American businessmen snap up Van Goghs
For the price of a hospital wing
And nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all
The needle returns to the start of the song
And we all sing along like before
And nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all
They'll burn down the synagogues at six o'clock
And we'll all go along like before
And we'll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow
Why? Why?? Why???
Why not a normal trial, like everyone else who
either injures or kills, either intentionally or
involuntarily or because of dereliction of duty?
Why do you not think that they deserve the same
treatment (if not more severe since they are, in
addition, breaching an oath and betraying a
trust) as any other Citizen of this Nation?


The "police" union is crying out. All of you,
despicable "criminal justice experts" and
"criminal justice scholars", racist, neo-nazi
and aggressive, heartless brutes, and "bosses"
of our Cities and "governors" of our States,
who employ them and give them value and
significance and authority to attack, injure,
maim and kill, unprovoked, freely and with
minimal or no consequences, heed the
LOUD CRY OF THE UNION:
"YOU ARE TRAINING US TO BE KILLING
MACHINES AND BRUTES AND WHEN WE
FOLLOW OUR TRAINING WORD FOR
WORD AND DETAIL BY DETAIL, YOU ARE
GOING TO HOLD US ACCOUNTABLE?
SERIOUSLY? OR ARE YOU KIDDING?"
That is what they are, in essence, telling you.
Do you have eyes to see and ears to listen
to defunct your dysfunctional, brutal system?
Or is it too convenient for your intents and
your goals to have this kind of barbaric and
unacceptable "law and order" mentality for
you to listen to their cries and change your
ways and become, at last, civilized, modern
and protective of, instead of harassing and
terrorizing, your Citizens?
 

I have not seen the proof nor would I be able to
fully comprehend, since I am not well versed in
the relevant scientific principles. However, clearly
and unequivocally, based on Russia's past record
and either intentionally botched intelligence or
amateurish pseudo-intelligence activities, our
United States should be among the first, more
vocal States, joining a persistent and insistent
voice with that of its Allies, the U.K., Germany,
the E.U. and NATO, and, in my view, all other
Western Nations and, more generally, All Nations
that consider cold-blooded murder of political
dissidents and of free-minded Citizens by Cowboy,
Gangster-ish governments, because of their beliefs
and their political activism, as barbaric, repulsive
and unacceptable in the dawn of this third decade
of the 21st Century, to strongly condemn this
activities and demand an explanation and,
subsequently, holding such Nations and States
accountable without further ado and further
shenanigans. WE MUST PUT OUR ENERGY
AND ACTIONS WHERE OUR MOUTH IS.
But are we to be surprised that the morph
refuses to condemn killing by poisoning via a
nerve agent when he even declined to condemn
killing by hacking, sawing and dismemberment
happening inside an Embassy in a foreign Nation,
one of the most Sacred Institutions in Foreign
Relations and under Tenets of International Law?
 

This morning I read of the morph in another of
his beauties and tirades encouraging the People
of North Carolina to vote both in person and
by mail to "test the system". Let me say this.
Many of us, zero (or first, depending on
definition) generation immigrants, coming
to the United States from States where Citizens
knew that the State system and the State
institutions were weak and either unable or
unwilling to exercise effective control, were
used to - and disliked - the habit of citizens
to continuously "test the system" because they
knew that they could get away with many
things that a responsible and conscientious
citizen should not do in the first place. Very
good examples from Greece that I could
mention are rampant tax evasion and land
grab (especially after deliberate arson of
public forest lands) as well as illegal building,
on either private or public land, done without
permit in areas where building would not
have been possible by Law because of
various reasons. In the United States, one
of the great differences was that People,
partially because they were cognizant of
a stronger control exercised by the State
and Federal Governments, but also, and
mainly, because of strong Traditions and
Self-Discipline and Consciously Chosen
Behaviors and Attitudes, did not try to
"test the system" to such an extent and tried
to operate more within the confines of the
Law, recognizing that, breaking the law for
one's own advantage, be it financial or any
other, is really tantamount to acting against
the interests of others - your friends, your
neighbors, the society that you share
resources with and livelihood within.
As time went by, I was able to discern a
tendency, either because of unscrupulous
and ill-meaning voices, like that of the morph,
or because of relaxation of education, self-
discipline and assumption of responsibility,
from U.S. Citizens to take a more reckless
stance towards rules and regulations. It is
not my place to play policeman or tax-man,
but the amount of times I have heard people
stating that (or witnessed) they are working
under the table or renting under the table or
hiding income from tax authorities without,
seemingly, being embarrassed and without
any annoyance, due perhaps to the perception
or knowledge that this is widespread practice
around them and they are not alone, has
made me reconsider my view that Respect
for the Law was a solid and nonnegotiable
principle in our United States society at
both local and National levels. Adding to
this frustration is the blatant, unpunished
breaking of the Law by the governing and
the rich and powerful, as well as the constant
breaking of the Law by "police" themselves,
by being allowed war-like, aggressive and
rampant behavior, including murders of
innocent civilians in the streets of our cities,
for which prosecutions are random and
rare and for which rules in manuals, as
they currently stand and are written, offer,
it seems, wide discretion and immunity for
inappropriate actions and use of excessive
and disproportionate force and shelter for
behaviors that in a civilized society should
be considered - by any standard - barbaric,
primitive and inappropriate.


I do not know... It just doesn't sit very well with
me that these people, like the Obamas and the
British Royal Couple, who have infinitely more
power and clout and infinitely more influence
and more means at their disposal than the
average Joe to do something substantial and
to give Hope by taking Action, do not do anything
and then revert to film making, producing and
sponsoring shows to give "information" and the
illusion and expectation of "hope". Why did you
all not use your power when you could to really
and drastically change things and make things
better and, now, after you got out of the governing
mechanisms, you are trying to get into the business
of marketing and trading and commercializing
"hope" in the form of shows for own profit and
self-aggrandizement? Don't we already have
enough "inspirational" and other Hollywood
"shows" and documentaries from people who are
experienced enough at this kind of profit and
marketing that we needed also famous semi-
professionals with questionable political records
to enrich this already sad and meaningless variety?


Our United States should be a Champion and the
Biggest Supporter and Ally of the International
Criminal Court. Those States that operate according
to International Law and have a Clear Conscience
have nothing to worry from an International Tribunal
whose role is to investigate War Crimes and Crimes
Against Humanity. I do sincerely hope that Joe Biden
and Kamala Harris, if they get elected, would try to
exercise their influence and present convincing
arguments that our United States MUST RETURN
TO A LEADING ROLE INTERNATIONALLY
and to assume that role, it must pioneer and lead
in honest and impartial efforts to establish Peace
and Security by applying International Law and
International Rules Uniformly to All States,
regardless of their size, their wealth and their
power. If our leaders, political and military, always
operate within the confines, the Principles and the
Tenets of International Law (as they should and
as I trust and most Americans trust they are),
they not only have nothing to be afraid about,
but they should be the ones insisting and pushing
first for all violators to be brought before the Court
and severely punished for Grave Violations of
Humanitarian Law.


Why should one be at least skeptical when
(s)he hears overhyped advertisements and
announcements from people like Musk or,
more generally, "entrepreneurs" in the high
tech sector:
1. Erratic personality;
2. Example of AI hype in the 1980's-90's
    that resulted in very little in comparison
    to what had been actually promised;
3. Recipe of "entrepreneurs" of this caliber
    of overinflating and overpromising, with
    fictitious timelines, in order to absorb
    huge amounts in public support and
    public funds to achieve their goals - both
    personal and corporative - and escape
    bankruptcies, while at the same time
    opposing, in extremely bad faith and in
    bad taste, provision of social services and
    public support to the most needy and
    shamelessly chastising State and Federal
   Authorities for instituting a "welfate state"
   and "public entitlements", to which, of
   course, they think they and their companies
   are fully and deservedly entitled.


First, let me say that escalating both the militant
rhetoric and the aggressive military maneuvers
in the Eastern Mediterranean is unwise and
dangerous, since they entail unnecessary and
redundant risks for the personnel of the armed
forces of all sides, which should be protected
and not endangered unnecessarily in peaceful
times. Second, I am ashamed and embarrassed
on behalf of the Turkish President, who seems
to be mentally deteriorating fast. It is otherwise
inexplicable how his memory is so selective.
Regardless of whether Greeks were aggressive
and acted offensively at periods of their history
(at least they had strong cultural ties from
ancient times, before Ottomans were even
players in the region, with Asia Minor and
the Near East), how is it possible for him,
when he exalts the peacefulness and the
non-colonial spirit of Turks to forget that
the only reason they did not form colonies
in Europe was because they were defeated
and stopped by European Armies, both on
Land and at Sea, and that they indeed did
form colonies and Provinces where they could,
as e.g., in North Africa and the Middle East?
Unless, when the Sultan wants to make a point,
Historical Realities and Historical Facts are
thrown by the wayside and only nits and picks
that are suitable are gathered at convenience.


In the West, we are needlessly and mindlessly
debating whether there is "implicit" or "explicit"
racism (or no racism at all!!!) in our societies...
What most of us wish had been the case and the
sad reality are two completely different things.
How much more explicit than this do you, deniers,
need it to be to admit that it exists and that it is,
not only explicit, but ugly, brutal, hurtful, injurious
and blatant, staring us everyday in the face and
forming a terrible stain, which we all have the
responsibility and the need to try our hardest
and fight our mightiest to remove at last?
 

I am deeply saddened to witness the loss of Human
Life no matter who the person destroyed is (with
the only exception, admittedly, being War Criminals,
mainly those responsible for genocide and those
responsible for deliberate and premeditated and
repeated violations of the Laws of War, with intent
to gain illegal and unfair advantage for their warring
side by inflicting brutality, pain, damage and death
on innocent civilians and by leaving behind untold
devastation and what we like to call, in our legal
"civilized" language, "collateral damage").
On the other hand, in the same way that a Court
of Law, if well-functioning, is entitled to take away
the material property of criminals and murderers,
found guilty, and to confiscate their wealth and their
assets to pay restitution to victims, I do believe that,
absent Fair and Impartial Justice and lacking
recourse to a Fair Judicial System that can act
in this way swiftly and in a balanced fashion,
people are justified when they inflict material
damage to the property of those responsible
for unprovoked, deliberate and repeated brutality
and murder. Otherwise, protest would have been
restricted to marches and walks, which have been
happening for decades with very limited impact
and, very often, are ridiculed and ignored, if the
persons they intend to jostle and wake up do
not care and feel no damage, no threat to their
property and way of life and no pain at all.
However, every effort MUST be made to avoid,
during severe mobilization, the loss of Human
Life and every effort MUST be made to warn
people and to safeguard the Life of Citizens,
no matter who they are, and this always should
come FIRST, and all attempts at demonstration
and at insurrection should be halted and postponed
if conditions do not allow full protection of Human
Life and Guarantees of Human Safety.
I ASK EVERYONE TO KEEP THOSE
CONSIDERATIONS IN MIND AND TO
MAKE SURE, WITHIN THEIR POWER,
THAT NO LIFE IS LOST FROM WHAT
EVER WALK OF LIFE IT MAY COME
AND WHICHEVER BELIEFS IT MAY
HOLD AND/OR REPRESENT.


I HEAR YOU. I HEAR YOU BECAUSE YOU
ARE ALSO PART OF MY ADOPTED NATION.
AND I HEAR YOU LOUDER AND CLEARER
THAN THOSE CLAIMING THAT THERE IS
NO PROBLEM IN AMERICA TODAY, NOT
ONLY BECAUSE YOU ARE THE ONES THAT
ARE SUFFERING THE MOST, AND, HENCE,
KNOW BETTER THAN THOSE FOR WHICH
NO PROBLEM EXISTS, BUT, ALSO, BECAUSE,
WHEN YOU RECOGNIZE A PROBLEM, YOU
CAN DO SOMETHING TO FIX IT, WHEREAS
IF YOU DENY IT EXISTS, YOU BURY YOUR HEAD
IN YOUR COMFORTABLE, WARM SAND AND YOU
LET YOUR BRUTAL, NEO-NAZI, PSYCHOPATHIC
GANGSTERS KILL, VICTIMIZE, TERRORIZE
AND BRUTALIZE YOUR SISTERS AND YOUR
BROTHERS, WHOM YOU THINK OF AND
PERCEIVE AS ENEMIES AND ADVERSARIES AND
NOT AS PARTNERS STRIVING FOR THE SAME
IDEALS AND FOR A BETTER NATION FOR ALL.
I HEAR YOU ALL. I JOIN MY VOICE
WITH YOU ALL. NO MORE RACISM
AND DISCRIMINATION. NO MORE
BRUTALIZATION, STATE TERRORISM
AND OPPRESSION. ENOUGH.



Sometimes I have great trouble understanding
the logic (if there is any), and reconciling my
thoughts with the contradictions, of our political
and judicial systems. I am now following (not
very closely, admittedly) the controversies and
fights surrounding Britney Spears' fortune.
I am sure her relatives loved the capitalist
system when their famous relative was making
virtually unlimited amounts of money with her
music. In a capitalist system the money belongs
to those that make it and the investors in the
enterprise. So why are the relatives trying to
eat a pie that is not theirs and that they have
done nothing to deserve or to claim a piece of?
If they want to live luxuriously and the high
life in our capitalist system, why don't they
try to compete and make their own money,
instead of using the courts to, essentially,
steal someone else's? And if they cannot
make the amount of money they wish they
had, then let them realize the sad truth that
they, like billions of others, under the same
system, have to compromise and live the
best they can under the circumstances, with
the means they have, but honestly, without,
under various pretexts, stealing and embezzling
the earnings of those they allege the love and
they care for.


Shinzo Abe may not have been the most successful
Prime Minister in Japanese History, but both his
supporters and his opponents must recognize that,
in spite of his mistakes in office and his various
shortcomings, he did lead Japan with steady hands
and he did his best and put in an honest effort.
I, as, I am sure, many others, wish him well and
hope that he'll be able to cope more calmly and
peacefully with his chronic health issues without
the stresses and obligations of Public Office.
Fair well, Mr. Abe, and happy retirement!!