Thomas Aquinas--Aristotle--Rene Descartes--Epicurus--Martin Heidegger--Thomas Hobbes--David Hume--Immanuel Kant--Soren Kierkegaard--Karl Marx--John Stuart Mill--Friedrich Nietzsche--Plato--Karl Popper--Bertrand Russell--Jean-Paul Sartre--Arthur Schopenhauer--Socrates--Baruch Spinoza--Ludwig Wittgenstein

Sunday, 29 January 2017

A WORLD WITHOUT PAIN

Imagine a world without pain,
No stress, injury or strain.
Sheltered safely from the rain,
Nothing's there to lose or gain.

Without a spot or a stain,
Though it's all been in vain.
Hope's all you need to sustain,
In the quest to catch the last train.

There's no need to explain,
If there's nothing to complain.
From all decisions you abstain.
"No comment" is your refrain.

On the sofa that you're lain
Sits the very life you disdain.
For all to see, it's very plain,
Only pulse and breath remain.

Friday, 20 January 2017

TRUMP'S FIVE KEY MESSAGES TO AMERICANS

1. UNITY
America is one nation and this will be a joint national effort to make America great again. This unity is forged by open, honest dialogue facilitated by a common patriotism for America. Prejudice will be  banished and divisions will be healed when a new national pride develops.

2. RULE BY THE PEOPLE
Democracy will be returned to its roots by transferring power back to the people. Government will be controlled by the people, not vice versa.

3. IMMEDIATE CHANGE
Change to stop American carnage is from right here and right now.

4. AMERICA FIRST
All American policies will be governed by a new vision of America first. There will only be two simple rules: buy American and hire American.

5. POLITICAL PRAGMATISM
Politics in America will not be determined by party allegiance or by liberal or conservative ideological dogmatism. Policies will be driven by big-thinking, pragmatic business problem-solving principles and brought to fruition by timely concrete action.
45TH US PRESIDENT MR DONALD TRUMP'S
INAUGURAL SPEECH


Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans, and people of the world: thank you.
We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and to restore its promise for all of our people.
Together, we will determine the course of America and the world for years to come.
We will face challenges. We will confront hardships. But we will get the job done.
Every four years, we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, and we are grateful to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent.
Today’s ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because today we are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or from one party to another – but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People.
For too long, a small group in our nation’s Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.
Washington flourished – but the people did not share in its wealth.
Politicians prospered – but the jobs left, and the factories closed.
The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country.
Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation’s Capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.
That all changes – starting right here, and right now, because this moment is your moment: it belongs to you.
It belongs to everyone gathered here today and everyone watching all across America. 
This is your day. This is your celebration.
And this, the United States of America, is your country.
What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people.
January 20th 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again. 
The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.
Everyone is listening to you now.
You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement the likes of which the world has never seen before.
At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction: that a nation exists to serve its citizens.
Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves.
These are the just and reasonable demands of a righteous public.
But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.
This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.
We are one nation – and their pain is our pain. Their dreams are our dreams; and their success will be our success. We share one heart, one home, and one glorious destiny.
The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all Americans.
For many decades, we’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry;
Subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military;
We’ve defended other nation’s borders while refusing to defend our own;
And spent trillions of dollars overseas while America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.
We’ve made other countries rich while the wealth, strength, and confidence of our country has disappeared over the horizon.
One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions upon millions of American workers left behind.
The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed across the entire world.
But that is the past. And now we are looking only to the future.
We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power.
From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land.
From this moment on, it’s going to be America First.
Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families.
We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength.
I will fight for you with every breath in my body – and I will never, ever let you down.
America will start winning again, winning like never before.
We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth. And we will bring back our dreams.
We will build new roads, and highways, and bridges, and airports, and tunnels, and railways all across our wonderful nation.
We will get our people off of welfare and back to work – rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor.
We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and Hire American.
We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world – but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first.
We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow.
We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones – and unite the civilized world against Radical Islamic Terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth.
At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other.
When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.
The Bible tells us, “how good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.”
We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity.
When America is united, America is totally unstoppable.
There should be no fear – we are protected, and we will always be protected.
We will be protected by the great men and women of our military and law enforcement and, most importantly, we are protected by God.
Finally, we must think big and dream even bigger.
In America, we understand that a nation is only living as long as it is striving.
We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action – constantly complaining but never doing anything about it.
The time for empty talk is over.
Now arrives the hour of action.
Do not let anyone tell you it cannot be done. No challenge can match the heart and fight and spirit of America.
We will not fail. Our country will thrive and prosper again.
We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the Earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow.
A new national pride will stir our souls, lift our sights, and heal our divisions.
It is time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget: that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots, we all enjoy the same glorious freedoms, and we all salute the same great American Flag.
And whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky, they fill their heart with the same dreams, and they are infused with the breath of life by the same almighty Creator.
So to all Americans, in every city near and far, small and large, from mountain to mountain, and from ocean to ocean, hear these words:
You will never be ignored again.
Your voice, your hopes, and your dreams, will define our American destiny. And your courage and goodness and love will forever guide us along the way.
Together, We Will Make America Strong Again.
We Will Make America Wealthy Again.
We Will Make America Proud Again.
We Will Make America Safe Again.
And, Yes, Together, We Will Make America Great Again. Thank you, God Bless You, And God Bless America.

Thursday, 22 December 2016

GLORY AND HONOR
(A letter to the terrorist)

Where is there glory
In this suicidal savagery?
Where is there honor
In that bombing horror?

How is there glory 
If killing is your only duty?
How is there honor
If you want harm for the other?

Why is there glory 
By making misery a certainty?
Why is there honor
By bringing tears and hunger?

Yet, if you seek true glory,
Find it in truth and beauty.
If you strive for real honor,
Let goodness be the governor.

You'll see pure glory
In freedom and equality,
And find the highest honor
In justice - your new master.


Monday, 14 November 2016

       Don't worry America,      
Everything's gonna be alright!

Sunday, 13 November 2016

Why Clinton Lost

It is a great puzzle to me why people say they were shocked by Hillary Clinton's loss in the Presidential Election 5 days ago. Readers of this blog would have known that I support Donald Trump right from the beginning and the reason for my support is so obvious that, to me, it is a complete no-brainer. Basically, the reason has less to do with Trump and more to do with her own faults. For those who are still scratching their heads, these are the more important reasons:

1. Hillary Clinton is not suitable for public office because of her crimes.

She is involved in too many crimes, from breaching state secrets by illegally setting up an unsecured private email server in her house basement to conduct official business and divulging them to her aides and maid who had no security clearance, obstructing justice by destroying evidence of her crimes, being involved in corruptly selling favors to foreigners in blatant pay-for-play schemes under the Clinton Foundation, committing perjury by repeatedly lying to Congress about her email server, about the Clinton Foundation and about Benghazi, being involved in arms sales to terrorists, engaging paid disrupters to commit violent acts at Trump's rallies, planning voter fraud, and breaking campaign finance laws by accepting contributions from foreign donors through surrogates, etc.

2. She ran a very poor campaign.

This is all the more surprising given that she has been a career politician for 30 years and was involved in presidential campaigns against Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders. Yet, her campaign is devoid of that "one great idea" that is essential in capturing the imagination of her voters. Her campaign slogans had drifted from "I'm with Her", to "Make America Whole", to "Love and Kindness", to "Break Down Barriers", to "Build Ladders of Opportunity", to "Love Trumps Hate" and to "Stronger Together". With so many slogans, instead of reinforcing each other, they indicate that there is an identity crisis in her campaign that confuses voters as to what her reason for running was. Ok, "I'm with Her", but for what? Well, "Stronger Together", but to do what?

She also did not articulate her plans for America about reforming or improving Obama's policies. A large part of her campaign is about making accusations about her opponent and employing dirty tricks to paint him in the worst possible light. Together with a colluding mass media that almost exclusively ran non-stop negative stories about Trump from every possible angle, her campaign induced voter fatigue such that nobody wanted to listen anymore to these tiresome implausible accounts. 

3. She had lost touch with the common people and did not understand their needs.

While Trump was talking about jobs, immigration, national security, health insurance, childcare costs and education policies, she concentrated on maintaining the culture of political correctness by talking about bigotry, sexism, racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia. In her haste to push such issues, she also made the fatal error of attacking voters instead of just attacking Trump by labelling them as deplorable, irredeemable and "not America". That alone would have caused a large section of voters to never ever vote for her.

4. She lacks charisma.

Charisma is an essential quality in a political leader that can charm and inspire people to believe in her qualities and her mission. But, her voice, her tone, her choice of words, her expressions, her behavior and general demeanor did not engender trust nor attract voters towards her. In short, people find her hard to like.

So, the election result has less to do with what Trump did right and more to do with what she did wrong. The best things about Trump's campaign are nothing spectacular, but just common sense things. Her loss was triggered by an implosion within her campaign caused by WikiLeaks' revelations about her too many past and present scandals, her over-confidence leading to a lack of campaign preparation and coherence and a lack of personal qualities essential for the office of president of the USA. 

Sunday, 30 October 2016

EVERYBODY FOR TRUMP


EVERYBODY FOR TRUMP



EVERYBODY FOR TRUMP

US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS - Final Advice

So now, there are only 9 days to go before election day. After all the campaigning, all the debates, all the rallies, all the personal attacks, all the dirty tricks, all the media collusions, all the corruption, all the rigging, all the accusations, all the denials, all the Facebook postings and all the tweets, your decision boils down to 3 questions:

(1) Do you think it unwise of yourself to vote for a dishonest, untrustworthy and corrupt criminal to be your president?

(2) Do you think that things need to change for the better in America?

(3) Do you believe that your federal government is drowning in a swamp of corruption that needs to be drained?

If you answer "yes" to any or all of the 3 questions above, you cannot possibly vote for Hillary Clinton.  So, you must vote for Donald Trump!

Saturday, 15 October 2016

The Politics of Sexual Assault Accusations

With Hillary Clinton reeling from the massive release of Wikileaks hard evidence of her lies, collusion and corruption, her campaign had responded by suddenly highlighting several cases of women coming forward to accuse Donald Trump of past sexual assaults. The sudden rush of cases and the seemingly coordinated nature of these complaints slightly more than 3 weeks before Election Day is nothing short of extraordinary.

Without going into the details of each individual case, I'll be pointing out 7 factors that undermine the credibility of all these complaints.

1. Lateness

Why are these complaints made so close to Election Day? Election season for Trump actually started on 16 June 2015 when he formally announced his intention to run. That is a full 16 months ago. So, they had plenty of time and opportunity to start their complaints, yet they all chose to bring it out only now, 3 and a half weeks before Election Day. It appears that they want to influence the outcome of the election.

2. Coordination

Why did the women all come forward at the same time? It is as if the women felt that there is some urgency for them to be heard now and heard together. Why the urgency and the need for the stories to reinforce each other? This is highly suspicious.

3. Avenue of complaints

Why did all the women go to the media instead of reporting to the police or sue Trump in court? It appears that they are more interested in fueling publicity rather than genuinely seeking justice for their grievances.

4. Lack of spontaneity

Why did they not complain at the time when the alleged assault occurred? None of them had thought of complaining since the alleged incidents occurred. Then, suddenly, they all felt the need to speak out. This suggests that they may have been motivated by some person or agency; and since all the cases have this common characteristic, it is conceivable that they are motivated by the same person or agency.

5. Long history

Why did the women take such a long time after the alleged incidents to start complaining for the first time? One 74 year-old women claimed that she was assaulted when she was 38 while on a plane. That was a full 36 years ago! So, why now? It is quite incredible a person can wait 36 years before suddenly speaking out.

6. Sudden surge in complainants

Some people say that the greater the number of women who complain, the more convincing they are because there is corroboration and it reflects a certain consistency in Trump's behavior. I beg to differ. It appears to me that the high number of complaints presenting within a few days of each other gives the picture of a deliberate tactic to overwhelm the defences of Trump by denying him enough time to investigate each case or to find evidence to disprove their cases. It seems that the cynical aim is just to leave doubts in the minds of voters on November 8. It wants voters to think: "Well, one woman can lie, but not 6 or 7?" Whoever planned this is aware that it may be difficult to prove or disprove such accusations within a few weeks.

7. Coincidence

It is interesting to note that the Access Hollywood tape came out just before the 2nd debate. This time, these claims of sexual assault came out at the same time WikiLeaks was releasing thousands of emails that provide hard evidence of Clinton's crimes, lies, collusion and corruption. If you watch the mass media, there is frenzied coverage of these sexual accusations everywhere, and in contrast, there is a uniform blackout on those WikiLeaks email revelations. Why did the media value sex accusations cases so much more than issues of national importance which they totally ignore? Answer: total contrivance.

Conclusion

Considering all 7 factors, it appears that this rush of accusations of sexual assault is a well-planned coordinated attack on Donald Trump to prolong the voting public's negative perception of Trump's sexual behavior which was rather unfairly triggered by a recording of him sex-boasting during private locker-room talk 11 years ago. It seeks to distract from or drown out the genuine hard evidence WikiLeaks emails provide of Clinton's misdeeds. Voters must be made aware of all this as the mainstream media continues to bombard them with saucy stories.

Friday, 14 October 2016

The Surreal US Presidential Election 2016

As a blogger from South-East Asia observing world events for many years, I can't remember ever seeing something as bizarre as this year's US Presidential Election.

On the surface, it looks like both sides are conducting increasingly acrimonious campaigns against each other; but their rhetoric do not seem to be directed at each other, more like past each other.

Extraordinarily, Clinton's campaign hardly talks about her vision for America or her take on significant issues. Most of her firepower is directed at attacking Trump personally, using every word, phrase, sentence or old audio recordings of Trump's to turn them negatively in every which way she can; no matter how mundane, harmless, commonplace, irrelevant or out-of-context they may be. Her campaign will then have these allegations repeated ad nauseum by surrogate agencies who disguise themselves as official news media round the clock. Together with coordinated trivial stories about how they impact on polls and anecdotal accounts of reactions from Republican elites, this blanket coverage by highly recognizable news outlets is so well-synchronized that one would have marvelled at their consistency if not for the fact that you are equally horrified by their utter implausibility. The surreal nature of this phenomenon is aggravated by the child-like gullibility of those in position and power and, frankly, who should know better than to buy into this unlikely narrative. You cringe when you hear politicians and pundits suddenly spouting prudish and puritan pronouncements about their own personal behavior even when they are in their own private space. Everyone suddenly swears that they never talk like men (or women), when they are at the pub, in the yacht, in the changing room, or "locker room", if you prefer the term, or in your intimate moments in your own bedroom ...

"Am I going to be the first one to admit it? No, not me. I'm good, I'm clean, respectful and polite at any time, in any place! You? ... I'm sure you wouldn't dare to say otherwise!" This is just like a mirror-image of real locker-room talk where men outdo each other boasting about their sexual prowess and recklessness; and women about how easily they wrap their fingers around their men. The more outrageous the claim, the better, or if you have the stomach to listen, the more vulgar it is, the better. Of course, this kind of banter is usually exaggerated or, more likely than not, an on-the-spot fictional contrivance, the nature of which is implicitly understood by all present. Nobody ever takes this kind of talk seriously ..., perhaps only when it conveniently shows up as an ancient dusty audiotape to be exploited for political gain. I daresay, if we are on Mars and a Martian politician were to pull this sort of stunt, everyone will end up on the floor holding their stomach in uncontrollable laughter. Unfortunately, we are on Earth and Earthlings say in all seriousness that such talk, if detected, is incontrovertible evidence of one's moral weakness and no one should look at this person in the same way again. Ever. No amount of pointing out of the obvious is going to help undo the stupor of political correctness.

To me, it strikes me as the silliest thing in the world for an election outcome to hang on such a frivolity. Of course, don't get me wrong - morality is of utmost importance, but, this Access Hollywood tape is of dubious value if you are really interested in morality. Just be a little smarter - don't fall into the hands of moral manipulators!

On the other hand, Trump has built his case with a list of policy changes in the midst of allegations of Clinton's incompetence, dishonesty, collusion, corruption and crimes involving state secrets, perjury and obstruction of justice. He is being helped by well-timed periodic releases of hacked Clinton emails by WikiLeaks, whose intentions are unclear except that they are doing their best to undermine her campaign. The fantastic part of these leaks are not the juicy bits in the email which in an ordinary world would have ended any election campaign immediately; but the amazing extent these expose are being apparently ignored by former journalists of the mainstream media who have suddenly switched careers en masse and become campaign volunteers for Clinton. It is as if journalism had ceased to exist in America in an instant! Equally incredible is the apparent willingness of supposed poll participants to base their judgement more on Trump's compromising private conversation than the hard evidence of official Clinton emails detailing corruption, collusion, crime and treasonous political agenda. In Mars, Clinton would have been disqualified a long time ago, much less, to still appear in the polls.

In fact, since we are on the subject of fantasy, dreams and surrealism, my idea of a perfect 2016 US Presidential Election would be one between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders battling it out in a contest of policy proposals sorely needed to revitalize a slumping America whose malaise is the real legacy of Obama's poor 8 years of stewardship. In that dream world, no one will talk about Trump's supposed sex scandals and Sander's assumed socialist tendencies. Come to think of it, if the Democratic Party had not rigged their Primaries, Sanders would have been nominated and this ideal contest would have materialized. Democracy would have been less molested, but since claims of molestation of one form or another are rampant on Earth (or is it only in America?), we have to find democracy elsewhere in the solar system ... probably on Mars!