What Else Can Go Wrong?

 

The world is a mess and it looks like it is only going to get worse. Even if the present problems simply fester, that would be horrid enough but we cannot but pray for such good fortune. Turkey’s Erdogan has plans of reconstituting the Ottoman Empire. Erdogan is starting smaller than the Ottoman Empire stretching across MENA (Middle East North Africa) and only including small areas of Syria and Iraq. He designs on taking care of some trouble spots including Aleppo and Mosul while also eradicating the Kurds in a manner likely resembling their solution for their former ‘problem’ of the Armenians or the Greeks or any others who have had the temerity to stand against Turkish Islamic superiority. The new map in Turkish texts is below and shows the initial expansions Erdogan seeks. They are taking advantage of their special units they have positioned north of Mosul under the pretense of security against anti-Turkish elements. These new lands are being incorporated as Erdogan stands to throw out recognition of the Treaty of Lausanne claiming that Turkey has the rights to these lands due to the National Pact which also includes Kirkuk. Erdogan has also shown interest in some Grecian owned islands, which is dangerous as what is Greece but a collection of islands. What next, Islamic State and Jordan?

 

New Textbook Maps of Turkey

 

While in the area of the Middle East we can list a few other spots which have differing potentials for exploding at any point in time, any day of the week, may those days be lost into distant times that never arrive. Islamic State has made their principle to find more and more horrid and gross means of slaughtering innocents simply for being different in even the slightest of ways. They have taken to slaughtering Muslims as they have run out of any of the others they took such pleasure of torturing while robbing them of their lives. Jordan is suffering from many refugees from the Syrian debacle which they are caring for as best as they are capable. They receive additional assistance of natural gas and other needful things from an unlikely source, one who need remain unannounced and unrecognized though all know and understand that friend is Israel. Remarkable that with all the Islamic nations who claim friendship and alliance with Jordan as members of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) with all their oil wealth yet they give no assistance for the care of the refugees, refuse to take in even a single Syrian refugee while demanding the rest of the world show kindness which they refuse to spare themselves. Perhaps this is the great plan; push enough Muslims into the West that they can tear democracies down from within. This is what the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic organizations backed by many Islamic governments and has been a preferable and useful manner of Jihad over the years. There is even a name for this subversive means of disruption and conquest, it is Civilizational Jihad. You would think that at least one leader in the Western World would identify this problem and perhaps suggest a plan to address this threat, or at least label this a challenge. We live and hope somewhere outside of Israel someone will wake up and smell the Dracunculus Vulgaris, also called a Voodoo Lily (pictured below), with an appropriately unpleasant aroma, really unpleasant. Of course any mention that this might actually be real problem, a real situation, is automatically labelled as being racist and is ridiculed as if there was no historical reference to such methods.

 

Dracunculus Vulgaris also called a Voodoo Lily

 

Then there is the one news item which is sucking the oxygen out of the rest of the news cycle, the United States elections, especially the Presidential free-for-all. The polls tell a story, well, two stories depending on which polling organization to which you listen. The only candidates the polls are able to rule out are the ‘third party’ candidates, who include the following names and parties but may not be limited to Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party, Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party, Darrell Castle of the Constitution Party, plus five from small parties who have the most remote of chances and dozens more with absolutely no possibility but might actually make better alternatives than the top two candidates. This election has been the most raucous, illiberal, shrill, fiercely contested and in many ways the most unprofessional and unclassical of any election in modern history. What would probably be beyond the belief of most Americans is the rancor and mean-spirited accusations that pale compared to some rhetoric from the earliest of United States elections. One of the most famous was the obscene accusations from John Adams and Thomas Jefferson campaigns in the election of 1800 and 1808. The campaigning in both elections was dirty, bordering libelous and filled with sexual innuendo accusations back and forth which can be found with minimal research on the net with an introduction here. Theirs was just the juiciest and most severe campaign filled with slurs and crass accusations which make Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump seem to be holding a seniors’ tea social.

 

The other international news story consuming the remaining oxygen not eaten by the American elections has been the decision by UNESCO that the Temple Mount and most if not all of the Old City of Jerusalem are Islamic holy sites with no Jewish, and also Christian, history. This should be no surprise as UNESCO has referred to numerous ancient Jewish and Israelite sites throughout the region as being Islamic Mosques including but not limited to Rachel’s Tomb and Cave of the Patriarchs. As the Islamic and third world nations, most of which being dictatorships with poor actual human rights records, though don’t expect the United Nations to notice, have an unsinkable majority in virtually every corner of the United Nations arms and agencies as well as the General Assembly only lacking complete control due to the Security Council, but they are working on forcing a restructuring. Abba Eban, Israeli diplomat, former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations and held numerous positions in the Israeli government during his career once quipped, “If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions.” The numbers were slightly off but the entire gist of his statement was valid as valid can be. UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova wrote that she believes in the 3,500 year-old connection of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, and promised to work against anti-Semitic and anti-Israel activism as part of her letter rejecting and expressing regret over the ruling. Unfortunately that ruling remains standing and will be the world body’s official position until, if ever, repealed.

 

Finally, it need be mentioned a few odds and ends which need no explanations or are fairly unimportant for now but may prove highly important down the road. Rumors continue to float around that President Obama will place a motion setting the Green Line as the border for a Palestinian state when or if such ever comes to fruition. This will probably depend on whether Hillary Clinton wins the election to carry forward President Obama’s slights and campaigns against Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, and Israel herself. Talking of Ms. Clinton, she is rumored to have moved a $1.8 billion transfer from the Clinton Foundation to the Qatar Central Bank. Further, the Clintons have their own luxurious hidey-hole, a $200 Million Maldives Estate pictured below. At least we know where she and Bill will be running to should Hillary lose the election. Oh, if she wins we also know where the personal e-mail server will be located.

 

Clinton Hidey-Hole and Remote Viewing White House

 

And let us end with a positive piece of news from a few weeks back. Blue Origin tested their escape system for their space vehicle which landed with adequate results but that was almost secondary to what followed. Even the company engineers believed the second part of the test would probably fail. That part of the test must be witnessed to believe so the video is below. Prepare to be blown away.

 

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Nation State or International Integration

 

The election this fall is not about Islamic State, al-Qaeda, Taliban, or other security. It will not be about most of the items the media is talking about. What it is about is the economy, jobs, employment, wages, and everything about the economy but not in the obvious ways being discussed. Where will this next Presidency balance? The main item is which way does it benefit the United States most, continuing internationalism or returning to nationalism.

 

The media and most politicians are pushing this global economy, global integration, global cooperation, global solutions while hiding a dirty little secret, they are selling global as the solution while having the United States and the advanced nations pay for everything while equalizing the global playing field, whatever that means. We had a debate last night and we heard more of the same. Clinton claimed more globalism and taxes on the rich and Trump tried and may have meant to sound like Reagan. What they were not telling the people is that Clinton was using the same internationalism where the world matters more than the United States so in order to equalize the world the United States and the advanced world has to bleed to allow the rest of the world to catch up and then all will be well and how wonderful the world can be. Trump is actually claiming that every nation take their own and put them first and attempt to allow the nations who are leading the world to continue to be the leaders and then assist other nations in making gains and follow and give them access to advances as they are able to implement these advances. So, which way will work best. That depends on which nations one decides should be permitted to advance their own interests than to share with the world.

 

Internationalism is wonderful if your country is on the receiving end and not so wonderful if you are being bled to bring the other nations up to their level. The problem with that are many of these nations that are presumably being given advances in order to raise them to the same level are led by dictators who are enriching themselves and not making their nations any closer to the advanced world as that does not directly benefit them. What these dictators are not being intelligent about is that had they advanced their nation they would have enriched themselves in the process. They are not even thinking nationally rather than internationally. Internationally is a recipe for disaster as it inhibits the leaders from leading and demands that the least efficient be granted the largess while the leaders are placed in financial straight-jackets. Internationalists place a stop sign where all nations must park their own business and park their nation by the side of the highway and wait for the rest of the world to reach an equal position. The problem is that many of these nations, which they are waiting for to reach the same point, are themselves broken and not gaining and will never catch up as they are not even making any effort to reach the next level. Internationalism believes that making all nations equal will solve the world’s problems and inequalities, despite it not ever bringing the rest of the nations to first world status.

 

 

World Map with Borders Deemphasized

 

Nationalism is the opposite view which allows each nation to advance at their own rate and still demands that the first world assist the developing nation but does not demand they try to make equal those nations so dysfunctional that they are the closest thing to an economic black hole as can be found. Nationalism rewards each nation for their efforts and allows each nation to gain at their own speed. Allowing the leaders to lead gives other nations a target and proven path they can emulate but without national gain by the wealthiest nations to blaze the trail for the others to follow. The basis for nationalism is it allows each nation to set their own monetary policies and is against unifying monetary policies as such a system is flawed and destroys the lesser productive nations which has been proven by the European Union Euro which has benefited Germany while leaving Greece behind. Nationalism allows each country to do the best for their own people and society. That does not mean that nations which are developing should not be aided and it is in the interest of the most advanced nations to assist those nations who are developing and making the right choices and allowing them to benefit from the experiences of those nations who have traveled those roads before them. But those nations which are completely dysfunctional cannot be assisted as long as their governance is broken and until the nation decides to change their dysfunctions there is no reason to throw good money after bad.

 

Internationalism is a wonderful, feel-good policy filled of kind words and low on actual results. Internationalism demands that all nations be made to give according to their ability and the funds are granted to countries according to their needs. Internationalism demands open borders allowing free immigration with no limits or criminal and other background checks or other limits or restrictions. The policies sound as if they will allow all nations equal opportunities in word while defining this policy as bringing all nations up to the same level and making things fair for all nations. The truth is that this is accomplished by tearing down the greater nations while benefitting some of the least deserving nations who are corrupt criminal enterprises more than they are actual functional nations. Rewarding the worst while impeding the best prevents progress and will constantly restrict progress and the discoveries of new technologies and new systems which would result in assisting those nations seeking a better future to implement the proven methods. To get an idea on the difficulties caused by internationalism there is a perfect example which we can observe, the European Union. How has that equal currency been working for over half of Europe who are not Germany or Britain but are Greece, Spain, Italy and even France and many of the former Warsaw Nations. The common currency has taken the small differences of economic production where the agrarian economies which work on a different production level having to survive with the same policies of the industrial and other highly developed nations.

 

World Map and Relative Wealth of Nations

 

Permitting each nation to perform at their highest level and to their full potential will set target paths for other nation to follow along the proven road set by the highest performing nations. Progress is the fuel that raises all nations in turn. Progress provides the test paths and allows developing nations to benefit from their more advanced nations but only when they decide to advance. No nation could be forced to grow their economy and advance their national infrastructure and when a nation refuses to advance itself then forcing the rest of the world to wait for such a nation to reach an equative level is ridiculous and counterproductive. Internationalism is wonderful idea if it could function as promised. Nationalism is the dirty sounding word which is accused of being selfish because it benefits the wealthy nations and prevents developing nations from ever reaching the top level. The obvious fault is that accusation is completely false. If nationalism prevented up and coming nations from ever becoming the top nations were true then China would have ruled the world, Spain would be a leading nation, Greece would be the top nation in Europe, Egypt would be the most advanced nation in construction and engineering, Persia would still control East-West trade routes, Portugal would be a great power with colonies throughout the world, and the Hittites would be the great power in the norther worlds of Europe through to Turkey. Top nations change and have changed throughout the history of the world while nationalism was the rule of the world. Internationalism has caused massive stagnation as the world as a whole is not permitted to advance because the leading nations are held back presumably for the benefit of the lesser nations. This will always be a supported philosophy as there will always be more developing and undeveloped nations than leading nations as only a few nations will be in the top ten percent, which is why it is referred to as the top ten percent. Internationalism has been working so well over the past twenty to thirty years since 1979 while the rest of history was pathetic and without economic advancement advances by all nations and we are still using salt as a currency, aren’t we? The progress from salt as money to salt as something on almost every dinner table was a result from nationalism, not internationalism.

 

Compare the two with eyes open and the preferable form, open competition or controlled advancement, the choice could provide opportunity or a slow decadence and eventual decimation. Internationalism is welfare on an international scale much in the form of the Soviet Union and the initial Plymouth Rock Colony which would have starved if not for the Native Americans who grew and hunted for surplus for the winter and had sufficient to teach and feed the Pilgrims. After that experience of all get all they need, while most gave nothing in effort, they introduced a new program where each family kept a percentage of what they grew and the remainder was shared, the amounts of food skyrocketed. That is the balance which nationalism can produce, the most advanced achieve at their highest level and those developing nations learn from those leaders and in time some will replace them as they eventually falter. That is the secret of effort based economies, the people or nations at the top changes with time when another makes decisions which make them even more profitable as the other sinks under likely bureaucratic waste. You decide.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Foundations of Pay to Play

 

The Clinton Foundation, or should we call it the Clinton’s Fundnation, where donations of varying sizes were deposited often in direct correlation to the length of time they were granted with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Well, not all the visits with Secretary of State Clinton were linked to contributions to the Clinton Foundation; some were linked to very impressive payments for speeches by one former President William Jefferson Clinton. Of course we are told that there is no smoking gun or definitive proof or actual links, well, provable links. It is remarkable the degree to which far too many highly placed law enforcement agencies and individuals voluntarily develop tunnel vision. It is a miracle they can drive a car safely with such obstructed eyesight. Yet the news has been filled with reports about the horrors and downright dastardly practices and unconscionable business relations which apparently have plagued Donald Trump over the years. We can only assume that previously law enforcement and business oversight and enforcement departments have suffered an equal measure of tunnel vision when it came to policing the business deals of Donald Trump. Of course the surprising item is the lack of law suits brought against Donald Trump if so many of his business dealings were actually as fraudulent as we have been led to believe. There was one business venture though which truly could have qualified as fraudulent had it actually made the guarantees or promises claimed by the media, and that was Trump University. Fortunately for Donald Trump the only actual guarantees given by Trump University were that one might be able to benefit and enrich themselves with the lessons and they would receive a diploma and a picture of them with the facsimile of Donald Trump. The picture with the cardboard Mr. Trump was only worth slightly less than the wisdom one might have gleaned from the lessons. So, there has seemingly been loads of the blind leading the blind in law enforcement around both Presidential candidates if the media reporting on one and the claims of ignoring direct evidence on the other are to be believed. This leads to one big question, which one is the least crooked and least seriously soaked in criminal behavior and thus the lesser choice to be President.

 

I know what you’re thinking, where am I going with this and that I sure started with some twisted and tortured lack of logic. Well, why should editorial commentary here be any less confusing and in the dark than the rest of the media? If you answer is because you have come to expect better, then thank you for your confidence and read on, it will hopefully be worth your time. The problem is that far too many of the politicians are crooked as a broken and twisted ancient oak tree with the varieties of corruption, insider trading (which is actually legal for members of Congress and the members of the Administration of the President), bought and paid for political hacks, politician turned lobbyist and other crimes of unimaginable complexity and criminal behavior obvious even to the most casual of observers which reach out from the rotting central core of the political tree in the ever outward reaching branches seeking new and more imaginable ways to deceive and steal. Are there some politicians who are clean, respectable and trusted to work for their electorate? Astonishingly, yes. Unfortunately they are also the politicians shunned by the opposition party and their own party and unfortunately cannot seem to get together on issues due to their different beliefs and political orientations. If only there were some means of getting the true representatives of the people to work to clean up the rest of the political quagmire, that would be simply grand. Unfortunately most of the truly honest representatives of the people fall into one of a few categories, socialists even bordering on communist, religious conservatives often referred to as the religious right, and the true believers of causes which are as varied as often separate be the narrowest of degrees yet still chasing mutually exclusive dreams as one can paint. There are likely more than a dozen of causes which come under the ecological umbrella from save the whales or the seal cubs to save the rain forests as well as stop acid rain who sometimes protest with the save the oceans and even save the polar bears who have been taking care of themselves quite well. Then there are those who want electric cars, hydrogen cell cars, universal transports which take everyone to their destinations, public transport such as busses, light rail or subways and those who want to ban all vehicles which run on petroleum even including aircraft and the rigs without which we would soon have less choices of food and other goods, but that is not their concern. There are some who desire making the United States a Christian based nation where Christianity would become the recognized religion of their state or even the nation. And then there are our favorites, the constitutionalists who simply desire to have the United States return to the limitations intended by the Founding Fathers.

 

Founding Fathers of the United States

 

Those chasing causes, dreams some call them, are probably the least harmful as they are easily predictable and can be clearly understood. The less than honest politicians are also predictable once their motivations and those who own their pocketbook are understood. There are those who have so many positing bribes, sorry, contributions and charitable donations, which work their way back to the politicians through nefarious and twisted paths making them not so obvious. Let us say that a politician or group of politicians receive contributions to their campaigns and to supportive political action committees (PACs) as well as donations to charities or other groups who also contribute to the election campaigns where all this cash finds its way back to the politicians and they simply promote a bill which provides funding for some aid package helping the poor or the sick in impoverished nations which in turn buy drugs or food using much of the aid from the United States from those who initially arranged the funding from the varied sources for their campaigns. The twisted paths and the indirect funding leads to crossing the eyes of any investigations such as there is nothing directly untoward making these actions prosecutable. There are thousands of scams which have been operating for more years than any care to admit. Ask historians or political studies professors and one can learn that these problems assisted in the fall of empires past and have predated writing. There are theories about what is the oldest profession and it very well may turn out it was politician and the first politician was the individual who convinced the leader of their clan that they needed a religion and they should be the priest or medicine man or any position which did not require brawn as much as brains. That politicians got to eat without having to hunt as hunting was dangerous and too often the hunting parties came back minus one or more members while priests or medicine men stayed at the camp near the fires and out of the rain.

 

We have come a far way since then and now we have entire echelons of politicians in layers upon layers doing all sorts of functions. But in modern society the politician is not the greatest menace, just the most efficient ones where the greatest concentration of money can be found. The menace are those faceless individuals who sit in offices and cubicles making up rules and regulations and even law in some instances when directed to flesh out legislation which is all too often loosely written and paints broad swipes leaving room for interpretations and that leads to mischief. There was a temporary position a number of years back which was referred to as the Regulations Czar whose lead individual was Cass Sunstein known officially as Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget. The position was directed to review laws and legislation from the last fifty years or so and define or formulate new regulations which could be enacted with a special emphasis to use these reviews to enact and formulate regulations supporting policies the Administration was having difficulty passing through Congress. How many thousands of additional regulations were discovered hiding in laws recent or ancient we probably will never discern. Things have gotten to a choking point with the numbers of regulations, requirements and other rules holding an equivalence of laws that the average citizen cannot be expected to even have knowledge of the extents and depth of what is considered illegal and can place one on the wrong side of the law in court. The sad truth is difficult to put one’s arms around but be it the United Statesor be it Briton or any nation in Europe or potentially the entire world, the reality is we all break laws as part of our normal everyday lives and the criminality of living increases by thousands of new laws and regulations annually. This is the real criminal output of politicians who are paid to pass laws which outright or through inferred regulations give those who can pay an advantage over the rest of the population. This is the crooked legacy which is almost as criminal as the money stolen from our pockets through taxes, fees or higher prices so that others can benefit from corrupt politicians. This is why elections matter and primary elections this year proved to be the surprising ones which mattered. In the United States the choice is between two political forces either of which will provide the media, and especially us if we choose, more to cover than they will know what to do with. One will have half the media screaming about the illegalities with the other half excusing it while the other will have half most of the media claiming they are completely lost as to what are the motivations of the actions from the White House and others will play the game of guess what’s up next. Either way we will have plenty of news we just as soon would rather tune out, but it will affect our lives and the effects will be anywhere from minor inconveniences to drastic enough to threaten the entire planet. The real problem is none of the candidates, including third party, have even an inkling about the state of the world and what needs be done to repair the most egregious of the difficulties or threats, and it will be some of the threat which will offer the greatest danger if not mitigated and mitigated right out of the gate. Many will claim that will simply cause more difficulty but indifference to the world of problems has worked so well that we’ll gladly risk actually addressing threats and problems over leading from so far behind you may as well not be there at all, which too often was the case, Benghazi anyone? Please America, choose well.

 

Beyond the Cusp