Returning to the blog after a six year gap

The things we do. I just happened upon this blog that I created back in 2010 and forgot about rather quickly. It's strange to me that I managed to forget it so completely. It's also strange that I should come across it six years later at a time when I am once more feeling the need to record my thoughts in this manner.

So many topics to address, but the first seems to be the difference between 2010 and 2017. Most prominent in that respect is probably the fact that Donald Trump is now the president of the United States and there is a strange and worrying ripple going around the world today that I could never have imagined back then. 

As I contemplate the fact that "The Donald" was actually elected to the presidency of the United States I have to pinch myself to be sure that it's not all a horrible nightmare. While the reality of it is far from comfortable I have to cling to the notion that it will not be too awful and may, in effect, eventually bring about a surge in more intelligent government. at present, however, it's like living in a David Lynch movie, waiting for the next "reveal" to happen.

We are nearing the end of the first 100 days of his presidency and there has been much turmoil in that time. He rode into town on a ticket of xenophobia, border walls, repealing "Obamacare" (the ACA or affordable care act) and generally "making America great again", a rather fuzzy concept that played well in the rural areas and well enough in the urban areas to win him the electoral college and thus the presidential election. It's worth noting that he did not win the popular vote though. He did a good job of energizing the great unwashed, promising to give them jobs and fix their ailments. As evidence that the masses are easily bamboozled, they drank it in and rushed to his rallies and put him in the driver's seat, much to the amazement of the "intelligentsia". There has been a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth, but my feeling is that the hoopla is annoying, but it's less of a threat than the mongrels who have grabbed onto his shoelaces as a means of fulfilling their questionable agendas.

The Trump phenomenon is also part of a global trend that I find very troubling, a swing to the political right and towards nationalism and xenophobia. Notable among these happenings is the debacle that is commonly referred to as "Brexit". I essence, the British Government held a referendum on EU membership and the great unwashed again voted for the xenophobic option. Now the British Government is grappling with the process of negotiating a settlement with the EU that will bring about the separation of the UK from the rest of Europe. This has in turn given rise to the spectre of the break up of the United Kingdom as Scotland elects to stay with the EU and Ulster considers the potential benefits of rejoining the other three counties to bring about a united Ireland. Which brings out the truth of the old saying "It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good". It will surely serve to knock the English off their high horse and prove once and for all that the days of the empire are long gone. The place of my birth will become what it really is, a small island off the coast of Europe.

Also, in France, Germany and Holland the ultra Nationalist loonies, normally confined to the fringes of the political landscape, have emerged as election contenders. The middle east continues to be a hotbed of radicalism and conflict as Al Qaeda wanes and ISIS (or DASH) emerges as the newest incarnation of the Islamic coming of age. Just like the Christian teenage period, there is much craziness and cruelty as the power mongers learn to harness the gullibility and suggestibility of the faithful to their own ends. The hordes of refugees fleeing the barbarity of the masters of the ISIS Caliphate and the war that they brought have fed the xenophobia in Europe. Simply put, it's a mess.