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Mirror, mirror, on the wall, Who’s the maddest of them all?
The Emperor has no clothes: The Madness of King Donald. Photo:Odyssey
But, first a bit on the Madness of King John!
'Imagine a nobleman with a magnificent estate and numerous servants, but hesitant in speech, unable to comprehend other people’s viewpoints, rather detached from everyday affairs, a bit vague about the facts of life and more interested in his livestock than in his family…’- Anne Crowther, ‘The madness of King John’
‘King John: the most evil monarch in Britain's history’
A lecherous traitor, a depraved tyrant and a hopeless leader in war –
it’s no wonder his subjects rose up and forced Magna Carta on him.
Photo: Via The Telegraph
“Mad World, Mad Kings…”
Thus begins Shakespeare’s King John, about the king of England.
John (24 December 1166 – 19 October 1216) was King of England from 1199 until his death in 1216. He lost the Duchy of Normandy and most of his other French lands to King Philip II of France, resulting in the collapse of the Angevin Empire and contributing to the subsequent growth in power of the French Capetian dynasty during the 13th century. The baronial revolt at the end of John's reign led to the sealing of Magna Carta, a document sometimes considered an early step in the evolution of the constitution of the United Kingdom...most of John's contemporaries seem to have held a poor opinion of his sexual behaviour...John was incensed about what he perceived as an abrogation of his customary right as monarch to influence the election...The more I read about the Mad John (Wikipedia), the more I am reminded of the Mad Donald!
The Emperor has no clothes: The Madness of King Donald
Nota bene
Like Hiroshima and Nagasaki before it, wars with Iran and China are a true sign of MADNESS
As this week we have been remembering the 75th anniversary of the tragic and egregious U.S. use of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this is a timeless moment to get the world to do everything to highlight the possible Trump/ Pompeo war with Iran and also a war with China that would almost certainly turn into a nuclear war with huge losses and consequences for the entire world. It is with this in mind that I want to share the following with you.
Photo:Project Syndicate
America’s Unholy Crusade Against China*
Aug 5, 2020 JEFFREY D. SACHS
Last month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered an anti-China speech that was extremist, simplistic, and dangerous. If biblical literalists like Pompeo remain in power past November, they could well bring the world to the brink of a war that they expect and perhaps even seek.
NEW YORK – ‘Many white Christian evangelicals in the United States have long believed that America has a God-given mission to save the world. Under the influence of this crusading mentality, US foreign policy has often swerved from diplomacy to war. It is in danger of doing so again.
Last month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo launched yet another evangelical crusade, this time against China. His speech was extremist, simplistic, and dangerous – and may well put the US on a path to conflict with China.
According to Pompeo, Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party of China (CPC) harbor a “decades-long desire for global hegemony.” This is ironic. Only one country – the US – has a defense strategy calling for it to be the “preeminent military power in the world,” with “favorable regional balances of power in the Indo-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and the Western Hemisphere.”
China’s defense white paper, by contrast, states that “China will never follow the beaten track of big powers in seeking hegemony,” and that, “As economic globalization, the information society, and cultural diversification develop in an increasingly multi-polar world, peace, development, and win-win cooperation remain the irreversible trends of the times.”
One is reminded of Jesus’s own admonition: “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5). US military spending totaled $732 billion in 2019, nearly three times the $261 billion China spent.
The US, moreover, has around 800 overseas military bases, while China has just one (a small naval base in Djibouti). The US has many military bases close to China, which has none anywhere near the US. The US has 5,800 nuclear warheads; China has roughly 320. The US has 11 aircraft carriers; China has one. The US has launched many overseas wars in the past 40 years; China has launched none (though it has been criticized for border skirmishes, most recently with India, that stop short of war).
The US has repeatedly rejected or withdrawn from United Nations treaties and UN organizations in recent years, including UNESCO, the Paris climate agreement, and, most recently, the World Health Organization, while China supports UN processes and agencies. US President Donald Trump recently threatened the staff of the International Criminal Court with sanctions. Pompeo rails against China’s clampdown on its mainly Muslim Uighur population, but Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, claims that Trump privately gave China’s actions a pass, or even encouraged them.
The world took relatively little notice of Pompeo’s speech, which offered no evidence to back up his claims of China’s hegemonic ambition. China’s rejection of US hegemony does not mean that China itself seeks hegemony. Indeed, outside of the US, there is little belief that China aims for global dominance. China’s explicitly stated national goals are to be a “moderately prosperous society” by 2021 (the centenary of the CPC), and a “fully developed country” by 2049 (the centennial of the People’s Republic).
Moreover, at an estimated $10,098 in 2019, China’s GDP per capita was less than one-sixth that of the US ($65,112) – hardly the basis for global supremacy. China still has a lot of catching up to do to achieve even its basic economic development goals.
Assuming that Trump loses in November’s presidential election, Pompeo’s speech will likely receive no further notice. The Democrats will surely criticize China, but without Pompeo’s brazen exaggerations. Yet, if Trump wins, Pompeo’s speech could be a harbinger of chaos. Pompeo’s evangelism is real, and white evangelicals are the political base of today’s Republican Party.
Pompeo’s zealous excesses have deep roots in American history. As I recounted in my recent book A New Foreign Policy, English protestant settlers believed that they were founding a New Israel in the new promised land, with God’s providential blessings. In 1845, John O’Sullivan coined the phrase “Manifest Destiny” to justify and celebrate America’s violent annexation of North America. “All this will be our future history,” he wrote in 1839, “to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man – the immutable truth and beneficence of God. For this blessed mission to the nations of the world, which are shut out from the life-giving light of truth, has America been chosen...”
On the basis of such exalted views of its own beneficence, the US engaged in mass enslavement until the Civil War and mass apartheid thereafter; slaughtered Native Americans throughout the nineteenth century and subjugated them thereafter; and, with the closure of the Western frontier, extended Manifest Destiny overseas. Later, with the onset of the Cold War, anti-communist fervor led the US to fight disastrous wars in Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) in the 1960s and 1970s, and brutal wars in Central America in the 1980s.
After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the evangelical ardor was directed against “radical Islam” or “Islamic fascism,” with four US wars of choice – in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Libya – all of which remain debacles to this day.
Suddenly, the supposed existential threat of radical Islam has been forgotten, and the new crusade targets the CPC.
Pompeo himself is a biblical literalist who believes that the end time, the apocalyptic battle between good and evil, is imminent. Pompeo described his beliefs in a 2015 speech while a Congressman from Kansas: America is a Judeo-Christian nation, the greatest in history, whose task is to fight God’s battles until the Rapture, when Christ’s born-again followers, like Pompeo, will be swept to heaven at the Last Judgment.
White evangelicals represent only around 17% of the US adult population, but comprise around 26% of voters. They vote overwhelmingly Republican (an estimated 81% in 2016), making them the party’s single most important voting bloc. That gives them powerful influence on Republican policy, and in particular on foreign policy when Republicans control the White House and Senate (with its treaty-ratifying powers). Fully 99% of Republican congressmen are Christian, of whom around 70% are Protestant, including a significant though unknown proportion of evangelicals.
Of course, the Democrats also harbor some politicians who proclaim American exceptionalism and launch crusading wars (for example, President Barack Obama’s interventions in Syria and Libya). On the whole, however, the Democratic Party is less wedded to claims of US hegemony than is the Republican Party’s evangelical base.
Pompeo’s inflammatory anti-China rhetoric could become even more apocalyptic in the coming weeks, if only to fire up the Republican base ahead of the election. If Trump is defeated, as seems likely, the risk of a US confrontation with China will recede. But if he remains in power, whether by a true electoral victory, vote fraud, or even a coup (anything is possible), Pompeo’s crusade would probably proceed, and could well bring the world to the brink of a war that he expects and perhaps even seeks.’- *This article was first published in Project Syndicate on 5 August 2020
Read more:
'When people start asking questions about a king's mental stability,
the story usually doesn't end well for the monarch.'
Photo: Foreign Policy
'Emperor has no clothes': man who helped make Trump myth says facade has fallen
The American Emperor Has No Clothes
The Empire Has No Clothes: U.S. Foreign Policy Exposed
The Myth of the ‘Promised’ Land
Donald Trump: The Face of the US’s Decline, in Five Epic Failures
Iran sanctions: nearly all UN security council unites against 'unpleasant' US
UN security council rejects US attempt to extend Iran sanctions
My dear Mr. Trump, You are no Cyrus the Great!
America's 'untouchables': the silent power of the caste system
'We're making it up as we go along': how Trump's America failed the Covid test
'Everyone tested positive': Covid devastates agriculture workers in California's heartland
Is this the way to make America great again?
Dear Mr. Trump This is How to Make America Great Again
And now watch Prof. Cornel West explaining the falsehood of the so-called America's 'Exceptionalism' and why the US is an empire in decline and much more!
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And now a look at The Madness of King Boris!
We should not forget our own Mad king, our English Trump, the Mad Boris, who thinks he is exceptional too! Oh my God, as if one was not enough already!
Where do we go from here? For sure: BREXIT!!
Photo:Brexit: a totally mad day
The Most Compelling Story of Boris Johnson’s Madness and his Nonsensical Brexit
The fatal delusions of Boris Johnson
Photo: NewStatesman
Boris Johnson believes that post-Brexit Britain is an exceptional, “world-beating” power.
Yet it has proved itself incapable of fulfilling its most basic responsibility: keeping its citizens safe.
The fatal delusions of Boris Johnson
How a dangerous belief in British exceptionalism led the UK to ruin
British exceptionalism has reached the end of the road
Bastard Economics of Greedy Neoliberalism and the Killings of the Innocents in London Tower
People were abandoned': injustices of pandemic laid bare in Brent
The Broken Economic Model and the Inhumanity of the Lost Decade of Austerity
Britain today and the Bankruptcy of Ideas, Vision and Values-less Education
The Unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files review – who could feel proud of Britain after this?
And now watch George Monbiot explaining the falsehood of the so-called English 'Exceptionalism' and the lies of the British Empire
© Ingram Pinn Via Financial Times
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VOGUE, Sept 2020, ACTIVISM NOW- THE FACES OF HOPE
Photography © Misan Harriman for British Vogue
Marcus Rashford & Adwoa Aboah Lead An Inspiring Army Of Activists On Vogue’s September Cover*
“British Vogue’s interpretation is an ode to the extraordinary voices, the majority of whom are women,
who have been critical to driving change forward.”
British Vogue’s editor-in-chief, Edward Enninful, said: “At its core, British Vogue’s September issue is our show of thanks, as well as a rallying cry for the future. When all is said and done, it’s clear that 2020 will be remembered as a tough year, but also as a moment of necessary change. One thing is for certain. The future starts now.”
“At 22, Marcus Rashford is a shining example of how to harness influence for good. When, earlier this year, the Manchester United and England footballer leveraged his enormous popularity to lobby the government to fund free school meals for vulnerable children during lockdown and beyond, he not only brought about a policy U-turn but united a country. Adwoa Aboah, model and leading mental health activist, travelled to Marcus’s garden in Manchester for their cover shot, and, in The Time Is Now, on page 218, the pair feature alongside 37 other phenomenal campaigners – photographed in 13 cities on four continents – who are shaping our times. At its core, this story is our show of thanks, as well as a rallying cry for the future. As writer Afua Hirsch puts it in her accompanying report, “It is a year that has elevated the visibility of legendary figures from those past battles, and ushered in a new generation.”
The “Faces of Hope”
The 20 Remarkable Activists On Vogue’s September Cover Are Ready To Change The World
Photography © Misan Harriman, Philip-Daniel, Texas Isaiah, Eddie Hernandez for British Vogue
‘In the weeks following the killing of George Floyd, the Black Lives Matter movement gave voice to a global cry for change. From systemic racism to disability discrimination and domestic abuse, gender inequality to the climate crisis, in the cover story, Afua Hirsch meets the activists determined to make a difference the world over.’- SEPTEMBER 2020 ISSUE
Photography © Misan Harriman, Texas Isaiah, Chrisean Rose, Reginald Cunningham for British Vogue
* VOGUE, Sept 2020, ACTIVISM NOW- THE FACES OF HOPE
......
Do you wish to see the difference between Europe and the US?
Look at their VOGUES!!
Beyoncé's mother criticises US Vogue for lack of diversity
Tina Knowles-Lawson has praised British Vogue’s editor Edward Enninful for editorial choices
‘Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles-Lawson, has criticised US Vogue for its lack of black photographers.
In an Instagram post that praised British Vogue’s editor, Edward Enninful, for his editorial choices, Knowles-Lawson asked why the American edition did not have the same level of diversity on its pages.
She applauded Enninful for British Vogue’s September issue, which features black activists on the cover including the footballer Marcus Rashford and the model Adwoa Aboah. The picture was taken by Misan Harriman, making him the first black male photographer to have shot the cover in the magazine’s 104-year history.
Beneath a photo of Enninful, Knowles-Lawson wrote: “Kudos to this wonderful man … for boldly putting out beautiful activists on the cover. When will American Vogue step up and hire more black photographers for cover shoots? We’re waiting…”- Continue to read
......
Read more on related stories on Hope and Activism:
Activism – An Ultimate Expression of Hope
Photo by Greg Rakozy
In this troubled world the path of activism and hope will save us
It is hope and activism that can give meaning to life and which will give us the courage to continue on our way into the future together.
26 Vogue Editors-In-Chief On The Images That Bring Them Hope In 2020
In Search of a Better Tomorrow: Reasons for Hope In Times of Uncertainty
Marcus Rashford: 'This is not about politics, it's about humanity'
Selfishness is the antithesis of hope and activism
The Youth of the World: Their voices will be heard
Kindness to Heal the World- Kindness to Make the World Great Again
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The Western World and Japan.
Understanding Other Countries: The Heart and Soul of Japan
H. E. Hiroaki Fujii, St Mary's Guildhall, Coventry, 1995
H. E. Hiroaki Fujii
Nota bene
On the day that we remember the 75th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima And Nagasaki, I would also very much like to remember Japan’s Ambassador’s visit to Coventry, 25 Years On.
Forgiveness and Reconciliation: The Keystones of Human Values
"We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate --- thereby, making the present comfortable and the future promising."- Maya Angelou
Ambassadors’ Lecture Series: A bird’s eye view
In 1986 I was awarded my PhD in Economics at University of Birmingham and soon after I was appointed full-time senior lecturer at the Department of Economics at Coventry Polytechnic (now University).
At an international conference in London in 1986 I met the then director of the Anglo-Japanese Economic Institute, Mr. George Bull. We became very good friends. Indeed, George was like a father figure to me- a source of wisdom and inspiration. He introduced me to Japan and to many Japanese friends and facilitated some of my trips to Japan. We did many national and international conferences together, including: Japan and the U.K. Economy; Forgiveness and Reconciliation; NAFTA and the EU; Japan and the Global Economy; and Iran and the Emerging Global Order, all held at Coventry University.
We also together - in association with and supported of the University, the Cathedral and the City Council - instigated and co-founded the Centre for the Study of Forgiveness and Reconciliation at Coventry University and as part of its work, in association with the Ambassadors’ Lecture Series, which we had co- founded already, invited international speakers including the former presidents of Ireland and South Africa, namely, Mrs. Mary Robinson, and F.W. de Klerk to deliver lectures at Coventry Cathedral. Moreover, we also invited other international speakers including Ambassadors of Japan, Germany, Italy, Egypt, Mexico and the High Commissioner of Canada to deliver lectures on the need for dialogue and mutual respect amongst different cultures and civilisations at Coventry’s St. Mary’s Guildhall.
The Ambassadors’ Lecture Series aimed at enabling the ambassadors a frank exposition of their respective countries’ policies to a far wider audience in search of better understanding of why particular nations and peoples have acted in certain ways and what changes are desirable and feasible in different nations’ aims and attitudes.
The anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the Pacific War, made the decision of the Ambassador of Japan to accept our invitation to give the very first Ambassador’s Lecture especially significant and timely.
The Western World and Japan by His Excellency Hiroaki Fujii, Coventry, 1995
‘Father Forgive’: Coventry Cathedral and my life's journey of discovery
- A Lesson for the COVID-19-Riddled World: Green Legacy of Hiroshima- Spreading Seeds of Hope and Peace All Over the World
- ‘Dance like no one’s watching’...And Be Happy
- World in Chaos and Despair: The Healing Power of Friendship
- A timeless reflection on two types of teaching and learning
- Thank you UN secretary general for hearing the cries of the youth to build a better and more sustainable world