How effective a negotiator can President Trump be if he is overly sensitive and interprets diplomatic positions and perspectives as personal attacks? He is unable and unwilling to concede in a war of words where everyone recognizes he is factually incorrect. Labeling Zelensky a dictator is an insult directed at the wrong leader. Putin is the true dictator, yet Trump seems to enjoy the flattery he receives from Russian diplomats and from Putin himself. Trump the new over arching monarch/leader of what was the so called free world has the diplomatic skills of a small child
I remember when Putin decided to invade the sovereign state of Ukraine, not just trying to annex part of Ukraine like a slice of cake, but to gobble up the whole country for himself. It is only through the blood, sweat, tears, and lives of the Ukrainian people that the overthrow of this nation has, so far, been prevented. Trump is not prepared to verbally acknowledge this, as it does not suit his self-serving ego.
Trump acts like a bull in a china shop as he charges into Ukrainian negotiations, asserting to Zelensky that the invasion is Ukraine’s fault while demanding resources from Ukraine, and then lamenting when not provided with the sweet treat assets he seeks in what he calls a peace deal—or more accurately, a demand to end a war. His so-called effective deal-making comes off as hollow, childlike, offensively presented, and poorly timed.
President Trump is leaning towards and learning more from Putin than he is from Zelensky. This reasoning sheds light on various aspects of his political behaviour and rhetoric.
Firstly, he’s a proven liar, often distorting the truth to suit his narrative and support his positions. This continuous pattern of misinformation creates an environment where trust becomes difficult to establish, not only with the general public but also with international allies.
Moreover, he does not accept that the war in Ukraine was an invasion by Putin’s Russia. This denial can be seen as a troubling alignment with Putin’s narrative, which ultimately undermines the sovereignty of Ukraine and the reality of the conflict at hand.
His lies must be supported by his allies, suggesting a need for a closed circle of support where dissenting opinions are unwelcome. This creates an echo chamber that amplifies falsehoods rather than fostering constructive dialogue or critical examination of facts.
In addition to misleading statements, he’s a proven bully. His brash demeanor and aggressive tactics in both personal and political arenas demonstrate a tendency to intimidate those who oppose him. Coupled with this is an ego that appears to need constant validation and massaging, further complicating his interactions with both leaders and constituents.
Furthermore, he often speaks out on matters that he does not care to understand fully. This lack of depth in comprehension can lead to misguided policies and decisions that have far-reaching implications, not just for the U.S., but for global stability as well.
Trump offers up taking resources off Ukraine, resources that do not belong to him and should be reserved for the needs of the Ukrainian people and their fight for independence. This approach reveals a troubling disregard for international norms and the principles of sovereignty.
Additionally, he accuses Zelensky of being a dictator, a claim that reflects more on Trump’s understanding of democracy than on the reality of Ukraine’s leadership under Zelensky. This kind of accusation showcases a broader tendency to mislabel opponents and allies alike, often for political gain rather than based on actual governance.
Finally, it seems Trump wishes for a world where the United States does not play an essential role. This sentiment, although echoed by some who are weary of entangling alliances, can lead to a dangerous isolationism that disregards the importance of U.S. involvement in global matters. Ironically, while many people share a desire for peace and self-sufficiency among nations, the path to achieving that vision lies through collaboration, not withdrawal.
So rather than World War 3 has Donald Trump started an economic war and how has he done this and why? Well in simple terms he does not like the fact that US tends to buy more goods and services from other countries than other countries buy from the US. Secondly because he is a moron willing to do as yet incalculable damage to the global economy in the name of the USA and Trumpism Economics (whatever they might be) by raising tariffs against other countries across the globe that are looking to sell their goods and services to the US. A tarrif is a tax added to imported goods. Trump has done this for a variety of reasons such as A) he does not like a country that boarders his attitude to emigration and so wacked a tariff on, or B) because a countries goods and service are simply better or more competitive on the global market so he hits a tax on those too. Or finally C) where there are taxes already charged to US goods in the way of such as in the UK where nearly all goods and services including its own are charged VAT (value added tax) as an income stream for the UK. So Trump is adding this 20% tax to all goods imported from the UK too.
Trumps Tariffs might make the US a considerable amount of taxable income in the short term but it will increase inflation and prices to US citizens as well as other citizens across the globe and as yet in world history I am not sure if anyone has won a trade war it just tends to unnecessarily hurt those countries and citizens of those countries that get caught up in it.
Ultimately Trump is detonating an economic bomb simply because he can.
“Would you like a slice Mr President I hear it’s very good”. Trump is offering a slice of Ukraine on a plate to Putin, with no guarantee that Putin will not be tempted to come back for more and more. Ukraine are not sitting at the table as instead they are being served up on it.
But it is the youth that must fight and die – Herbert Hoover
Trump warns ‘all hell is going to break out’ if Gaza hostage deadline not met by Hamas
How the Palestinians are treated in Gaza really does remind me of the execution scenes in the film Schindler’s list. I dread to think what the final solution is in the mind of Trump and Netanyahu for the Palestinian people.
When you see a whole nation or race of people as an enemy you no longer see them as people at all.
The Liquidation of the Krakow Ghetto – Max Richter “Last Days” / scene from “Schindler’s List”
The Krakow Ghetto was one of five major, metropolitan Jewish ghettos created by Nazi Germany in the new General Government territory during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It was created for the purpose of exploitation, terror, and persecution of local Polish Jews, as well as the staging area for separating the “able workers” from those who would later be deemed unworthy of life. The Ghetto was liquidated between June 1942 and March 1943, with most of its inhabitants sent to Belzec extermination camp and Plaszow slave-labor camp, and exterminated also at Auschwitz concentration camp.
When a political leader boasts of his plans to expand his own nations land by acquiring through military or economic means against the will of the people who already live or own it in the name of ‘the protection of the free world’ – well your world is no longer going to be free.
Donald Trump is threatening and warning other nations not to stand in his way as he moves to acquire Canada as the 51st state, Greenland as an island of national interest and the panama canal becoming owned by the US.
Trump talks a lot of hostile nonsense as fact and he does it so often it risks becoming fact. If Britain turned around and said that Ireland should now become a nation of the UK or vice-versa there would be uproar and outrage quite rightly but Trump announces which parts of the world he has decided to govern and the world does not blink an eye.
The man is dangerous and for someone that does not use the word evil lightly I would also describe him as a bad and evil man this is not trash talk, this is fact. Based on words, actions and deeds. I don’t know why someone can have the gall to call themselves a Christian either Catholic or other and support, defend or rally around the policies of this president elect. He has a one way ticket to hell when his maker calls time on his life and I hope he does not drag many others there through his strength of will and convictions to.
Back in 2007 Time magazine named Russia’s president Vladimir Putin as its person of the year. In explaining its decision, the magazine described him as a “steely and determined man” who had “emerged as a critical lynchpin of the 21st century.”
It added: “Putin is not a boy scout. He is not a democrat in any way that the West would define it. He is not a paragon of free speech. He stands, above all, for stability – stability before freedom, stability before choice, stability in a country that has hardly seen it for a hundred years.”
Where as as early as 2010 there were reports coming out of Russia into the press on the repression of the state stating that Russia was in fact a ‘mafia state’ with the Kremlin relying on criminals and rewarding them with political patronage, while top officials collect bribes ‘like a personal taxation system.
On the 24th September 2024 there was a Statement by Foreign Secretary David Lammy at the UN Security Council where he went on to say Putin’s Russia is a “mafia state” that is “built on lies”. Britain’s top diplomat directly accused Vladimir Putin of running a “mafia state” and likened him to a slave-owner in a fiery address at the United Nations Security Council.
David Lammy, the U.K.’s foreign secretary, took aim at the Russian president during the New York gathering Tuesday, telling Russia’s representative: “We know who you are.”
Lammy invoked the legacy of slavery to take aim at Putin’s conduct in the invasion of Ukraine, and accused the Russian government of running “roughshod over international law” while claiming to stand up for the “Global South.”
“Your invasion is in your own interests,” he said. “Yours alone. To expand your mafia state into a mafia empire. An empire built on corruption.”
He added, “Mr President, I speak not only as a Briton, as a Londoner, and as a foreign secretary.
“But I say to the Russian representative, on his phone as I speak, that I stand here also as a Black man whose ancestors were taken in chains from Africa, at the barrel of a gun to be enslaved, whose ancestors rose up and fought in a great rebellion of the enslaved.
“Imperialism: I know it when I see it. And I will call it out for what it is,” Lammy said.
Life has been busy and tiring for me since my Ireland holiday and also with the world in a continuous chaotic crisis, I sometimes just don’t want to type something in case the situation I’m typing about gets even more unstable than that it was when first put into words.
I just tried to shape a thought in my head which is why do people hate and fear refugees or asylum seekers so much, what exactly should we hate and fear them for? Why do they bother coming to a country like the USA or Britain to be hated and feared. why bother?
Well if the country that they lived in was at war or in some form of crisis resulting in no food or shelter, then some would run to the nearest refugee camp. But others not merely wanting to survive but thrive would seek a new life, not just for themselves but for their future generations and if the free world philosophy is to be believed then you would run to those countries that have freedoms for their citizens and a chance to thrive such as the USA or Britain. The USA did not become a great nation by turning people away and just looking after its own. It became a great nation by welcoming those from abroad not turning its back on them.
Admittedly there is not enough room or decent infrastructure within any country to welcome all of the immigrants that would choose to live within their new country of choice. But that does not in any way mean we must demonise people seeking a better life due to the hell of war, climate change and famine within the country they wish to escape from. We should be doing more to protect care for and humanise the living conditions of all people from all over the world. If the countries of the world do not collectively see other countries wars, climate change crisis and famines as there problems then sooner or later those starving and desperate people will turn up on your boarders trying to seek refuge and shelter.
It might be convenient then to blame them for the circumstances that led to the crisis that they finds them in, in your county but by trying to criminalise them or cart them off to an unsafe future is in no way solving the problems for them or clearing countries of their responsibility to other fellow human beings.
There are many elections coming up in the UK and USA over the next 12 months which will have consequences upon not just you and your life but the lives of those whose very life or death might be in the hands of the politicians that you vote for as to whether they are given help or are hindered shown mercy or demonised so when you do vote, which of course you should really do, think about what and who you vote for and what and who the consequences are for from that vote.
Countries take great pride in their military, revel in their fallen comrades and thank those that still serve in the forces. Or it’s all grist to the mill. (Grist is the corn that is brought to the mill to be ground into flour. In the days when farmers took ‘grist to the mill’ the phrase would have meant “everything can be made useful, or be a source of profit.”
As soon as you join the military you are taught of the honour and sacrifice of those that went before you. Your not just taught how to kill but you’re taught that when your side goes to war, your going in on the right side, so that when push comes to shove you don’t doubt, you don’t hesitate and most of all you are an effective killer of the other side.
One of the latest atrocities committed by Israel is to completely destroy and decoltate the main hospital in Gaza inthe name of killing terrorists’ sadly the citizens living around the hospital or getting treatment in the hospital are not just collateral damage but grist for the mill(itary machine). I have recently been visiting our local Royal Devon and Exeter hospital in Exeter due to one of my relatives being considerably ill, his National Health Service treatment has been first class and is truly giving him more than a fighting chance of a good recovery and life, but imagine living in gaze and having the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza as your main hospital it just doesn’t bare thinking about.
al-Shifa hospital in Gaza or what’s left of it
If you wanted to target a people and not a source of terrorism you would destroy their medical facilities, stop there means of being fed, watered and destroy over 50% of the building’s with their country which you control, this is still not a war it’s genocide.
Israel might be the one pulling the trigger and dropping the bombs but it is countries like mine and the US that are continuing to supply guns, bombs and F 16 planes.
Israel also needs to insure it tells its own people what it wants them to hear and so with this in mind, the Israeli parliament has approved a law giving the government the power to ban broadcasts of TV channels including Al Jazeera, the Qatari-owned network.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would “act immediately” to close the network’s local office.
The US expressed concern over the move.
What is the point of expressing concerns when you are adding fuel to the fire by supplying the petrol that is then set alight by Netanyahu. Its like handing a box of matches to a child and saying these are those wooden sticks I told you not to play with and when they start to throw those lit matches about rather than taking the matches of a child just express concern and hand them more matches.
Sometimes we get to witness history in the making live on TV, we get to see human rights and human wrongs unfold right before our eyes. With that in mind what is happening in Gaza is such a view of history in the making. Be grateful you are just a witness rather than an actual participant. A growing number of academics, legal scholars and governments are accusing the Israeli government of carrying out a genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Why are some using the term?
The term was codified by the UN in the 1948 Genocide Convention and defined as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such.” Those acts are not limited to killing members of the group — causing “serious bodily or mental harm,” among other actions, can also constitute genocide.
What does your government say and do they have your support?
More often than not I can see the point of a government’s view even if I do not hold that view myself but this is not one of those times. Western nations support Israel and its right to defend itself which at first seems to be fair and make sense but the Israeli governments definition of its own defence is broad and over bearing to say the least and when there is no safe place left in Gaza to go what are its citizens to do. Western governments including mine are complicit in supporting a policy in Gaza of a no safe place left to go policy.
The perspective from the UN
According to the united nations press release on 3rd December 2023 – The brutal resumption of hostilities in Gaza and its terrifying impact on civilians underscore once again the need for the violence to end, and for a political solution to be found that is built on the only viable long-term basis – the full respect of the human rights of Palestinians and Israelis, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said on Sunday.
“Silence the guns and return to dialogue – the suffering inflicted on civilians is too much to bear. More violence is not the answer. It will bring neither peace nor security,” said Türk, voicing deep concern that negotiations towards a continuation of last week’s pause had reportedly reached an impasse.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli bombardments since the hostilities resumed on Friday, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. Aid was completely blocked from entering Gaza through Rafah on Friday, and very restricted on Saturday. As a result, the already limited aid operations within Gaza largely halted, resulting in a further breakdown of overburdened essential services.
The High Commissioner expressed grave fears that the renewed and intensified hostilities after a seven-day pause would lead to even more death, disease, and destruction than seen so far.
“As a result of Israel’s conduct of hostilities and its orders for people to leave the north and parts of the south, hundreds of thousands are being confined into ever smaller areas in southern Gaza without proper sanitation, access to sufficient food, water and health supplies, even as bombs rain down around them,” Türk said.
“I repeat, there is no safe place in Gaza.”
“International humanitarian law and human rights law are clear that protection of civilians comes first and that rapid, unimpeded humanitarian access through all possible means must be facilitated to alleviate suffering of civilians,” he stressed.
The UN Human Rights Chief also highlighted how hundreds of thousands of people remaining in northern Gaza are at renewed risk of bombardment and continue to be deprived of food and other essentials. Given this appalling situation and the orders to move south, people are essentially being forced to move, in what appears to be an attempt to empty northern Gaza of Palestinians.
“The world bore witness of week upon week of horror since this latest crisis began, marked by extremely grave concerns around wilful killing of civilians, firing of indiscriminate rockets, indiscriminate attacks using explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas, forms of collective punishment, obstruction of humanitarian aid, and hostage-taking – all forbidden under international law,” said Türk (United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights).
Extremely serious allegations of multiple and grave breaches of international law must be fully investigated and those responsible held to account, he said. Where national authorities prove unwilling or unable to carry out such investigations and prosecutions, international investigation is necessary.
Member States must do everything in their power to ensure all parties comply with their obligations under international law and prevent commission of international crimes.
“The time to change course is now. Those that choose to flout international law are on notice that accountability will be served. No-one is above the law,” said the High Commissioner.
Western nations are presently reliving their past as a means of looking to a future as far as taking sides in the Israel/Gaza conflict.
We like to think that the west has evolved from the bad old days of the medieval crusades to the holy land or the Native Americans being slaughtered in the name of ‘Civilization’ or slave owners making profits by exporting slaves from Africa.
But with a religion focused and militarily backed supported Israel by the west war, happening today and right now in 2023 with Israel bombing and rolling in the tanks into Gaza it makes me feel that such a western backed religious concept of righteous war is a deadly and potentially seriously damaging concept to my eyes, where we yet again put on a broken record of western brutality in the name of civility. This in no way a western religious concept of righteous or religious war, that is killing so many innocent lives can be a concept that I can support, condone or sign up to. It makes me think less of those that open heartedly condone such acts of brutality and crimes against humanity especially when they are the politicians that lead countries such as mine and yours.
When people start claiming that genocidal acts are the will of their god then I fear to think that perhaps their god is not the one they should be worshiping or praying to, if it is asking them to commit such atrocities.
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