Decoding the Trump Double-Talk on Race
Donald Trump left the White House with a loot of documents belonging to the American people. Months of reclaiming efforts netted a partial return that left in limbo the national security of classified information. When the legal road left no option but for the FBI to retrieve the sensitive documents, Trump jumped the gun.
In a lengthy screed, Trump told the nation that his Mar-a-Lago home was under seige just like was done in third world countries. In fact, he added in essence, America was turning into a third world country. The trope was a nugget thrown to political enablers as a dignal for how to jump on his bandwagon of deflection.
Comparing the robust American legal system with fledgling systems developed since post WWII decolonization was absurd. But even aside from the usual use of such feints to throw the law off his scent, Trump’s real meaning cannot be missed.
One-time Trump loyalist Michael Cohen ended under the bus with others whose eyes lost the fairy dust. On his way to prison, he described the indirect Trump way of issuing orders so that he would never be indicted on a quote. Likewise, he is adept at spraying sound-bite quotes that destroy evidence in a deluge.
“I’m the least racist person in the world,” he bragged and searched a throng while calling “Where’s my African American?” The stunt buried the truth of his role in the Obama birther inanity. Given the frequency and dissonance of such claims, fact checks get left in the dust and conspiracists spin webs. Given the fragility of race relations in post-Trump near-coup America, all sides are likely to dance around the real meaning of Trump’s 3rd world allusion about America.
America’s current white majority is a product of history. Amercan Blacks were an oppressed minority from the start. Immigrants for America’s first 200 years were largely European. Compared to the overall world, relatively well-off Europeans could easily travel to America in search of a better life to blend right in with those already here. New immigrants from further away with different cultural values have divergent views about fitting in. But whatever their views and howvwe they fit, America and the largely white western countries are destined to make room for the world’s multi-hued people.
In simple terms, the white population rate is decreasing. The birth rate in the world’s most populous countries is on the rise. Those are in China and Asia, notably India. In addition, with democracy on the rise worldwide and gaining in popularity with the young, the supporters of racists like Trump are making an investment with diminishing returns..
Trump fever has caught the spirit of this transitional time in America and the world. The Trump double-talk has implified the death rattle. But decoding the double-talk is a good way to ease the death pangs that Trump weaponizes to satisfy his rage..
Only the US Thinks the 1/6 Cmtee Work is News
The 1/6 Commiitee investigating the 2021 failed US coup presents the final chapter of its current findings in prime time a year and a half after the shocking event. Each of the seven earlier public hearings painstakingly laid out a portrait of an orchestrated coup. The detail gleaned from thousands of interview hours was so convincing that previously mum witnesses were drawn to come forward. This final leg of first hearings is expected to tie the former US president directly into the militia groups that staged the coup. That revelation will presents an enigma for both the US and the wqorld in wildly different ways.
Two-thirds of America has been spell-bound by the effectiveness of the presented facts that were already known. That group is eagerly looking forward to the next segment. The one third of America needing to see those facts in a new light will not be watching the prime time evidence. Neither will the rest of the world for an opposite reason.
Foreigners no doubt don’t see the need for the Committee. To them it seems silly since the whole world watched the coup in real time. The 1/3 of #Americans who cling slavishly to a proven master con would not believe the reality even if the former guy himself confessed. After all, a prerequisite for a master con is to know the mark. In this case, a big chunk of media is part of the mark network. But some foreigners look at the hearings and the limits of their reach and they react with anguish.
Ukraine is among them. The fledgling democracy is dying for the freedom that 1/3 of Americans willingly dismisses. Ukraine fights on behalf of all democaracies against the Russian Putin committed to sqashing the democracy he says leads to weakness. In his grift to hook base followers, US former guy encouraged tough unruliness when it served his pupose, as in the 2021 coup. But it takes no scholar to find out that the silver spoon draft dodger hires goons to do the rough work. If US former guy was Putin’s idea of the soft character that democracy breeds, he was certainly set straight by the effective leader Zelensky in partnership with seasoned democrat Biden.
A prophet is never appreciated in his own hometown, the Bible noted. Biden’s low approval reflects this truism but context matters.
Biden took the US presidency while a pandenic raged and US institutions were ravaged by the former guy who continued to menace and instigate obstructions. Despite slings and arrows from all sides, Biden passed measures that benefitted all Americans. When Russia attacked Ukraine, he brought together the world’s democracies to help Ukraine and to ease the global supply chain bottlenecks that began with the Covid pandemic.
So if democracy is voluntary coperation without the use of force, perhaps Americans are best off joining the 2/3 majority watching the 1/6 Cmtee presentation that shows former guy tied directly in with the insurrectionists who staged the coup. That way, the exhaustive American process of democratic justice will lead Americans into the global fold where people know they saw a coup in real time..
Biden Braves the Mideast for America & Ukraine
It was small comfort to any of the worl’s near 200 countries that the inflation of 2022 was worldwide. Rich countries used to comfort were loudest to complain about supply chain shortages due in part to Covid restrictions and in part to the Russian assault on European Ukraine. Food and fuel prices were hardest hit due to Russian devastation and blockages of Ukraine exports. With European unity fairly stable in support of aid to #kraine, Biden jetted off to the Mideast to tackle another hornet’s nest.
Russia’s ace in the hole for containing the West was the threat of deploying nukes. A successful multilateral deal to curtail Iran’s development of nuclear weapons had been scuttled by the previous US administration and Iran had progressed with its nuclear program. Biden’s task during the trip was to juggle pragmatics with principles among greatly diverse regional players.
Israel was established after the Second World War on land that had belonged to Great Britain. The land was inhabited by the Palestinian people and fighting has been fierce ever since. Issues of contention range from historical, religiou, cultural and territorial to downright security of survival as a nation and/or people. Among the greatest regional threats is the refusal of some Arab countries like Iran to admit the existence of a state called Israel.
Enter Saudi Arabia, whose new leader has modernization goals for his country at a rapid clip that entails a brutality reminiscent of Iran’s experience. Under the shah, Iran lept into the modern world until the shah was ousted by the current opposite regime. Long known as a protector of Islamic ideals, Saudi Arabia was the breeding ground for the 9/11 terrorists who attacked the US. More recently, the current Saudi leader was named as the mastermind behinf the brutal killing of a prominent Amerca-based Saudi journalist. With human rights a top priority for American president Biden, negotiating with the Saudi leader is a delicate necessity for regional as well as global peace, prosperity and security..
Democracy as a work in progress
Democracy was nearly overturned in the United States birthplace of rule by the people. That near collision with catastrophe called for a rethink of the democratic principles set out in the United States Constitution, which has served as a template for democratic constitutions ever since. Those constitutions mushroomed after the Second World War as former colonies, territories and satellites became independent countries until they now number near 200.
Those democracies range from democratic kingdoms to pseudo-democracies like Russia where democratic rule of law is subservient to those in power. The US near coup brought those differences into relief in large part because Russia at the same time invaded the former Soviet Union captive Ukraine.
When Russia attacked Ukraine while American democracy itself was under attack, the ferocity of Ukraine’s resistance reminded Western powers of their own values and vulnerabilities. That gave America’s new leader an opening for uniting democracies world wide in support of Ukraine as defender of joint values. Through thar early 21st century crisis, democracy came to be seen as a valuable work in progress that warranted the world’s best royal guards. The same can be said of a website devoted to enduring democratic values and the internationalism that is essential for safeguard of the principles.
As a note to both repeat visitors and happenstance tourists, please bear with us as this website dresses in public. Transparency is vital to democracy. To a writer, transparency of a website work in progress is a cherished delight.
Cop26 on Climage Change
For now, keep your eye on the Cop26 Climate Summit in Glasgow convened by the UN. The world’s youth is energized to fight climate change, but they have yet to confront the challenges facing the elders involved in the Summit itself. World youth protected by democratic standards have yet to face the real challenges of life. How to deal with recalcitrant important global players who don’t function according to democratic rules.
In the final week of Cop26, the world would appreciate suggestions from the world’s youth on how to approach Russia, China and Brazil, three global polluters who won’t even take part in the blah-blah-blah so cavalierly dismissed.
Summit on Democracy December 9/10
The beacon of democracy nearly toppled in 2021 but its sturdy infrastructure saved it to fight another day. its destination was a more perfect union. In 2021, that union encapsulated the entire world of near-200 countries, a heavy lift at that scale.
As an insider to the US political system, experienced Joe Biden was elected to lead the effort based on an integrity affirmed by the country’s historical under-class. With Biden’s lead, the country held off an insurrection, managed a politicized pandemic and repaired damage in world cooperation on issues such as climate, trade and migratoin. Still, making a more perfect union among near-200 countries remained a heavy lift.
In 2021, Biden managed domestic unrest, including policial assault from the former guy and his followers. Biden also battled dissent within his own support group. Some wanted the security of socialism while others wanted the challenge of capitalist competition to prevail. Those issues were best addressed in a global context as arranged by Biden in a Summit on Democracy to be held on Thursday and Friday, December 9/10.
So far, the Summit seems not to have garnered much media interest but it has brought about some fun thinking. What exactly is a democracy and who fits the bill? Who decides metrics of definition and how do you correct misinformation?
American democracy has certainly run the gauntlet over the past five years or so, but the lessons learned are a roadmap for the country’s youth, as well as for the world going forward. Ask local media to cover the Democrcacy Summit on Thurs/Fri. Support global good will at helenfogarassy.com. Keep an eye out for Gobal Democracy Summit.
How to Help Democracy
US President Joe #Biden is hosting a #Summit for Democracy with 110 world democracies taking part. It is a two-day affair and on the first day he stressed two important points. First, he added “women” to the US Declaration of Indepdence to say that “all men and women are created equal. Second, he said democracy was not a defined entity but an evolving system of government by the people for the people. That evolution was taking place in various forms and at different stages all across the world. Recent events in the US demonstrated that world democracies could benefit from sharing experiences and best practices.
Recent research by respected institutions such as the Pew Research Center indicates that the ideal of democracy is gaining traction across the world among ordinary citizens through information exchange on the internet. At the same time, the age-old techniques of autocracy are just as pervasive. Their basic tools of coercion and deception have remained relatively unchanged across millennia.
After a coup attempt in America by a sitting president never considered fit for the office to begin with, many Americans are fearful about how fragile democracy is. But those who have lived under suppressive forms of government see American democracy as sturdy and resilient. Yes, it needs serious work to keep it evolving, but its institutions are solid and the large majority of its people are decent, strong and good-willed. In this next big milestone of evolving in a globalizing world, America and its people will benefit from a broader view of themselves in context of the greater world.
As a Hungarian-American immigrant born into communist Hungary under Soviet occupation, Fogarassy appreciates America with an ardor greater than many of those born into its blessings. Her image of America is shaped by early memories. Those include five-pound cartons of American cheese distributed by the Red Cross to refugees in Austria, followed by grade-school kids initiating her into American ways. Hot dogs were a favorite form of facilitating information exchange on both sides.
Integrating the American way into the broader world has been a major theme for Fogarassy, now an internationalist writer with the helenfogarassy.com website still in development to promote ever better the joys of American democracy. Her latest published work is America Votes Obama to Biden Past Trump: a kaleidoscopic view of the Trump phenomenon. Issued in October 2021, the book is a series of her articles on aspects of Donald Trump as a fraudster who snookered America.
Following publication of America Votes, Light of a Destiny Dark was re-issued. The Americanized novel is based on a memoir by late Mom Helen Skerl Fogarassy shortly after escape from Hungary in 1956. The memoir was entitled Behind God’s Back, the way Eastern Europeans felt behind the Soviet Iron Curtain of barbed wire. Many of Hungary’s young were not yet born when the Curtain came down in 1989. They would benefit from a reminder of that time before another tyrant Russian install wrecks the democracy of freedom-loving Hungarians.
Toward the end of bridging gaps between the old world and new, Hungarian-Americans are a key link. The American Melting Pot is not merely a pooling of immigrant talents. It is a pooling of values, traditions, strengths and wisdom of the cultures from which the immigrants arrived here. Fogarassy’s book entitled Mission Improbable: the world community on a UN compound in Somlis is a portrait of internationals from all countries thrown together on an enclosed compound to deal with national issues on a very telling personal level. Spoiler alert: Fogarassy and Somalis got along fine across great cultural differences.
Finally, Fogarassy’s Midas Maze ties America into the global reality. No child can grow into adulthood without a strong supportive structure. Likewise, governments and global institutions are stymied at present by obsolescence. Global well-being underwent a huge growth spurt after the Second World War. mainly through the establishment of the United Nations and its many affiliated institutions. Thousands of non-profit organizations feed into the system clogged by the bureaucratic systems established in the mid-1950s. The novel is a fun romp through the pitfalls of bureaucracy with the hope of adding to the drive for upgrade.
URGENT SOS FOR UKRAINE
At the end of February 2022, #Russia unleashed an assault on former #USSR satellite #Ukraine that few in the world believed he was fool enough to undertake.. By all reliably accredited sources. #Russia’s President #Putin aims to rule the world by recreating the Soviet Communist empire that collapsed in 1991 after satellite countries in 1989 won freedom through support of major established democracies, esspecially the #US. Now, #Ukraine is the global linchpin in whether tyranny or democracy wins the future.
Fogarassy has a bird’s eye view on this decision. She is a seasoned Hungarian-American writer who was born in Hungary, lived briefly in Austria as a refugee, then was raised in the American Midwest until becoming a New Yorker from where she experienced the world through the United Nations lens as an independent observer. To her, the Russian assault on Ukraine is a pivotal point in global relations.
A rapidly changing world is mired in old-world thinking, Fogarassy contends. The situation in #Ukraine highlights issues in urgent need of address if civilization is to progress. Her major works focus on those themes.
Mission Improbable: the world community on a UN compound in Somalia is a first hand account of global good intentions gone awry due to a “failure to communicate.”
The Light of a Destiny Dark was recently re-issued. It is a novel based on a memoir about life in Hungary under Soviet occupation after the Second World War.
America Votes Obama to Biden Past Trump: a kaleidoscopic view of the Trump phenomenon is a newly relased collection of articles on how #Russian #Putin may have tried to render #America its first salletile in a neo-Communist campaign.
Finally, The Midas Maze is a fun novel about the vast United Nations global network that can serve to either advance or corrupt the world depending on personbal morality.
#Russia’s assault on #Ukraine is a turning point for the world. Do we opt for the freedom of democracy or the security of a tyranny that takes the burden or choice of our shoulders? The choice is clear. #Ukraine is the newest metric after previous uprisings against #Soviet-styled oppression in the 70 yhears since the last World War ended.
Voice your own vote at any #helenfogarassy.com chennel promoting this work. Those supporting #Ukraine need to hear your views and they thank your support.
urgent sos
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