Trump's Threat

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called to congratulate  President-Elect Donald Trump.  How fortunate the owner of Starlink, Elon Musk, happened at that moment to be with Trump who handed him the phone.  Starlink is essential to Ukraine's defence efforts against Russia's illegal invasion.  The call turned into a bold-faced threat -- give in to Russian demands, or else. 

This farce was motivated by Trump's unquenchable thirst for adulation. Should Zelensky cede any Ukrainian land and the war ends, Trump will claim all the credit.  He lusts after the Nobel Peace Prize.  For it, Trump would betray any "shithole country" -- his words for nations that refuse consent to his demands. 

History Echoes

 

"Some of the movements that sprang from this longing were evil. Some people believed that they could impose order on an unruly society through bogus race science and white supremacy. This was the era of lynching and racial terrorism."   That's New York Times columnist David Brooks speaking of a time in U.S. history.  

Much of what Brooks said echoes the earlier evil of late eighteenth century France.  In the Reign of Terror, the revolutionaries believed that science would cleanse the nation of social evil.   Those not in favour of the Revolution were summarily executed--about three thousand in Paris alone and tens of thousands more across the nation.

In both cases, wholesale killing was done  in the name of public safety.

The ultimate in state killing echoed in  twentieth century Germany.  Despotic Adolf Hitler called his version of public safety "a new world order".  Science was  very much involved in the slaughter of millions of Jews, intellectuals and others who failed to adhere to the Nazi line.  

Truly "history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."  History also has a strange echo.  I'm thinking of fully blown despots  Vladimir Putin of Russia and China's Xi Jinping. And among the world's punk despots we have Hungary's Victor Orban and supremely so Kim Jong Un of North Korea.  Echoes will always be with us.

Ukraine and Hiroshima

 In today's news, wannabe Russian czar Vladimir Putin has objected to a Ukrainian incursion into Russian territory calling it a provocation. To what exactly?  He calls his intrusion into Ukraine a military operation  The war of words continues.

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On  the 79th anniversary of the U.S. nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many still seem unsure why it was necessary.  At that time, there was talk of  Operation Coronet -- the invasion of Japan in March 1946.  In his memoirs U.S. President Harry Truman refused to answer why he approved the bombing.  Here's my theory, likely copied from some other source. 

Everyone knew World War Two was virtually won.  In Europe, the repatriation of  Allied troops had already begun.  Meanwhile, the U.S.S.R. maintained  its military numbering tens of millions, a force strong enough to resume its western march to occupy all Europe.

Truman's decision was a message to Russia not to budge from the Europe they already occupied. Had they not heeded the message, it is not difficult to imagine the next nuclear target.  

Grocery store revisited

 Time was that when you entered a grocery store you walked up to a counter. A clerk greeted you and asked what you needed today. As you read your list, said clerk went about the store gathering your needed items. He totaled your purchases, placed your money in a cash register and gave you the change and a receipt. The clerk placed your purchases in the required number of paper bags.

You then headed for the meat counter where various types of meat where displayed. If you wanted a half a pound of hamburger, that's the exact  amount the clerk gave you. If you wanted a roast of a certain weight, and none that size was in the counter, he asked the butcher to cut one of approximately the required size, And after all this the grocer made a profit.

When the supermarket arrived, you did the gathering of your groceries using a basket. Then came the cart. Meat came pre-packaged. If only pounds of hamburger were on display, or none at all, pity. Take it or leave whatever an anonymous person has put on display.  On the decreasing number of cases where a meat counter exists, the prohibitive prices tell you to return to the prepackaged section. 

You placed your purchases in the basket or cart and joined the line at the check-out counter.  The cashier rang up the cost while an assistant placed your purchases in paper, later in plastic, bags, and still later,  imitation cloth bags. And you must ask for a receipt. The grocer made a still greater profit.

The cashier's assistant has disappeared. You are expected to package you own purchases not with bags supplied by the grocer, but your own. Or the cashier will sell you a bag for which the grocer makes an indecently high profit. 

The system will next require you to register by inserting your credit card in a device at the entrance.  There will be an entrance charge.  The need be no cashiers or clerks. The grocer's profit will be immoral.

Eating, Tattoos, Noise

Eating contests exist while others in the community barely survive on minimal rations.  In the U.S. people gain notoriety for downing hot dogs by the dozen  while Toronto has a pasta eating contest.  

And my city recently hosted a get-together for skin doodlers self-styled "tattoo artists".  Beautiful bodies submit to questionable art. Once age takes hold, all that colourful "art" will hang on flabby flesh and bony limbs.  It's the only "art show" that requires the approval of Public Health officials ensuring the health and safety of the misguided who pay big money for the mutilation of their bodies.

And there has been a get-together of motorcyclists. What have we missed in our lives other that the noise of mufflers and the smell of exhaust fumes? Should I ever encounter such a enthusiast, I would ask a question: If someone should market a machine identical to your bike other then it was totally silent, would you buy it?

 Some people revel in noise.  Years ago the battlefield weapon of choice was the lumbering mussel-loading cannon. In time, the breach-loading gun with its rifled barrel appeared. Old-timers appreciated the lighter weight and the improved accuracy. Their complaint was that it was not as loud its predecessor.  That's how the noiseless motorcycle would be received.

Artistic inspiration

Creative inspiration in the arts may have come from a source beyond the human.

When asked the meaning of one of his poems, Robert Browning replied, "When I composed that poem only God and I knew what it meant. Now, only God knows." That is not as bad as it sounds. Artists offer messages, and messengers need not know the full import of their messages.   

With reference to St. Peter's dome by Michelangelo, Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "He builded better than he knew."  The many messages of Buonarotti's ceiling of the Sistine Chapel contain messages unintended by the artist.

We should not feel the need to ask the meaning or source of an artist's creativity.  Enjoy the work for what it says to you.