EVENTS up to an Agreement in the Balkans
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Δεν θα μπορούσαμε να πετύχουμε κάτι σημαντικά
καλύτερο και θα ήταν μάλλον ατόπημα να μην
εκμεταλλευόμασταν και πάλι, την παρούσα χρονική
στιγμή, μία καλή ευκαιρία και να πασάραμε την
μπάλα στις επόμενες γενιές λόγω απώλειας τόλμης
και πολιτικού θάρρους από τη δικιά μας. Όμως,
ΝΑ ΕΓΚΡΙΘΕΙ ΟΜΟΦΩΝΑ Η ΣΥΜΦΩΝΙΑ ΑΠΟ
ΤΑ ΗΝΩΜΕΝΑ ΕΘΝΗ ΤΟ ΣΥΝΤΟΜΟΤΕΡΟ
ΔΥΝΑΤΟ ΚΑΙ ΝΑ ΥΙΟΘΕΤΗΘΕΙ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ Σ.Α..


Δε βλέπω απαίτηση για πέρασμα του σχεδίου προς ομόφωνη
έγκριση από τη Γενική Συνέλευση και το Συμβούλιο Ασφαλείας
των Ηνωμένων Εθνών, κάτι εξαιρετικά ανησυχητικό.
Οποιαδήποτε διμερή συμφωνία επί του ζητήματος, εκτός του
status που θα απολαμβάνει μέσω του Διεθνούς Δικαίου των
Συνθηκών, πρέπει, χωρίς αναβολή, να ενδυναμωθεί με την
επιπρόσθετη δεικλίδα Ασφαλείας, ειδικά στα περί του
ονόματος, της ομόφωνης αποδοχής από τα Σώματα των
Ηνωμένων Εθνών, που θα της διασφαλίζει επιπλέον και την
κατοχύρωση μέσω του Διεθνούς Δικαίου των Ηνωμένων Εθνών.
Αυτό είναι MUST και για τις δύο, αλλά ειδικά για την Ελληνική
πλευρά.


If the morph and the cartoon meet without aides,
as reported, then what will happen, what will be
said and what will be tweeted after the meeting
will be almost unfathomable, but very entertaining.
It may be a mess or it may be a disaster. I guess,
we'll have to wait and see.


The Vatican is wrongly interpreting and, rather,
abusing the Rules referring to Diplomatic Immunity.
Diplomatic Immunity should not be used to shelter
diplomats of a mission from criminal prosecutions
for charges unrelated to the performance of their
duties. So the only way the Vatican can justify such
moves in these cases is somehow by relating the
possession, distribution and sharing of child
pornography with other official Vatican duties and
functions. And, unfortunately, such a move would
not come as a big surprise, neither under preceding
``popes" nor, unfortunately, under Jorge Bergoglio.
The moves of the popes and their underlings have
left only material things still standing tall and
beautiful in the Roman Catholic Church: Vatican
City, its surroundings and its mythical Architectural,
Cultural and Intellectual treasures, devoid of Human
Sensitivity, Responsibility and Ethos.


In Slovakia a small minority of the population may
be outraged and upset at the murder of an immigrant,
but the majority, not only tolerates and rewards Nazism
and hard line Neo-Nazist attitudes and positions, but,
also, instead of sending A-males to the zoo, where they
belong, they install them in Government. Those States
that have gone through much throughout their History
deserve much better than they are getting by the dump
choices of their Electorates.


I understand the pain of a son whose father is rightly
behind bars. On the other hand, when your own father
is a murderer, one would expect some humility and
some introspection and enough sensitivity to try to
fly below the radar.


Despite these measures, African Football has been
disgraced and is in shambles. If I were at the helm
of FIFA (or rather of a clean organization that was
genuinely interested in the sport and not simply in
enriching themselves and stowing away cash in
Switzerland), I would immediately ban all African
teams from the upcoming World Cup. But it is too
much to expect that from an organization that has
been known to be as ruthless and as corrupt as the
officials that were caught match-fixing. ``It is not
about the money," they all claimed, ``it is about the
connections, getting to know each other", implying
``I will do your deed and let the cash flow".


A sad sad day for Ontario ans for Canada overall.


I am extremely dumbfounded at the ignorance that
allegedly informed lawyers are showing regarding
Constitutional safeguards and the Fundamental
Balance of Powers enshrined in our Constitution.
If the President could, as alleged by ignorant and
decrepit senile "council", pardon himself, where
would the Separation of Powers lie? Would it be
hidden in Rudy Giuliani's a**hole? Or has this
impotent senile even read the Constitution and is
he even aware of Supreme Court case law or is
he so out of touch in legal matters that he does
not even recall very basic tenets of our precedent
and theory?


I have been a big supporter of the German Chancellor.
It is, however, one of the characteristics of an Insightful
and Great Politician, who places Common Good above
Personal and Party interests, to know when it is time to
go and let someone else manage the Public Affairs. It
is my opinion that Ms. Merkel has been significantly
weakened politically, since the last election (and, also,
perhaps, a personal burden and tiredness has kicked
in) and seems to no longer be able to boldly express a
refreshing Vision and exhibit a bold Leadership that
is now needed, post-crisis, to bring Europe forward
and help abate and quash the nationalistic, racist,
discriminatory, right wing howls heard from all four
points of the compass in the Continent. I hope that,
realizing this and sensing the critical and necessary
role that Germany has to play in any drive for reforms,
more Unity and more Integration, she would consider
stepping down and reshaping the German political
and, therefore, the European political situation.


A sad and ridiculous game played on the shoulders
and the livelihood of a Nation by badly trained, biased
actors with ill will; despicable and repulsive. But the
World knows that when the balance stops at 190-2,
then the overwhelming majority is acting in much
much better faith and has much more transparent
and much cleaner goals and objectives and respects
the Resolutions of the Organization and insists in
their being followed for the sake of Peace, Equality
and Democracy.


I do hope and wish that this unChristian pretender
and exploiter of the weak and the naive gets what
he deserves and forever burns in hell or whatever
the existing equivalent might be.


Ukrainian foreign and intelligence services consist
of a bunch of amateurs that ridicule their State
and shoot themselves in the foot. Ukraine's
President should reprimand them and send
their bosses to the U.K. or to Israel to enroll
into Intel 101 and learn the basics.


We must not overlook or underestimate two very
important steps in the resolution process, assuming
the name chosen will be ``Republic of North Macedonia".
1. The use of the newly adopted name erga omnes
must be guaranteed not only through amending
the Constitution in Skopje, but also - and perhaps
more importantly -  through a unanimous decision
of the General Assembly and the Security Council
of the United Nations.
2. The country code should be changed from MK
to the two letter NM and the three letter NMK
to reflect and encourage the universal usage of
the agreed upon name of the State.


In Italy, one of the most beautiful and most glorious
States on our Planet, the modern Italians and their
representatives fail miserably to stand to the height
that their History and their Culture demands: If you
steal and embezzle, if you create a fortune through
political, criminal and other shady connections, you
are admired and respected, but a President with a
strong voice, highly respected, and trying to guarantee
the Polity and Rationality in Politics and the Integrity
of the Political System and the State, is persecuted
and under fire, facing impeachment by people that
have succumbed to extreme populism and in no way
do they have in mind the best interests of either the
Italian People or their State and our Union.
SHAME! BRAVO, Presidente Mattarella!


Τελείως τριτοκοσμική κατάσταση στην Τουρκία,
όπου, δυστυχώς, τόσο τα λόγια όσο και οι πολιτικοί
και οικονομικοί χειρισμοί ενός παραπαίοντος και
έχοντος χάσει κάθε επαφή με την πραγματικότητα
προέδρου έχουν επιφέρει ολική κατολίσθηση τόσο
στο Τουρκικό νόμισμα όσο και στις διεθνείς σχέσεις
και στην εκτίμηση που φέρει η χώρα διεθνώς, μία
χώρα που είχε τη δυνατότητα, εάν οι κάτοικοι
ψήφιζαν με το μυαλό και όχι με το συναίσθημα,
ή εάν το πολίτευμα είχε ασφαλιστικές δικλείδες
και presidential term limits, να ήταν σε πολύ
καλύτερη οικονομική κατάσταση, πυλώνας
σταθερότητας στην περιοχή και με τεράστια
διεθνή επιρροή και διεθνή ρόλο. Κρίμα... Μεγάλη
καταστροφή από έναν ασταθή και ανερμάτιστο
``ηγέτη" με προσωπικές εμμονές ασυμβίβαστες
με την πραγματικότητα και με προσωπική
επιρρέπεια σε πολιτικές που δε συνάδουν με τις
αρχές καλής διακυβέρνησης, τη σταθερότητα και
το σεβασμό στις αμοιβαίες διακρατικές σχέσεις
και το Διεθνές Δίκαίο.


These three characteristics form a red line, the minimum
possible that can be accepted:
1. Geographic determinant (e.g., North, Upper or Vardar);
2. Erga Omnes (including unanimous approval by the
    General Assembly and the Security Council of the U.N.);
3. Change of MKD to NMK, UMK,VMK etc. depending
    on the determinant agreed upon.
Anything less cannot be accepted by Athens, which has
already gone out of its way to encourage and to support
the European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations of Skopje
(as it should have), and must get something in return.


Gündogan called what these three players did ``politeness".
He either must be an extremely well-bred lad to the point
of servility to seniors and authority or he is trying in vain,
in a shameless and utterly unsuccessful way, to dress as
mere ``politeness" what was a blatant attempt at sucking
up to, licking the feet of and ingratiating themselves to a
foreign authority; one that is leading the land of their
forefathers in a completely wrong direction with the speed
of a brakeless wreck. I wholeheartedly applaud the reaction
of Ms. Dagdelen of Die Linke and of Mr. Özdemir of the
Greens and I would hope that the three footballers would
think twice in the future before trying to pass as ``politeness"
intentional and deliberate advertising and propagandizing.


The Citizens of the World want Homelands for both
Nations in the Middle East. We want to see Israel and
Palestine, two independent and Sovereign States,
living in Peace, Security and Prosperity side-by-side,
with the issue of occupied lands resolved in a way that
is as faithful as possible to the original Resolutions of
our United Nations. Those individuals and those forces
on both sides of the divide and externally that are
persistently and strenuously fighting to destroy that
Dream and are supporting policies, machinations
and actions to the same effect, are fighting against
Humanity and are, therefore, fighting on the Wrong
Side of History.


The last family of the United States, one representing
the worst of the worst, nepotism, favoritism, corruption,
anti-meritocracy and, in general, the worst aspects of
bad government and of third-world mentality, traveled
to Israel to represent an outrageously imbalanced,
provocatively one-sided, shortsighted, harmful and
detrimental for the long-term interests of the United
States Foreign Policy that will stand in the Wrong
Side of History, like most everything else that this
brainless and airhead administration has embarked
on. One is allowed to make mistakes, but one shows
lack of wisdom when one does nor revise decisions that
are universally opposed, condemned and challenged.
What is the point of demanding reciprocity in all
other bilateral relations when one yields all without
demanding anything in return vis-a-vis a State that
is occupying foreign territory and has engaged in
shameless proliferation of nuclear arms while at
the same time asking for idealism from others?
Should such a State be rewarded or made to abide
by its International Obligations through tough
negotiations and, possibly, imposition of sanctions?


A sad sad day for Malaysia and the anti-corruption
campaigners World-wide. The newly elected super
aged and super corrupt prime minister has agreed
and is implementing a pardon to release one of his
new cronies from prison and to prepare the ground
for his reinstatement in political life. A red line for
all those that want to see harsher punishment for
corruption World-wide and who feel that no pardons
of any form should be dished out from one corrupt
to another to erase breach of public trust and the
abuse and ridicule of an already rigged political
system. Perhaps one should have been wrong to
expect anything more upstanding from Malaysia and
from one of its politicians who has been immersed
in deep s**t, since way back when.


I am not sure what percentage of this report is accurate
and how much is misleading or outright fabrication to
give a pretext to a morph administration, that is brainless
and gang-ho and takes very little advice from experts
and diplomats, to tamper with an agreement that many,
and many serious, parties claim is working. On the other
hand, even assuming 100% accuracy, who is this State,
called Israel, that is publicizing this? Really??!!! The State
that was the first to surreptitiously develop, conceal and
proliferate nuclear weapons of mass destruction and
neither confirms nor denies that it has them and how many
it possesses has the shamelessness, the crassness and the
audacity to accuse the Iranian State for crimes that it
itself committed first, becoming a leader and an example
and providing the methodology for others to follow?
If you want to play guardian of Moral Values and of
Peace, please lead by example before getting a clean
face and clean enough hands to acquire a Right and
the Respect necessary to be taken seriously by both
your Partners and the International Community.


Good News from the Korean Peninsula.
Sad news from our United States...


Μίλησε και το αμόρφωτο και ανιστόρητο ξόανο.
Ρε, Κυριάκο, με τέτοια ελεεινά παλιόμουτρα και
κουτσομούρες (συγγνώμη και στο συμπαθές
περκόμορφο) πας να διδάξεις Πολιτική Παιδεία
και να κυβερνήσεις για να δει καλό ο τόπος?
Ελπίζω να συνεργαστείς με τον Πρόεδρο της
Βουλής και να την ανακαλέσετε σε τάξη με
σοβαρότατες κυρώσεις...


BRAVO, ARMENIA!!
Excellent News for Democracy and Transparency!


I think it is time to rewrite term limit clauses in some
States' Constitutions and Law. Absolutist politicians,
like Putin and, in this case, Serzh(inho, since he is
proving much below what the circumstances demand),
who are shameless, but do not want to appear extremely
so by changing the Law or Constitution outright,
abide by the letter of the Law which allows one
who is term limited to transition to another office
in lurking to re-accession to the highest office for
another non-consecutive term, while, clearly,
violating the Spirit of the Law, which is there to
ensure that the same person does not become a
monarch for life and that power is shared and that
one does not stay in power long enough to start making
Government a personal affair and to engage in political
and personal corruption by manipulating Government
and the State and treating them as a personal fiefdom.
If Serzhinho has any speck of self-respect, any speck
of shame, any concern about the future of Armenia
and any appreciation of the disastrous path that his
moves are pushing this tortuous State, that has enough
troubles as things stand, without needing unscrupulous
and criminal political elements to pile more, should
stand down immediately and restore Armenia to a
regular State of Constitutional Order and let Power
be Transitioned in Good Constitutional Order to
someone else who must pledge to change the Law
and make term limits mean term limits, without
any loopholes or windows of misinterpretation.


Positive news from North Korea. We all hope that this
is not part of a temporary ephemeral suspension, part
of a strategy of ingratiation leading up to the Summit
in order to get concessions and other rewards only to
restart a belligerent posturing and an unfriendly and
isolationist stance later in the future as political and
other expediences dictate. The World is ready to help
the North open and to embrace the People of the North
and help the North's accession to a World Community
of Peaceful and Brotherly Nations, but the World must
know that the North has a strong Will and a clear
Intention to be included and to live together with
all other Nations in a Peaceful and non-threatening
way in the long term, and this is an opportunity to
prove its intentions beyond the shadow of a doubt by
avoiding backward steps and U-turns in its latest
policy announcements.


The morph is in such a state of despair and isolation
that he is hiring in his legal team the senile Rudy,
whose mental state of complete decrepitude we did
witness during the campaign and afterwards. It may
just be a poorly thought out political maneuver, a
gimmick in bad taste and worse advise, so to speak,
but I guess, we'll have to wait and see...


ETA is dissolving at last. It had been already high time
a long time ago that a relic of an ``armed revolutionary
struggle" in the heart of a Peaceful and Democratic
State and Continent gave up antiquated methods of
expressing political positions and struggling for Ethnic
and other Human Rights. In Europe of the 21st Century,
where the Fundamental Freedoms are enshrined in the
Continental Constitution and in Declarations of Human
Rights, there is absolutely no reason for movements
or organizations to sacrifice even a single innocent
life in the altar of political demands. There are other
avenues available to all to gather support locally and
more generally and to campaign for recognition of
their ideals and their positions, if those are worthwhile
and stand on the Right Side of History.


The wisdom is that ``two wrongs (three in this case?)
can't make a right". Is this going to reinforce that
adage or to provide a counterexample? I guess,
we'll wait and see...


Putin, I hear, is ready to compromise when it comes
to Russo-American relations and, as a sign of good
will, he is delaying the decision on countermeasures
that were to be adopted to counter the latest round
of American sanctions. Since Putin is not the man
to compromise or a man that is known to have any
softness or any kindness of heart, one may draw the
relatively safe conclusion from these moves that Putin
knows that Russia, its economy and its prestige have
been hit hard and have everything to lose from a
confrontation with the morph and is, belatedly, but
rationally, trying to find ways to alleviate Russia's woes.
Among the methods is this strategic bluffing, when
he knows that he has very limited options and a very
narrow space for maneuvering and that Russia's
cowboy tactics and persistent lies with respect to
its dirty and blatant interference in the affairs of
other States, not unlike the old-style American
practices, have outraged the entire World and
has left Russia with only the most despised and
most dubious personalities in the World Stage
as allies and partners.


Tears fill one's eyes when, in a world where people kill
for a joke and just because they can, these 143 people
had a veritable GUARDIAN ANGEL in that Pilot  and
that Crew of SWA 1380 New York to Dallas that spread
their wings and landed everyone safely in Philadelphia.
May Grace accompany you all and safe travels!


What a mysterious thing that is. One wonders whether
there is some material in the buildings that causes these
symptoms, but, then, would there not have been also
many Cubans, living in buildings constructed using
the same materials that would have been fallen ill with
similar symptoms? How is it possible for, at least, the
U.S. and Canadian Authorities, with arguably the
most advanced and sophisticated diagnostic and
medical tools and technology on the planet, not to
have been able to pinpoint the cause of this mystery?
I am all for sending teams to Cuba to partner with
local medical authorities in good faith and resolve
this issue and not keep using it as a pawn to worsen
or adversely affect bilateral relations. Prime Minister
Trudeau, take the lead on this and send over a combined
Canadian-U.S. medical team to work with the local
staff to resolve this issue!!


``Pulitzer Prize for Weinstein exposé". Either British Humour
at its apex or wrong terminology there, I am afraid, BBC...

A Monumental and Historic Moment for Cuba's Political
Life. It may not be a moment in Human History where
Self-Sacrifice and Courage defy probabilities and seemingly
surpass Human Power and Human Potential, as was the
arrival of the survivors of Granma in 56 and the Final
Victory of the Revolution and descent from Sierra Maestra,
but the transition of power away from the grip of the Castro
Family will be the Final Judgment in a way. It will show
how much groundwork has been laid and how much grass
roots support this ``Historic Experiment" has gathered
or whether it was mostly a failure and has lost over the
years the genuine backing of the people, by having fulfilled
its original goals of Independence, Literacy, Universal
Health Care and Brotherhood and Inspiration to all
Peace-loving Nations, but by having failed in the realization
of further goals, that are demanded after fulfillment of
the Basics, such as consumer goods, entertainment and
an Open and Democratic Environment in which Science
and Arts and Political Discourse and New Ideas are
Developed and Excitement and Innovation are encouraged.
In my view, if the new generation of Cuban Political
Elites are to be successful, their mission and goal should
be to maintain the gains in the Basic Social Values and
the Basic Principles of the Castros' Initial Struggles,
while, at the same time, advancing Openness and the
availability of those other latent appetites of the People,
without which no society, in my view (and in History's
View) can survive and thrive. And, perhaps, many States
around the Globe would be ready to oblige and support
such endeavors by the Cuban Government, respecting
the Monumental Contributions of this tiny and weak,
but Proud and Lion-Hearted and Independence-Minded
Caribbean Nation.


Unfortunately, some people who had been promising,
talented and could have been examples to follow, have
become, under the tutelage of untrustworthy and
manipulative propagandists, lying machines without
any qualms or remorse, just pitiable and miserable
pieces of sh*t, without any possibility of restoration
or rehabilitation... Because of his subservience and
his subordination, he has become as big a liar and
as big a remorseless, ``no second thought" distorter
of truth as Putin and the morph..., people that think
that the public is so stupid and pliable that we are
going to believe their intentional and deliberate
misrepresentations of facts and fiction, just because
they said so or they declare something to be the truth,
despite well-founded suspicions, substantial input
and/or substantial evidence that the contrary of
what they are proclaiming is much more likely.


Το μεγαλύτερο πισωγύρισμα που μπορεί να επιτελέσει
ο Μητσοτάκης, εκτός βέβαια του να ξαναφαλυρίσει τη
χώρα, είναι να αρχίσει να ξηλώνει τη σιγανή αλλά σταθερή
πορεία της Ελλάδας προς την ΑΠΛΗ ΑΝΑΛΟΓΙΚΗ σε
όλες τις εκλογικές αναμετρήσεις. ΑΠΛΗ ΑΝΑΛΟΓΙΚΗ
είναι το μόνο αποδεκτό σύστημα σε μία μοντέρνα και
Δημοκρατική χώρα. Αφενός αντανακλά πλήρως και
χωρίς διαστρεβλώσεις τη Λαϊκή Ετυμηγορία, εφαρμόζει
πιστά την Αρχή του ``Ένας Πολίτης Μία Ψήφος", δίνοντας
την ίδια βαρύτητα στην ψήφο κάθε πολίτη, ανεξαρτήτως
προτιμήσεων, και αναγκάζει τους πολιτικούς και τους
προύχοντες κυρίως, αλλά και τους εκλογείς, να αποδεκτούν,
να εμπεδώσουν και να αντιμετωπίσουν ζεστά και με τρόπο
εποικοδομητικό τις πολιτικές συμμαχίες, που οδηγούν
σε Εθνική Ομοψυχία και σε, ακόμα και απρόσμενες,
πολιτικές συγκλίσεις και πολιτικούς σχηματισμούς.
Η καταστροφή μίας τέτοιας πορείας θα είναι ένα
μεγάλο πολιτικό λάθος και ένα μεγάλο πισωγύρισμα
στην πορεία πολιτικής ωρίμανσης της Ελλάδας και
το μόνο που θα υπηρετεί είναι μικροπολιτικά και
άμεσα πολιτικά συμφέροντα ενός πολιτικού και
ασήμαντου (στη γενική εικόνα πραγμάτων και
στην μακροχρόνια εξέλιξη της χώρας) αρχηγίσκου.
ΠΑΡΕ ΠΙΣΩ ΑΥΤΕΣ ΤΙΣ ΕΞΑΓΓΕΛΙΕΣ ΚΑΙ
ΑΝΑΘΕΩΡΗΣΕ ΑΥΤΕΣ ΤΙΣ ΑΠΟΨΕΙΣ, ΚΥΡΙΑΚΟ!
Η Χώρα και το Κράτος υπέρ κομμάτων και υπέρ
εαυτών και υπέρ κομματικών και προσωπικών
συμφερόντων (όπως εξάλλου είχες δηλώσει κι
εσύ σε στιγμές μεγαλύτερου ιδεαλισμού και πιο
απομακρυσμένες από άμεσες εκλογικές αναμετρήσεις...
Πόσο ίδιοι και πόσο καρεκλολάγνοι είστε όλοι όταν
πλησιάζει το περπάτημα προς το μαγικό κουτί...
Γι αυτό και χρειαζόμαστε την Απλή Αναλογική...)


Όταν μία αδύνατη και μικρή χώρα έχει ισχυρούς και
παντοδύναμους συμμάχους, ναι μεν τα oφέλη είναι
αμοιβαία, καθότι διαφορετικά δεν θα υπήρχε λόγος
συμμαχίας, αλλά είναι πιο πιθανό, με την κατάλληλη
διαχείρηση και με έξυπνη διπλωματία, τα oφέλη να
είναι μεγαλύτερα και πιο πολύτιμα για τον ασθενέστερο
εταίρο παρά για τον πιο ισχυρό. Γι αυτό εξάλλου
μικρές και ασθενείς από μόνες τους χώρες έχουν
ισχυρότερο κίνητρο να ανήκουν σε μεγάλες
συμμαχίες ή μεγάλους πολιτικούς σχηματισμούς,
ακόμα και αν το μερίδιο των αποφάσεων και το
μερίδιο των ευθυνών που τους αναλογεί είναι
κατανοητά μικρότερο. Ο Λαφαζάνης το αποκαλεί
αυτό ``υποτέλεια". Αλλά που να καταλάβει τί του
γίνεται ο ``δραχματζής" που θα έκοβε μονέδα στο
τοπικό νομισματοκοπείο με την οποία θα πλήρωνε
τους άλλους, αφού πρώτα θα είχε εξασφαλίσει αυτός
και οι άλλοι προύχοντες τα απαραίτητα αποθεματικά
σε συνάλλαγμα...


Όπως είπε και ο Βενιζέλος (και ελπίζω να τον κατάλαβα
σωστά και να μην παρερμηνεύω αυθαίρετα τα λεγόμενα
του ανθρώπου, ειδικά σε τόσο λεπτά ζητήματα) πρέπει
η Ελλάδα να δώσει βαρύτητα στη διεθνή πτυχή του
ονοματολογικού και των διμερών και πολυμερών σχέσεων.
Ό,τι συμφωνηθεί, να περάσει ομόφωνα από το Συμβούλιο
Ασφαλείας των Ηνωμένων Εθνών και από τη Γενική
Συνέλευση και να υιοθετηθεί ομόφωνα από τα αρμόδια
όργανα της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης. Έτσι θα έχει περάσει
ως αναπόσπαστο μέρος του Διεθνούς Δικαίου. Το αν θα
αλλάξει το Σύνταγμα της FYROM ή όχι είναι, κατά τη
γνώμη μου, δευτερεύον και μία υπερβολική και δυσανάλογη
προσοχή σ' αυτήν την πτυχή μπορεί να οδηγήσει σε ακούσια
προβλήματα και αφερεγγυότητες. Αν, για παράδειγμα, κάποια
κυβέρνηση στα Σκόπια αποφασίσει λόγω εσωτερικών
προβλημάτων, εθνικιστικών κορώνων, ή άλλων λόγων
εσωτερικής κατανάλωσης να αλλάξει το Σύνταγμα, τί
θα μπορεί να κάνει η Ελλάδα; Να πάρει το όνομα πίσω;
Το μόνο καταφύγιο θα είναι κάποια Διεθνή Διαβήματα
και, αν είναι εφικτό, προσφυγή σε Διεθνή Δικαστήρια.
Και αυτά δεν πρόκειται να είναι πιο θετικά διακείμενα
ή πιο εποικοδομητικά απ' ότι εάν η συμφωνία έχει την
απαραίτητη Διεθνή Εγκυρότητα που θα είναι δεδομένη
εάν έχει, με τη σύμφωνη γνώμη και εισήγηση των δύο
Κρατών, υιοθετηθεί διεθνώς από όλα τα υπόλοιπα Κράτη
και τους Διεθνείς Οργανισμούς, ακόμα και να λέει το
Σύνταγμα της γείτονος διαφορετικά. Αυτό τότε θα είναι
παρία και αφερέγγυο, καθότι θα αντίκειται, όχι μόνο στις
Διεθνείς Συμφωνίες του ίδιου του Κράτους τις υποθέσεις
του οποίου υποτίθεται ότι ρυθμίζει, αλλά και στο Διεθνές
Δίκαιο και στη Διεθνή Τάξη Πραγμάτων, ενώ η Ελλάδα
δεν θα έχει τέτοια προβλήματα.


Unless strikes damage the Beast's property and disrupt
his way of life and that of his close family, associates and
entourage, i.e., affect him personally in a most awkward
and consequential way, the result will be nil. Beasts with
the kind and amount of selfishness of this brute do not
understand nor are swayed by strikes on facilities that
do not affect them personally, at least as long as they
have iron shirts behind which to hide. But neither our
President, nor our Secretary of Defense, nor any of the
other West Leaders seem to be able to grasp this, because
for them, elected and sworn to serve their Nations, there
is something more than personal property and fiefdom
that counts and that is at stake in grave situations...


Inarticulate, incoherent and meaningless rumblings
and cries, full of bigotry and hatred. Shame for a State
that is aspiring to become an International Leader
to have around people of this kind in official posts,
in the approach to the ides of the 21st Century...


If, as reported, Bashar the Beast is hiding behind Russian
skirts, it is a very good development. Because, if he is in
fact responsible for the use of banned weapons of mass
destruction and extreme suffering, he should be hiding
without respite. And if he did use such weapons, the living
quarters of the ``presidential" palace must take a hit in
his absence as a warning, and as a discomfort substantial
enough to change his mind and force him to abide by key
and non-negotiable tenets of International Law. And if
he shows his repulsive face ever again anywhere close to
the ``presidential" palace, the rockets should be waiting
for more hits. Strong and unwavering actions now,
damaging in a clinical way the property and disrupting
the lives of  no people other than those responsible at the
top would send a strong message to all pseudo-leaders
who have or are thinking of buying or of developing
chemical weapons that there is indeed zero tolerance
on behalf of the Public on this issue and that the major
Civilized World Powers are ready to back this Public
Outrage in the most categorical and decisive way.


If the U.S. possesses indisputable intelligence that the
Syrian Government, despite stern and credible warnings,
and despite having been provided with a sample of the
potential consequences, has again violated International
Law and has used chemical weapons in indiscriminate
mass murder of civilians, the United States must respond
by force and, this time, target the people at the top, the
dictator Bashar, the ``brute", al-Assad, by destroying the
living quarters of the ``presidential" palace in Damascus
and by forcing him to live in hiding and on the run
until he realizes that abiding by important tenets of
International Law is not at the discretion of every
petty generalissimo around the globe and that retaliation
and punishment will be immediate and severe. I hope
that the U.S. President gets the fleet ready and that this
time around, the directive will not be to target trivial
and inconsequential military facilities, but to go after
those buildings that would personally damage the Dictator's
comfortable living and the Governing elite. They are the
only targets that will force him to rethink and change
his brutal and illegal strategy and actions.


Diplomatic Immunity is a courtesy enshrined in the Vienna
Laws so that Diplomats can perform uninhibited those functions
that are related to their mission in the Receiving State. This
Immunity, which is a Privilege, but also carries with it heavy
Responsibility and is not to be abused, misused or taken lightly,
is not supposed to shelter a person from criminal responsibility
for reprehensible and grave acts. How does Jorge Bergoglio's
proclamation of sorrow for past offenses, for rectifying the
degeneracy and stench of the Catholic institutions and of zero
tolerance square with his refusal to waive Diplomatic Immunity
of a ``diplomat" accused of violation of pornography laws in
our Capital to stand trial outside the Vatican? The message
that it sends is that his subordinates, for whom he is ultimately
responsible and accountable, can continue business as usual
and the most that they will face are internal, biased, rigged
and untrustworthy ``investigations" by ``peers" that often
have a strong motive to preserve a ``reputation" of a ``holy"
see that has been full of scandals, corruption, malignancy
and hurtfulness and cannot and should not be allowed
to shelter perpetrators any more, at least not by people
who claim that they want it cleansed and changed. But
Bergoglio has disappointed us before and he has shown that
he is one and the same with the ``church" and the old and
discredited establishment, and that he does not have either the
will or the power to drastically alter the stinky and terrible
culture of this despicable and justifiably despised institution.


The State that kills, investigates, ``condemns" and then
elevates the killers to Prime Ministers and Ministers of
Defense. What a pariah, what a sham, what a travesty
of ``justice", what a shame.


I hear that our United States Deputy Assistant Secretary of
Defense for European Affairs and NATO is visiting Greece
this coming week. Given the serious issues that the Eastern
Mediterranean faces, with uncertainty and aggressive and
destabilizing moves by Turkey and Russia and the unstable
situation in the Syrian front, both States have a paramount
interest in tightening and strengthening cooperation at all
levels. Since both States are avid admirers and avid supporters
of Democracy, of Peace, of Security and of Cooperation in a
Global Scale, there is mutual interest in working together to
advance these Principles in the spirit of International Friendship
and in the framework of Bilateral Ties and International Alliances,
emphasizing Full Respect for International Law - Treaties and
Custom - and counterbalancing in unison any and all efforts,
regardless of origin, to violate and/or abuse these Principles.


If you are a public official, elected or not, you should
not betray the trust that the Citizens and the State are
bestowing on you by stealing and/or getting bribes
and/or providing favors in exchange for money.
If you do, then you should be ready to stand trial,
face the consequences and pay the price. Trying to
invade Justice and to stir enmity and friction in
society among supporters and opponents is simply
cowardly, deplorable and adds to criminal record.


We have elections in Hungary. I hope Hungarians will
do the Right Thing, send a bankrupt ``leader" in the
trashcan of History and send a message of Brotherhood,
Compassion and Cooperation to Europe and the World.
A Nation that needs help - and every Nation does at one
point or another in their History, no matter how robust
and powerful - is much more likely to have willing friends
and allies to stand together with, than a Nation that
prefers isolation and does not give a damn for others
when the times are good and asks for help when the
times change, become challenging and difficulties arise.


Unreasonable extravagance and waste by unreasonable
illegitimate heirs to an illegal throne of an illegal regime.
When this individual travels with innumerably many
people and books an entire luxurious hotel and has at
his stead a motorcade of innumerably many vehicles,
a red light is going off in people's minds about the dark
role that he and his illegitimate royal family have played
in domestic oppression, illegal exploitation of wealth and
resources belonging to the people of the Arabian Peninsula
and shady and, often, catastrophic, role that the Sauds
have played and the injury and heartache that their
actions have inflicted around the globe on innocent
people, including thousands of American Citizens.
Moreover, a red line is crossed when so many Citizens
in States around that area live in poverty and are
exploited economically and socially and, instead of any
sort of sensitivity, their pseudo-illegitimate-``leaders"
spent extravagant amounts for them and their
entourage and associates to travel mindlessly and
aimlessly just for the fun of it and just because they
can, and all that on the public purse which they have
shamelessly appropriated. Instead of being welcome
in Hollywood and salivated after for their wealth,
members of this family should have been declared
persona non grata for at least two decades now
in this State of hours and should have been allowed
in only for private low key traveling in the U.S..  Many
of their assets should have been frozen to provide relief
and compensation to the many victims of their overt
and covert political, intelligence and military operations
and actions. What a pity we, as Citizens understand so
little, tolerate so much, and our leaders care so much
less when money talks.


Good News from both South Korea and South Africa.


The issue here is not which of these two miserable
personalities is worst and more despicable than the
other and which State of these two is the grossest
violator of Human Rights and International Law.
Israel is a State that builds buildings to commemorate
the worst atrocities in Human History and puts over
the doors statements like ``We must not see any person
as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person
a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures,
with its own sources of anguish, and with some measure
of triumph." But these words and philosophies that
they quote so amply and understand so poorly are
of the Jews, by the Jews and for the Jews. When it
comes to the other side of the Gaza fences, not only
is Humanity viewed as an abstraction and Humans
as numbers, but, worse, they are clearly viewed as
dispensable and as mere animal statistics. How else
could one explain the fact that, should Jews in Jerusalem
or Tel Aviv demonstrate angrily for their Rights and
against brutal oppression methods, the Jewish State
fearful of the potential loss of Human Life would use
at most water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets,
but, when it comes to its Palestinian inhabitants, they
use live bullets and could not care less about their
safety and the consequences? These indisputable facts
do not need to be politicized, between one despicable
leader and another. These facts should give food for
thought to the Israeli Citizens and soldiers. When
your State and your Government ask you to shoot
demonstrators point-blank and to turn your weapons
against Human Beings protesting, REMEMBER ELIE
WIESEL, REMEMBER HIS QUOTE ABOUT THE
SECRETS, THE TREASURES, THE ANGUISH
AND THE TRIUMPHS OF HUMANITY and lay
down your weapons, even at the risk of being
court-martialed by a brutal and oppressive State.
That is the only way to make your Government
abide by the quotations that it is preaching and by
the Principles that is constantly asking other Nations
to live by, when it comes to Jews and antisemitism and
the discrimination that affects them.  DO YOUR PART
SO THAT OTHER STATES HAVE AN INCENTIVE
AND AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO DO THEIRS.


Κρίμα! Ο Κυριάκος θα αφήσει αλλη μία ευκαιρία
για άμεσες και αναγκαίες μεταρρυθμίσεις να πάει
χαμένη και η υποψία είναι ότι το κάνει μόνο και
μόνο για να σιγουρέψει την καρέκλα αγνοώντας
το κόστος για την Ελληνική Πολιτεία και αδια-
φορώντας για τα σωστά βήματα για βελτίωση
των θεσμών και απαλλαγή από τα κακώς κείμενα.
Πέραν τούτου, πολύ φοβάμαι ότι δείνει και τα
πρώτα δείγματα χαρακτήρα και του πώς θα
πράξει όταν εκλεγεί, παρά τη ρητορική και τα
μπλαμπλά περί ιδεαλισμού και πράξεως του
σωστού ανεξαρτήτως κομματικών και προσωπικών
συμφερόντων, που, όπως δείχνουν οι πράξεις, είναι
δυστυχώς μόνο πολιτικά λόγια και τεχνάσματα
χωρίς ουδέν αντίκρισμα. Ας ετοιμαστούμε λοιπόν
για άλλη μία μεγάλη Ελληνική απογοήτευση και
για άλλη μία μεγάλη χαμένη ευκαιρία και ας
μην ισχυριστούμε ότι δεν ξέραμε και ότι δεν
είχαμε προεκλογικά δείγματα γραφής.


What is happening in our country? How have people,
and especially ``police officers", become so beastly, so
cold-hearted, so inhumane and so savage and murderous?
Is it because of lack of education, lack of Humanity, lack
of training, lack of empathy and sympathy, or simply the
widespread and well-known unaccountability and lack
of judicial process and deficit of real Justice that we all
have been witnessing in a consistent, persistent and all
pervasive manner for many many years now? Like with
gun laws and gun control regulations, the authority and
the powers - and the equipment - bestowed on ``police
forces", heartless brutes and savages, in this State of
ours are in need of radical rethinking and reconsideration,
that is, if we care to the least as a Civilized Society, for
the well-being and the survival of the most unfortunate,
least connected and weakest among us.


Απαράδεχτες δηλώσεις για βολευτή και βολεμένο
πολιτισμένου κράτους. Κατσίκα με τα όλα της (και
συγγνώμη από τα συμπαθέστατα τετράποδα...)


Προσπαθούμε να κάνουμε μεταρρυθμίσεις για να
υπάρχει περισσότερη διαφάνεια και ειλικρίνια
στις σχέχεις κράτους - πολίτη και βλέπω άλλοι
κάνουν σκέψεις για πισωγυρίσματα και για
υπόγεια ενθάρρυνση της επιστροφής στα
μουλωχτά και στα μαύρα. Τα πρόστιμα για
οτιδήποτε αδήλωτο και παράνομο θα πρέπει,
αν μη τι άλλο, να αυξηθούν, όχι να γίνονται
συζητήσεις περί μειώσεων. Αντιλαμβάνονται
οι ανεύθυνοι υπεύθυνοι τί μήνυμα στέλνουν
τέτοιες συζητήσεις στην αγορά;


Μπράβο, Σταύρο! Οι προτάσεις σου απαιτούνται
και απαιτείται μεγάλη συναίνεση για να περάσουν
αυτές οι μεταρρυθμίσεις και να αλλάξει σιγά-σιγά
το κράτος και οι πολίτες και να απαλλαγούμε από
πολλά κακώς κείμενα.


Κι άλλη ατομάντζα που να τον πάρει και να τον
σηκώσει και να μην τον ξανακατεβάσει.


Απο την πολη ερχομαι και στην κορφη κανελα...


I would have been more sympathetic to the
argument of Jewish organizations against
``political discrimination" if the Jewish State
itself had not been perceiving itself free to,
and had not been feeling entitled to, practice
political discrimination against others.


I am extremely grateful to all People that took part
in the March for Our Lives and who support strict
and firmer gun control legislation. The times are
indeed a-changing and I think that enough support
is being amassed that we are approaching fast at
a critical point in our political and social life, at
which People will be able to inflict such clinical
and significant losses to the supporters of laissez
faire gun laws and to the pro-NRA and NRA-funded
``representatives" that they will have absolutely
no motive to adopt such abominable, insensitive
and destructive positions and will, at last, pass
strong legislation on the side of the People and
protecting the People instead of the financial and
commercial interests of the merchants of death.


Abe fu**ed up big time. He has lost credibility, he has
stayed in power for too long and gotten deeply corrupted
and its is clearly high time to go before more damage has
been inflicted on Japan's already shaky political system.
In addition, a Prime Minister on his way out should know
better than touch the cornerstone, the pillar, of Japan's
Military and Foreign Affairs, which is its Constitutional
Dicta about military status and deployments. Many
believe that the enormous prestige Japan has amassed
after WWII and its ability to play a leading role and
positively influence Global Affairs stems, to a large
degree, by this Pacifist Constitution and accompanying
demeanor and the Openness and Friendliness of Japan
to All Other Nations and, clearly, a bankrupt Prime
Minister, on the ebb of his political career, is unfit to
tamper with and/or amend such an important fixture.


I am sorry about what happened to this lovely family.
And it might very well have been an accident. However,
I would not trust the Mexican ``authorities" or the
Mexican ``police" to investigate, since they would
most likely conclude that it was an accident even if
it had not been but that suited their and their
sponsors' interests, and that's why I would never
visit Mexico under current conditions and would
urge all U.S. Citizens to do the same. You may be
thinking you are getting the high life and that you
are getting upscale opportunities for cheap, but you
are putting yourselves in the lion's den and that lion
has tentacles everywhere (or should we say paws)
and no honest guards to protect against.


The morph defroze a bankrupt political relic from
the deep freezer of failed U.S. History to a significant
post that deserves better. But, as we very well know,
he will soon be returning to the cupboards, or the
trashcans, of that History and the next time, after
cooperation with the notoriously ``stable genius",
History will be neither so kind nor so forgiving, so
it will provide neither ice nor preservatives.


Very good news from Peru! A stain in the fabric of the
Nation has been removed after too much effort and too
extravagant and too unnecessarily large quantities of
detergent were spent, with an outrageously high cost to
the Public Purse, the Public Trust and the Credibility
of the State, but, unfortunately, the substance involved
(known in Chemistry, Biology and political circles as
Kuczinsky) is notoriously stinky, slimy, disgusting,
penetrating, infectious and malodorous.


Powerful people that stand to profit and, in the altar of
greed, break the laws without regard for the Public Good
and with little regard for the Law should be held more
accountable than others because, in good times (or when
they are not caught) stand to profit much more than the
average person. So, it is very fortunate that both Sarkozy
and Zuckerberg are being seriously questioned and, since
it is more or less clear that both profited - one politically
and most likely financially also, and the other financially,
to extravagant degrees, they should both be held strictly
accountable and punished to the fullest extent of the
Law for the crimes and/or breaches they are responsible
for. And, if Nicolas goes through some ``hell" during
the investigations, so be it; he should have thought more
about that, like a smart and responsible man, before
meeting with Muammar, clinching deals and reaping
the rewards...


The victim was white and blond... Life really matters...
We have a charge... at last... What a travesty of Justice...


Good riddance. Under his watch, we saw Horrendous
Crimes Against Humanity and Horrendous Violations
of Human Rights and Horrendous Assaults on Human
Dignity and Horrendous Disregard for Human Life
and Humanitarian Norms. I hope that he would stand
trial and perish on the stand in a court of Law or in
jail. But none of these brutes have ever paid the price
that our simple Humanity should dictate in a matter
of course and straightforward way. Pity that another
such Gross Violation would be let stand, followed by
another Gross Disappointment, another Gross and
Devastating Disillusionment against the premise
that the Polity and the Justice of Humanity can Do
Right or can Correct and Remedy any Wrongs.


Of course, Humanity is the way it is and humans
are humans and have many weaknesses. And of
course we need the Survivors to tell their stories
and to remind us that it is possible for History,
even its darkest moments, to occur again and
to recycle the devastation, disasters and sorrow
and that our Duty to our Children and ourselves
is to beware and to strongly oppose all traces,
even the most minute, of bigotry, racism and
discrimination and Defend and Protect all
Human Beings and all Ethnicities and all
Religious and other Minorities with our whole
strength, as if they were our own, because, in
reality, they are and we are all Brothers and
Sisters with a Common Destiny, even when
our vanity and foolishness prevents us from
discerning it, realizing it and absorbing it.


The son of a bastard system, partly a czar, but not
really, partly elected, but not really, and partly a
General Secretary from communist times, but not
really, and, so, to be appropriately called the
``bastardevich", was elected for a fourth term.
Of course, the ``muted Western reaction" was
totally justified - how to react to the results of
an electoral process in a pseudo - democratic
system that you must deal with even though
you have strong negative feelings about - and
the most appropriate, perhaps, reading of this
pseudo-electoral process is to try to discern,
by looking at numbers, how much dissension
and dissatisfaction there is through the various
percentages of approval in the different regions
of this Great, but tortured, State assuming that
they are based on real preferences registered
by voters and real counts and not on ballot
stuffing being more effective here and there
and fictitious numbers. On the total, there may
be some positives for Russia, including, perhaps,
stability, but there are also strong negatives,
which will take years to address after the
bstdvich leaves office. The most serious and
devastating domestically are, perhaps, corruption,
bribery, erosion of public trust and business through
bakshish, which, unless there is a new regime, with
a very high ethical posturing and an interest in
``clean hands" restructuring and opening of the
business sector to plurality - rather than an interest
in keeping it in the hands of cronies, oligarchs, political
supporters, butt kissers, feet lickers, associates and
the like - is not going to happen.


Τί ``κίνημα αλλαγής'' είναι αυτό όπου ληγμένες
κονσέρβες από το παρελθόν που έχουν αποτύχει
παταγωδώς και έχουν ομαδόν συμβάλλει στην
καταστροφή και και τη βύθιση της χώρας στο
χάος, χωρίς ντροπή και οίκτο ανεβαίνουν στο βήμα
και αγορεύουν για νέες αρχές και νέες πορείες;
Αυτό ακούγεται σαν ``κίνημα επιστροφής"
και μηρυκασμού και, μου φαίνεται ότι, λόγω
της αφύπνισης του λαού και της εκλογικής
τιμωρίας και συμφοράς, άλλαξε ο Μανωλιός
κι έβαλε τα ρούχα του αλλιώς...


The porn and the client, who says he never
saw, heard, spoke or smelled. This is the sh*t-
face whom we elected as president of this, the
Greatest Nation and the Most Powerful State
on the Planet. I would have said that it is
unprecedented and has never happened before,
but it has happened both in Empires and in
Civilized States multiple times before, but,
perhaps never before in this State of ours.
Luckily, we are a Democracy with a term
limit for Elected Offices and it will not last
for long.


I do not know whether McCabe leaked, lied or
was biased. What I know is that the liar-in-chief,
the perjurer-in-chief, a man, who every time he is
testifying makes the public wonder whether he is
so ruthless, dishonest and deceitful or whether he
has Alzheimer's, has absolutely no right to fire any
one else for the crime that he is himself the most
guilty of committing and, especially so, since he
holds an office who is supposed to be defending
the Citizens against illegal, suspicious and biased
conduct. In any other Well-Governed and Developed
State with a truly independent Justice System,
the abject Sessions with his scandalously crooked
testimonies, who has lied by both commission and
omission would have been sacked by his boss or
impeached by Congress long before he had been
able to turn against others for crimes he has himself
shamelessly committed and for which he has never
apologized or been held accountable.
SHAME ON SESSIONS AND ABJECT ``JUSTICE".


Russia, besides its abject and fraudulent political system,
has also a huge credibility issue when, disregarding all
Principles of International Law and Customs, it pursues
and eliminates individuals perceived as enemies of the
State or enemies of its ruling elites in the territory of
other Independent and Sovereign States without any
formal process of either request for extradition or other
due legal process. One cannot but stand with the U.K.
in this predicament and hope that the measures that
the U.K. and its allies would come up with to deal with
this totally unacceptable Russian interference will be
so punishing that the Russian State and governing
gangsters would think twice before employing such antics.


Abject scum. Frauds that fill their pockets by manipulating
shamelessly a rigged system and then pay a fraction of the
loot in fines and live happily ever after with big bank accounts
and mansions in California and elsewhere without ever serving
long jail sentences as they should for their deeds and characters.


An unrepentant criminal and gross violator of Human
Rights who is dragging his own State deeper and deeper
in the gutter from which his successor will have a very
hard time pulling back up to the surface.


Stephen Hawking is with us no more...


The decline and degeneration of the State Department
continues apace with the replacement of a weak and
frightened (could not even express his frank opinion
about the morph in public) mediocrity by an abject,
despicable and superficial excrement. Unfortunately,
one cannot but suspect that there is an orchestrated
plan to decimate and dishonor one of the most highly
esteemed, wisest, most experienced and most active
Ministries of Foreign Affairs on Earth, simply because
it is doing its job in a thoughtful and deliberate way,
with caution and pragmatism, and, in general, morph
together with caution and smartness are not a great fit.


The morph said others are afraid of the NRA. It looks
like another case of the ``pot calling the kettle black"
and another case of the morph talking big and acting
smaller than its fingers...


Savvidis must pay a hefty price. Nothing but a long
jail term would show that violence, arbitrariness,
cowboy antics and threats are not tolerated by either
the Greek State or the Greek Football Authorities
and the European Football Establishment. In my
view, Savvidis should, in addition, be banned by
any future involvement with this or with any other
Sport. Guns in an athletic venue, especially when
used to intimidate referees after an unfavorable
decision, should be a red line for any authority or
any athletic organization.


I hear the imbecile and politically bankrupt Bannon
is traveling around the World and stirring feelings of
hatred, exclusion, racism and discrimination and is
attempting to turn thinking and savvy Citizen's into
morph's and embezzling marie's supporters (who,
by the way, thinks of political party names as personal
underwear, that you can change at will when your
inattention and predicaments get them soiled and
stinky). I hope that European Citizens laugh and
enjoy the charade and the comedy this abject,
idiotic, despicable (in)human being's travels are
providing and hope that the expenses are his own
and  none of their party contributions are furnishing
funds for his expensive and extravagant meaningless
ramblings and vacations.
 

The Iranian Government is shooting itself in the foot
by preventing Journalists of one of the most respected
News Organizations from doing their jobs uninhibited.
Even those of us that have stood by Iran when it has
been harassed and unjustly accused for every evil
transpiring in the Universe, especially, when its
accusers are backing worse regimes than those in
Tehran, cannot stand by and see Journalists harassed
and intimidated by Iran or by any other Government on
Earth. Without Free and Powerful Journalism, this
World's Citizens lose one of their most empowering
political weapons and, if that is the goal of the Iranian
Government, it will find all World's Citizens in firm
and vocal opposition.

 
Pity for China and SHAME to its ``legislators" who
gave their consent to the creation of a pile of xi(t),
by being, as usually, scared xi(tless) to express their
own opinions and to argue for the right thing to be
done and for the good of their Nation to prevail.


The courts should send the NRA where it belongs:
to the gutters of history. The most devious, the most
socially insensitive and the most detrimental and
corrupting politically organization in the History
of this Nation is trying to portray itself under a
feminist light and as a defender of Women's Rights
and of Equality. I hope all women's organizations
and movements answer this move by unequivocally
and vociferously disassociating themselves from the
abject proponents of gun proliferation and from
those merchants and profiteers of violence and
abuse and, if appropriate, take legal countermeasures
against the appropriation and false use of their causes,
their Principles and their Struggles in vain, distorted
and totally despicable and unacceptable ways.


I hope these intentions are sincere and the news we are
receiving are substantiated and not a hoax. But it beats
me why a dictator would anger the whole World and
cause outrage and endanger an entire region only to
turn around and suggest readiness to give away what
he took a great political, economic and military risk
developing. And, as they say, when something sounds
too good (too hopeful and too noble) to be true, it very
often and most likely is. I do hope that the morph and
the South Koreans are not falling into some kind of
trap, revealing once more the cynicism and the cunning,
malevolent and manipulative personality of the cartoon
and its International (Permanent UNSC Member) backers.


Αλήτες, νοσταλγοί του Ναζισμού και ρατσιστόμουτρα στο
Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο. Αλλά αφού τους ψηφίζουμε, και
τους εκλέγουμε, και δε ντρεπόμαστε, να τους χαιρόμαστε...


May their efforts succeed. The World needs desperately
an injection of Hope. After the fall of the Iron Curtain
many of the promises went unrealized, the one fortunate
exception being the reunified Germany. After the Arab
Spring many of the promises there went unrealized and
a new wave of violence, absolutism and dictatorships
spread rapidly over that tortured area, the one fortunate
exception being Tunisia. It would be a really uplifting
development if we made it to see in our lifetimes Korea
and Cyprus being single States with One International
Personality again, with their communities living hand-in-
hand, peacefully together with fraternal feelings and
with the past firmly behind them. Then, many of us,
worried and disturbed by our inability to hand down
to our Children and our Children's Children a better
World than the one we inherited from our Forefathers,
may rest a little - a tiny little - more at ease.


IF SOMETHING SOUNDS TOO GOOD (AND
TOO NOBLE) TO BE TRUE PERHAPS IT IS.
PITY... TOO BAD...
[In the midst of dark political news from Italy, the
Owners and the Board at Fiorentina sent to all
the World a message of Tenderness, Solidarity,
Kindness and Ultimate Humanity by renewing
posthumously the contract of Davide Astori as
a gesture of support, in these difficult moments
and trying circumstances, for his family.
BRAVO, FIORENTINA! TODAY WE ALL
STAND WITH YOU AND WITH DAVIDE's FAMILY
IN YOUR DEEP SORROW AND WE ARE ALL
VIOLA FANS.]


Saddest news from Italy. The voters, to cope with very
complex and difficult problems and with a future that,
albeit, admittedly challenging and uncertain, presents
great possibilities and tremendous potential for Amity,
Fraternity, Social Justice, Peaceful Coexistence, Compassion,
Cooperation and Growth, chose questionable characters
and pinocchios to entrust with the future of the State
with, perhaps, one of the richest Histories and one of
the most influential and emphatic Cultural Contributions
in the development of Humanism and Humanity. It
almost makes one's heart bleed and makes the recent
developments in Germany, with SPD's agreement to
support a CDU-CSU led Government to push for more
Integration, more Social Justice and more Solidarity
and Compassion across the Continent so much more
valuable and significant, not only for Germans, but
for all World Citizens who are failing themselves by
being fooled into lending their support and their
votes to populist charlatans, spent cadavers and
unstable idiots the World over.


Κρίμα! Καταρρέουν μία-μία και όλες οι εναπομέινασες
ελπίδες για ``διαφορετικό ήθος" και αποκαλύπτεται με
τρόπο εκκωφαντικό και οικτρό ότι υπήρξε ολομέτωπη
επίθεση και λεηλασία των όσων είχαν εναπομείνει στο
δημόσιο από τους προηγούμενους, μέσω των ίδιων
παλιών και καλά δοκιμασμένων μεθόδων: Βόλεμα
των ημετέρων και λουβάρισμα, νόμιμο και μή, απ' όπου
και όσο μπορούσε ο καθένας και από κάθε οργανισμό
και σε κάθε γωνιά διοίκησης. Κρίμα... Παταγώδης
αποτυχία του αμόρφωτου πρωθυπουργού και σ' αυτόν
τον τομέα. Θα του μείνει μόνη παρηγοριά ότι, μάλλον
μέσω παρομοίων μεθόδων, βόλεψε και τη γυναίκα του.
Κατά τα άλλα έρχεται και γι αυτόν βαθύ μαύρο...


Οι απόψεις μιας πολιτικά εξοστρα(γ)κισμένης και κυνηγημένης
δεν έχουν καμία αξία. Θα είχαν πολύ μεγάλη αξία και πολύ
μεγάλο ειδικό βάρος, αν, από την αρχή, έχοντας γνώση των
περιουσιακών της στοιχείων και λαμβάνοντας υπόψη της
περικοπές που είχε κληθεί να εφαρμόσει η Κυβέρνηση και
την κατάσταση της οικονομίας και ενός μεγάλου μέρους του
πληθυσμού, είχε αρνηθεί όχι μόνο το ενοίκιο, αλλά και το
αυτοκίνητο και τα άλλα επιδόματα, όπως αναφέρει, κι
αυτό σε αντίθεση με πολλούς, ή με τους περισσότερους
συναδέλφους της. Αλλά δυστυχώς κανείς δε τα σκέφτεται
αυτά εκ των προτέρων παρά μόνο όταν τα σφάλματα
ξεσκεπαστούν κι αρχίσει η κατακραυγή. Και το ακόμα
πιο τραγικό είναι ότι πουθενά δεν υπάρχει πολιτικός
που να σκέφτεται το ηθικό πλεονέκτημα και πώς να
το επιτύχει. Όλοι προσπαθούν να ελαχιστοποιήσουν
το μειονέκτημα και να φερθούν όπως όλοι οι υπόλοιποι
για να πουν, όπως και η Κυρά Ράνια, όλοι έτσι κάναμε,
όλοι μαζί τα τρώγαμε, όλοι μαζί τα ξοδεύαμε κλπ. κλπ.
Τί πιο εύκολο και τί πιο αναίμακτο, σκέφτονται, μέχρι
που είδαν τί συνέβει στο ΠΑΣΟΚ, αλλά ακόμα και
μ'αυτό δε φαίνεται μυαλό να έβαλαν πολλοί...


I would not even go for vacation in this abominable State
because of what happened, which is not an exception, but
is part of modus operandi there. No one should visit a
State where the police is glove - in - hand with criminals,
since, clearly, if you are looked at in the wrong way, there
would be no authority to turn to and no protection to seek.
Since it is not a smart thing to visit this despicable State
even for vacations, I am really surprised that there are,
supposedly thinking, Europeans that go there for business,
allegedly suspicious business on top of that, and, in a
State where criminal activity is especially high on top
of even that. What were they thinking? That the profit
was well worth their lives? If so, their risk did materialize
and they have no one to blame but themselves for visiting
the wolf in its den. I CALL ON CITIZENS OF THE
WORLD FOR THE n-TH TIME: BOYCOTT MEXICO.
VISIT ONLY IF AND WHEN THE STATE GIVES
CLEAR SIGNS THAT CARTELS, POLICE AND
POLITICIANS ARE NOT ONE AND THE SAME,
AS IS THE SITUATION RIGHT NOW.


Clearly, some have extraordinary abilities high up
and some have extraordinary abilities low down,
and the USCIS takes both very very seriously...


The whores on the Capitol Hill this week visited with
their most loyal clients, lowered their pants and took it
dutifully and gracefully as they and their clients like,
toying with the barrels of handguns and rifles until
moaning with pleasure and, then, left with their Pacs
and their campaign coffers filled with the prearranged
fee, as is their preferred method of payment for
services rendered. They staged the recorded show to
look like a respectable family-friendly movie
``Hunting in the Night" by cutting out the saucy
scenes and by shooting above the waist to avoid the
deserved designation as porn. I hear, this coming week
they are stopping at their next best client's, the bank
bosses, to also exercise their skills and metier, i.e.,
high-end servicing, allowing attachment of stacks
of banknotes to their stringed bikinis by bending
over, and master-slave positioning. So let's wait
for the second installment, the respectably shot
 ``Wall Street Goes for a Ride".


I agree with the morph that the NRA has ``great power" over
``lawmakers" and would add that the People have in comparison
very little and this becomes obvious when it comes to weapons.
I doubt the morph's bragging that the NRA has ``less power
over him", but this is still to be determined. Finally, I completely
disagree with, and fret, the morphs estimation that more guns
around schools and other naturally gun-free zones are going
to make people - vulnerable people - safer. I am terrified by
the vision that, with the least suspicion or with the least hint
of suspicious movement, gun-ho individuals and other
vigilantes, will start confronting one another with assault
weapons with substantial probability of collateral damage
and with great danger of psychological pressure and of
physical and psychological scarring of those that have
to live daily as dwellers of zones resembling post-war
or post-conflict neighborhoods.


The concept of Charity itself is antithetical to denying food,
shelter or support to a person based on their ethnicity or place
of origin, or on any personal characteristics, such as sex, race,
sexual orientation etc.. How could a person who is doing
charitable work decline to provide to a Human in need and
what would that person mean by ``charity"? This goes a long
way in showcasing the abject and shocking truth that many of
these ``charity" organizations, in fact a large percent of the
large-scale organized ``charity", consist of mostly merchants
and profiteers of ``charity" and are, in truth, political
organizations that fool their donors into believing that the
``right thing" is done and, thus, convince them to open their
hearts and their wallets, when in reality, much of the funding
is siphoned into private profit via extravagant salaries at the
top and much of the remaining is manipulated politically
instead of being provided with open hearts and open minds
Charitably. I bet that if the poor in Essen had their say,
they would embrace poor immigrants and share with them
their meager supplies and it is the monstrosity of the rich
profiteers of ``charity" that creates those despicable and
disgraceful decisions to discriminate based on ethnicity etc.


When both you and your dad are public figures, one
president (without the popular vote) and the other
an advisor (without any relevant experience), the
rules that apply in sheltering daughters from
questions about their dads' personal lives and the
rules that apply, in general, for privacy and for
allowing personal breathing space are not applicable
in the same way. Ivanka' response, since she has
chosen to get mixed-up with this abominable
administration, was completely absurd and out
of order. Her dad's shenanigans and sexual exploits
and adventures are and should be scrutinized for
matters of national interest and national security.
It is time you own up to it and stop beating around
the bush. And saying you believe in his innocence
because he has said he is innocent and because you
are his daughter and has the right to believe in what
he claims, sounds like taking the fifth and does not
cut it. Many criminals' wives and children believe
that their relatives are innocent, despite substantial
evidence to the contrary, and this does nor alter facts.


These idiots that bask in conflict and war should send
their own daughters to fight and should advise their own
kids to dress in uniform and should glorify to their own
kids dying for the motherland. But we saw how honest
this scum, this despicable hypocrite is, when he urged
all parents to send their daughters to harems and to
religious schools, but he knows better about doing the
same and violating in the same way his own children.
But what he does not realize is that Divine Justice exists
and awaits all hypocrites and manipulators, and that,
sooner or later, he will pay dearly for his hypocrisy, his
blood-thirst and his willingness to sacrifice, without
a second thought, all but his own.


Left Government and Social Justice my a**... Every
plutocrat that pretends to be a social advocate and
a friend of the ``people" violates with the first available
opportunity the Spirit of the Law, while expertly, and
with Legal advice and legalese explanations, hides
shamelessly behind the Letter of the Law. But. I
guess, for a long time Rouvikonas and the clueless
``Anti-Authoritarians" have been chasing after
ghosts and the wrong people when the real culprits
are among their staunchest supporters and allies...


Extremely negative news from China. Not only has China
bastardized its regime to an untenable, repressive, pseudo-
communist, ultra-corrupt and ultra-cut-throat-capitalism,
but it seems that the ``communist" party there is making
moves to establish a veritable monarchy, Russian-style.
Only, in Russia at least, Putin had the ``decency" to abide
by the Constitution and allow Dmitri to sit in as a puppet
placeholder for the period when he was Constitutionally
termed out of office, without bothering to institute a
Constitutional change and, perhaps, recognizing, that
such a move, although personally profitable, would create
a negative political precedent and ``example", and send
a message of the worst possible kind for any Well-Governed
State. But should we have expected any different from
China with its well-known political history of elevating
criminal pseudo-personalities to the status of deities
and with its well-known deep corruption at the top,
which is addressed only in a superficial way by
occasionally scapegoating and prosecuting underlings,
but without ever allowing to even remotely touch the
most and deepest corrupt, which are the ``people" and
the families of those ``people"sitting in the West Building
and in the Great Hall of the ``People"?
SHAME ON XI JINPING FOR THIS MOVE.
From him, personally, even though he has not been
above and beyond suspicion by any means, I would
have expected to defend some Fundamental and
Non-negotiable Principles, one among which is the
Presidential Term-Limit, a sine qua non for the Polity
of any Well-Governed and Self-Respecting State.


Donald Tusk is absolutely right. If some State wants
to enjoy the advantages of E.U. Membership, they
also have to bear the responsibilities and the burdens
of E.U. Membership. It is the same with any level of
belonging to any group or unit; a family member
cannot demand to be allowed to live in a household,
enjoying the advantages of shelter, food, support
etc., but declining to make any contributions to the
needs of the household and the obligations arising
by such cohabitation. Unfortunately, some in the
U.K. either lied blatantly by claiming to voters
that something along those lines is possible, or,
by being stuck to the mentality of the Empire with
possessions of subjects (both individuals and
States), genuinely believed that the U.K. had the
power and persuasion to fool a block of 400M
people to do their bidding without reciprocating.
Tusk is right in asking the U.K. to think again and,
in his way, forcing the Britons to come down of their
high horse and to face reality. But, the best way,
and we keep repeating it both for the U.K.'s own
good and because we genuinely like and feel
indebted to the U.K. for its linguistic, cultural,
commercial, scientific,... contributions to our
Civilization, and because we want to sway the U.K.'s
stubborn and strong-minded, but erring politicians,
is to rethink and reconsider BrExit and to rejoin
fully the community, the Union of European States.


When an organizations receives funding from literary
everywhere, to maintain its credibility it should have
strict regulations self-imposing accountability toward
all. So it is my opinion that all aid organizations and
all ``aid organizations" should make it a policy, for
transparency and accountability, to publish a list of
their employees and their salaries, from top to bottom,
and to publish, close to the names, dismissals and the
reasons for dismissals. And if an individual, after
being informed of those rules, has a problem with
their name and income and employment or
termination status being public, then, they should
be informed that they must seek work elsewhere,
where the funding is not such that publicity and
openness are strictly necessary to fulfill the need
for scrutiny and the commitment to transparency
and the dedication to public service and to the
highest code of ethics and conduct. And if the Law
does not allow the openness proposed, then the ICRC
executives have to sit down with legislators and
negotiate a change in the Law to allow that the
ICRC be afforded that level of transparency to
ensure uninhibited exercise of its functions and
continuation of its critical mission without need
to hide its shortcomings and to compromise its
integrity and its standards.


Ελπίζω να πρόσεξαν δεόντως τις καρέκλες στο
Προεδρικό Μέγαρο γιατί ο καημένος ο Κύριος
Higgins φαίνεται λίγο ``μη μου απτου''...


This idiot is advocating more guns for everyone so that
everyone feels safe. What he does not realize is that his
opinion is worthless, since he is acting and talking on
behalf of huge financial interests and commercial stakes
and has overwhelmingly self-serving motivations.
Also, he does not realize that, like America woke up
against tobacco, when all tobacco firms and all tobacco
executives had been reassuring that we needed more
tobacco to be healthy (guess why?), it will also wake up
to the lies, the abuses and the criminality of the gun
lobby and the gun manufacturers. There is absolutely
no reason for anyone to possess firearms of a grade
and lethality above and beyond those that can be used
for hunting. Everything else has a single goal and
that is to kill, injure, maim or torture and should
not be possessed by any civilian in any capacity.


What kind of defense is this? I am dumbfounded that the
Law is even allowing lawyers to do something like this.
A pig abuses almost everyone and leaves a few exceptions
and the despicable lawyers are allowed to use the exceptions
to mount the defense against those abused? It is like having
someone accused of stealing huge amounts from a specific
bank and his lawyers arguing that, since he has dealt with
five banks and did not steal from the other four, the case
about the fifth should be dismissed, because from the four
one must conclude that he is not a thief. This is truly
absurd and shows how pathetic, repulsive and desperate
these lawyers and their client really are. Pig, you should
have thought about the consequences before your abuses,
not trying to also abuse and twist truth after what you
did to those women and what you subjected them to.


Veni No Vidi Cessi


Inhumane brutes are heading the World's most expensive
``charities''. The despicable merchants and profiteers of
charity must have their luxurious and extravagant ``charity"
jobs discontinued effective immediately. Otherwise the
British MPs will just be investigating for show, without a
true intention to reshape the Charity World and to make
it charitable, as it should have been all along.


What can one say when one finds that there are individuals
willing to vandalize anything, but more so, so much more so,
a unique piece of our heritage that came to us in extreme
fortune and with extreme care through millennia of Human
History. People sometimes prove themselves so petty and
so much below the circumstances they find themselves in...


Slimy, corrupt idiot, resign and deal with your own
personal problems, graft and insatiable greed, first,
and then gather the audacity to tell Israel and the
Israelis what to do. Enough is enough.


Ακούω ότι πιθανολογείται να μας εμφυτεύσουν
έναν ανερμάτιστο, άξεστο και ανίκανο αλήτη,
που βύθησε τη χώρα στο σκοτάδι για πρόεδρο
της Δημοκρατίας. Ελπίζω να μην περνάει καν
από το μυαλό του Κυριάκου διότι, αντιθέτως,
θα μείνει στην ιστορία, ανεξαρτήτως έργου,
ως πολιτική παρία και ως ένας πολιτικός
αγύρτης, που, μόνο και μόνο λόγω πολιτικών
σκοπιμοτήτων, αντάμειψε την ανικανότητα
και την καταστροφή.


Διαβάζω η Νέα Δημοκρατία, παρά τις διαβεβαιώσεις
Μητσοτάκη περί αλήθειας και ιδεαλισμού κλπ. κλπ.,
συνεχίζει να κατευθύνει πυρά εναντίον του κ. Κοτζιά.
Αν υποσχόμαστε να λέμε την  αλήθεια, να την λέμε
ξεκάθαρα. Ο ΣΥΡΙΖΑ είπε τρανταχτά ψέμματα στους
ψηφοφόρους και ο ΣΥΡΙΖΑ έχει αποτύχει παταγωδώς
σε πάρα πολλούς και σημαντικούς τομείς, με πρώτους,
δυστυχώς, την παιδεία και την δικαιοσύνη/πολιτική
διαφάνεια (κυρίως λόγου Καμμένου και συγκαλύψεων).
Όμως ο ΣΥΡΙΖΑ έχει και μεγάλες επιτυχίες ή, έστω,
τόλμησε εκεί που οι άλλοι, και είμαι σίγουρος και
του Κυριάκου συμπεριλαμβανομένου, θα κρύβονταν.
Πρώτα και εξαιρετικά σημαντικά, ανεξαρτήτως εάν
μας αρέσει ή όχι, ο Τσακαλώτος έκανε σημαντική
και συστηματική δουλειά και απομάκρυνε τη χώρα
από το χείλος του γκρεμού. Δεν είχαμε ούτε ένα
Ευρώ να πιούμε ένα καφέ του ποδαριού, αλλά με
δανεικά πηγαίναμε και πίναμε στα King George
και στα Grande Bretagne τον καφέ των δέκα για
τη μόνστρα. Και συμμαζευτήκαμε, αποκτήσαμε
αυτογνωσία και αυτοσυγκράτηση και μάθαμε να
περνάμε με ό,τι έχουμε. Δεν ξέρω, αν τίποτα άλλο
εκτός από την Υγεία είναι τόσο σημαντικό.
Δεύτερον, ο Κοτζιάς, ανεξαρτήτως αν οι πρωτοβουλίες
του θα ευτυχήσουν ή όχι (το οποίο δεν εξαρτάται μόνο
από εκείνον ή μόνο από την Ελλάδα), είχε το θάρρος
να κινήσει θέματα που βαλτώνουν για χρόνια ή για
δεκαετίες, ενώ άλλοι θα τα απέφευγαν ή θα κρύβονταν,
και είναι έτοιμος να επωμισθεί μεγάλο πολιτικό
κόστος, όπως και ο Τσακαλώτος, για να κάνει το
σωστό και συμφέρον για τη χώρα. Θα περίμενα,
λοιπόν ο Κυριάκος, που μας μιλάει για στήριξη
των καλών και για καταδίκη των κακών, απ' όπου
κι αν προέρχονται, να κατανοήσει το μοναδικό και
σημαντικό μήνυμα ότι τα πιο μεγάλα και τα πιο
σημαδιακά βήματα για το καλό της χώρας δεν
έρχονται παρά μόνο με μέγα πολιτικό κόστος
και μετωπική σύγκρουση με τον άκρατο λαικισμό
και τον άκρατο εθνικισμό, και να βάλει κι εκείνος
τις πλάτες να στηρίξει τους αξιόλογους ανθρώπους
της κυβέρνησης ΣΥΡΙΖΑ, και όχι να είναι αντίθετος
σε όλα μόνο και μόνο για να καθήσει κι εκείνος
μία ώρα αρχίτερα στην καρέκλα, όπως έχουν κάνει
τόσοι και τόσοι καρεκλολάγνοι αρχηγίσκοι πριν από
εκέινον και τους οποίους η χώρα δεν θυμάται και με
ιδιαίτερο ενθουσιασμό ή ιδιαίτερο πάθος, ούτε τους
χρωστάει ευγνωμοσύνη για την κατάντια της...


In my view, Poland has no right to criticize Germany
when it comes to common European and EuroAtlantic
policies. Poland has to look in the mirror, at its sorry
record in political decisions and at its Government's
repeated and shameless courting with right extremism
and, on occasion, neo-Nazi style restrictions of speech
and of expression, to realize how ironic it is that, for
many European Citizens the State that gave birth to
Nazism has become, with its strong, unequivocal and
decisive stance, attitude and behavior a beacon of rights,
compassion and democratic principles in stark (and
singly puzzling) opposition to Poland, which does
not seem, despite its suffering and its damages by
nationalism and Nazism, to either have learned
or to have made a concerted and persistent effort to
deeply absorb and implement those lessons that
Europe and the World has learned by those
atrocities, and, thus, failing to stand as a firm and
stalwart opponent to any and all those sympathizers
and nostalgics of nationalism and xenophobia.


Ms. Driver did the right thing. BUT, I wish no celebrity
would lend their names to organizations that, under
cover of ``charity", are siphoning off humongous sums
in extravagant salaries for their top executives, thus
revealing how honest, how truthful and of which nature
is their ``dedication" to ``charitable" work. Under such
circumstances, NO AMBASSADORS TO MERCHANTS
AND PROFITEERS OF CHARITY.


A dirty prime minister is a dangerous prime minister
because he may attempt political gangsterism and
violations of International Law simply to appease
hard-line domestic audiences and deflect attention
and focus from his own culpability for corruption
and for receiving bribes and, ultimately, from being
deposed, as he very clearly deserves. Netanyahu,
riding on nationalism and extremism, has been for
a long time staining Israel's reputation and it is
high time, now that his personality and his motives
are out in the open, he resigned, or else be removed.


Η μαλάκυνση εγκεφάλου έχει ξεπεράσει κάθε όριο
στα ιατρικά χρονικά, αλλά παρά ταύτα, ανεξήγητα,
κάποιοι δημοσιογράφοι, που απαιτούν και ο κόσμος
να τους παίρνει στα σοβαρά, τον ρωτάνε ακόμα
για τις απόψεις του και τις δημοσιεύουν κι όλας,
πουλώντας τες και ως σοβαρές απλά και μόνο για
να δημιουργήσουν θόρυβο και αίσθηση με πλήρη
έλλειψη της ευθύνης και/ή αδιαφορία για την
ανευθυνότητα που αυτό υποδηλώνει.


Despicable merchants of charity that become millionaires
by paying themselves lavishly with money that is supposed
to go to ``aid" and ``charity". GOOD RIDDANCE.
One less of them is still one too many.


Beautifully done portraits by which to remember the couple
who gave us Hope and made us Believe that some things, like
Social Justice and Peace, might have changed fast for the
better in our United States (albeit a short-lived one and one
that came down with a deafening and shattering thud...)

 
Διάφοροι που τα έχουν λουβάρει, προσπαθούν να θάψουν
και να αποσιωπήσουν την υπόθεση, βασισμένοι όχι στην
ουσία όσων έχουν καταγγελθεί, αλλά σε τεχνικές λεπτομέρειες.
Ελπίζω, αν τα καταφέρουν να ακυρώσουν όλες αυτές τις
καταθέσεις και έτσι να βάλουν την υπόθεση στα συρτάρια
και να μην κινηθεί η δικαιοσύνη και να μην εξεταστούν
τα στοιχεία, οι πολίτες να το θυμούνται και να τους
μαυρίσουν όλους χωρίς εξαιρέσεις στις επόμενες εκλογές.


The U.S. Olympic Committee is unable to either confirm
or deny that it was not Adam Rippon that refused to meet
with Mike Pence, but that Mike Pence did not want to
meet Adam Rippon alone, without the presence of his
wife, due to lack of self-confidence that he would be able
to resist underlying temptations.
 

The morph is obsessed and intent on topping others
in empty, meaningless shows and shallow, expensive
demonstrations and in the size of various objects and
devices. If only he had been determined to top others
in thoughtfulness and intelligence and in responsibility,
what a great President of how admirable a Nation
he could have become...


Εντύπωση μεγάλη προκαλεί πώς τρέμουν όλοι οι
ανανεμιγμένοι. Βενιζέλος, Σαμαράς, Αβραμόπουλος,
κ.λ.π., πριν καλά καλά διαβάσουν για τι κατηγορούνται
και ξέροντας καλύτερα απ' όλους ο καθένας για
τον εαυτό του τί έχει κάνει, αν, τί, πώς και γιατί
τα πήρε, βγαίνουν στα μίντια για να διαλαλήσουν
ότι οι whistle blowers δεν έχουν καμιά φερεγγυότητα.
Το μόνο είναι ότι οι πολίτες πλέον καταλαβαίνουν
και ξέρουν ότι κάποιος που βγάζει στη φόρα άπλυτα
δεν το κάνει γιατί είναι ευχάριστο, ούτε γιατί έτσι
θα βρει την ησυχία του. Ξέρουν ότι θα μπλέξουν
άσχημα με δικαστήρια, ανακρίσεις, μηνύσεις επί
μηνύσεων, και γενικά η ζωή τους θα γίνει πατίνι.
Αλλά, παρά ταύτα, έχουν επίγνωση της ευθύνης
τους και επιθυμούν διαφάνεια και ενημέρωση
του κοινού για το πώς δρουν τα αδηφάγα ζώα
της πολιτικής και πώς διαχειρίζονται και πώς
διασπαθίζουν το δημόσιο χρήμα και μετά ζητούν
από τους πολίτες λιτότητα και θυσίες και έχουν
την ξεδιαντροπιά να βγαίνουν και να δηλώνουν
(ιδίως οι πιο χοντροί, βολεμένοι και καλοθρεμένοι
με χαβιάρι, αλλά κακοθρεμένοι και απαίδευτοι,
καθ' όλα τα υπόλοιπα) ``όλοι μαζί τα φάγαμε"...
 
 

Absent any military might, this is the single most important,
most practical, most rapidly deployable and most effective
``weapon" that the Union can wield and it should not be
sacrificed or negotiated away to the U.K. or to any other
friend, partner or foe. The European Union draws its strength
from numbers and from its economic and political might and
curtailing its right to use that might, when it seems appropriate
to advance its goals and its agenda, would be detrimental and
unwise, when other States and Organizations may not have
similar restrictions when it comes to applying measures
and countermeasures. Especially, it should not be given
away when the opposite side in negotiations has only a tiny
fraction of the sway and power than the bloc can wield.


Άν, όπως λέει ο Βενιζέλος, η ιστορία με τη Novartis είναι
όσο αληθινή ήταν η ιστορία με τα Pampers (ανεξαρτήτως
του τί και πώς αποφάνθηκε η δικαιοσύνη), τότε η Ελλάδα
και οι Έλληνες πολίτες, αντιθέτως με τα όσα ισχυρίζεται
ο Βενιζέλος, πρέπει να κλαίνε και όχι να γελάνε, και να
στείλουν πάλι τα υπεύθυνα κόμματα και τους υπεύθυνους
υπουργούς και βουλευτές στην καταβόθρα, όπως τους
αξίζει, και όπως άλλωστε έπραξαν και πριν...


Διαβάζω το άρθρο του κ. Χανιώτη στο in.gr. Τον παρακολουθώ,
αλλά όταν προσπαθώ να καταλάβω πώς καταλήγει στο συμπέρασμα
του από την ανάλυση και τα επιχειρήματά του, μάλλον αδυνατώ.
Κατά την άποψή μου, τα επιχειρήματά του περί ανοησίας της
εθνικοποίησης γεωγραφικών περιοχών μάλλον οδηγούν στην επιλογή
του γεωγραφικού προσδιορισμού ``άνω'' ή ``βόρεια" σαν την πιο
επιθυμητή από Ελληνικής σκοπιάς. Εν αντιθέση, όλα τα επιχειρήματά
του περί εθνικότητας και ιστορίας (και δεδομένου ότι το ``Νέα" σε,
π.χ., ``Νέα Ιωνία'', ``Νέα Φιλαδέλφεια'', ``New York'', ``New Holland'',
``New South Wales'' κ.λ.π., δεν αντικατοπτρίζει σε καμία περίπτωση
θλάση με το παρελθόν και ασυνέχεια, αλλά σχεδόν πάντα συνέχεια
και νοσταλγία, παρά την προσφυγιά και/ή τη μετανάστευση και
παρά τους εκδιωγμούς) υποδεκνύουν ότι το ``Νέα" θα πρέπει μάλλον
να είναι λύση ανάγκης σε περίπτωση που διαφαίνεται πάλι αποτυχία
με τραγικό κόστος και επιπτώσεις. Παρά ταύτα, είναι καθηγητής
Αρχαίας Ιστορίας και σίγουρα ο άνθρωπος βλέπει κάποια πράγματα,
που εμείς σαν ερασιτέχνες (ούτε Ιστορικοί, ούτε Διπλωμάτες)
αδυνατούμε να διακρίνουμε και χρειάζεται να προσέξουμε και
να καταλάβουμε τις απόψεις του καλύτερα.


Όταν κάποιος διανοείται και τολμάει να χαιρετίσει
ναζιστικά δίπλα στον 92 ετών Μίκη Θεοδωράκη,
τότε το πρόβλημά του και η αναπηρία του δεν
είναι μόνο σωματικό, αλλά μάλλον, και σε πιο
επικίνδυνο και εξαθλιωτικό βαθμό, διανοητικό
και ψυχικό.


Ανεξαρτήτως του τί πιστεύει καθένας για το συγκεκριμένο
Εθνικό και πολιτικό ζήτημα, παρακολουθούμε έκθαμβοι:
1. οι ``αντιεξουσιαστές" να προσπαθούν να φιμώσουν τον
    πολιτικό λόγο των αντιπάλων, ασκώντας έτσι χείριστη
    εξουσία χουντο-ναζιστικών προσανατολισμών,
2. οι ``αντιεξουσιαστές" του μπιμπερό να επιτίθενται σε
    μία ιδέα και ένα όραμα, σε ένα τραγούδι και μία τέχνη
    που δεν έσκυψε, δεν υποκλίθηκε και δεν υπέκυψε, σε
    έναν ΑΝΤΙΕΞΟΥΣΙΑΣΤΗ ΤΗΣ ΕΞΟΡΙΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΤΩΝ
    ΒΑΣΑΝΙΣΤΗΡΙΩΝ, που πόνεσε και άντεξε με θάρρος
    και αυταπάρνηση όταν χρειάστηκε και όταν ήταν
    επικίνδυνο και όχι όταν ήταν εύκολο και τετριμένο,
    όπως είναι για τα παιδιά του μπιμπερό, που σε μεγάλο
    βαθμό χρωστάνε την άνεσή τους στο Μίκη και τους
    αγώνες εκείνου και των άλλων συναγωνιστών του.
ΝΤΡΟΠΗ, ΑΙΣΧΡΟΙ ΚΑΠΗΛΕΥΤΕΣ ``ΑΝΤΙΕΞΟΥΣΙΑΣ".


Παρακολουθώ με φρίκη και τρόμο το ένα κόμμα
να τρίβει στη ασχημόμουρη του άλλου το τί είχε
γραφεί και το τί είχε ειπωθεί από τον κάθε
αρχηγίσκο, τον κάθε εθνάρχη και τον κάθε
εργατοπατέρα εκατέρωθεν πριν από 25 χρόνια
και να μαίνονται αμφότερα για το πόσο έμπιστα
προσκολημένα είναι στις ίδιες θέσεις παλαιώθεν.
Βρε επαίσχυντοι, άθλιοι, αχαρακτήριστοι, πρώτον
δεν καταλαβαίνετε ότι επιτέλους δεν είναι ντροπή,
αλλά μάλλον αρετή, να προσαρμόζει κανείς τις
θέσεις του ανάλογα με τις επιταγές των καιρών
και με το εξελισσόμενο συμφέρον της χώρας
και δεύτερον ότι το ξεδιάντροπο και το κατάπτυστο
είναι, χάριν συνέπειας και μόνον, να είναι
κάποιος προσκολλημένος σε γνώμες, σε θέσεις
και σε στρατηγική που, όχι μόνο δεν έχουν
βοηθήσει πουθενά, αλλά μάλλον έχουν βλάψει
και δυσχεράνει διαχρονικά τον τελικό στόχο;
Καθήστε σαν πολιτισμένοι και βρέιτε τα.
Αλλοιώς πάλι χαμένοι και, ίσως, ακόμα
χειρότερα από πριν θα βγούμε.


You defend the TRUTH by arguing convincingly
about it and by presenting Historical Proof; You
do not defend the Truth by forbidding the other
side to present its arguments and by moving to
stifle dialog and to pre-empty the opposition from
being heard. Ironically these misguided moves are
exactly parallel to those that led to the rise and
the flourishing of Nazism and Fascism and, of all
States of the Union, The Czech Republic and
Poland are the ones that should have known best
this, but, unfortunately, just like the Jewish State
in other respects, are the ones that choose to forget,
abandon or waive the lessons of History, despite
the fact that they belong to a Union that is very
sensitive and very alert about these issues and
that encourages openness and pluralism, and,
I am afraid, they do so at their and their own
societies' and their own Citizens' peril.


The instant the morph got into power, the swamp got
murkier, darker and deeper. And only those naive and
foolish have lingering illusions that he was truly elected
with any iota of an appetite to ``drain the swamp".


I read persistent reports that the stormy Daniels affair has
``infuriated" Ms. Trump. Unless she is an imbecile and a
moron, which she does not seem to be, she knew very well
who she was marrying and what she was marrying him for
and any pretense at surprise and/or allegation of shock
does not cut it with common sense or undisputed evidence.
Sorry, Ms. Trump, but you should have been infuriated
with this man and thought about what he stood for before
marrying him, but you chose to ignore all evidence for
obvious reasons and, now, you have no right at feeling
or pretending to feel angry and disappointed.


Κατα την αποψη μου, εαν ειναι αμοιβαιως αποδεκτο, να προωθηθει
ή το ``Severna" ή το ``Vardarska" ως γεωγραφικός προσδιορισμός
με άμεση χρήση έναντι όλων, μαζί με ένα πακέτο που θα τακτοποιεί
και τα υπολοιπα ζητήματα, και να πάμε σε συμφωνία με διεθνή και
ομόφωνη επικύρωση από τα Ηνωμένα Έθνη, δίνοντας έτσι ειδικό
βάρος σε διεθνείς δικλείδες ασφαλείας και στις εγγυήσεις που
εμπεριέχονται στο Διεθνές Δίκαιο και είναι ανεξάρτητες της
οποιασδήποτε πολιτικής μεταστροφής ή πρόσκαιρων εσωτερικών
κλυδωνισμών και υπαναχωρήσεων, όπως εξάλλου πολύ, πάρα πολύ,
σοφά το έθεσε ο Βενιζέλος.


If even a fraction of what was recounted yesterday on NPR's
Jewish Air about the life and works of Manafort is true, his
destabilizing global role for personal profit should not only
make him a criminal element, but, in fact, if History teaches
U.S. Citizens valuable lessons, should relegate him to a status
of an enemy of the State and a persona non grata outside the
confines of a Federal Prison.


Ο Βενιζέλος μιλάει πολύ σωστά για το ζήτημα.
Ας τον ακούσουμε και ας τον προσέξουμε όλοι.
και οι Πολίτες και οι Κυβερνώντες.


It is a shame that people and states are still afraid of
their culpability and afraid and embarrassed to face
Historical Truth. But the only way to deal with History,
the only way to properly and deliberately make amends
with History is not by trying to whitewash involvement
and to present ``alternative facts", but to try to ponder
over events and actions, to digest rights and wrongs,
to find out what could have been done differently to
prevent and to avoid disasters and to mitigate the
suffering, and to install safeguards and to conduct our
political affairs in such a way that those tragedies,
the massacres and the suffering of the innocents and
the brutalization and carnage of political opponents
and intellectuals will never be given a chance to occur
again, and the untold and unimaginable stupidity and
crassness, bigotry, racism and discrimination of
would-be absolutists, führers, duces, generalissimos
and other would-be oppressors, invaders and
perpetrators of crimes against Humanity shall be
Universally confronted and nipped in the bud.
 

Sad news from Prague...


In Arabia, which is illegitimately governed by the
``civilized" House of the Sauds, if you are a member
of that ``noble" family and you steal money from
those that have stolen it from the people by plundering
and appropriating the resources of the peninsula,
your ``punishment'' consists of being hosted for
a few weeks in Ritz Carlton for free and, then,
in exchange for a fraction of the loot, be set free to
continue on the ``enlightened" path that you and
your family have chosen and conferred on you on
the backs of the People and the State. These are
the most extreme usages of the word ``free'' that
the House of the Sauds can tolerate.


IT IS TIME TO GO. IT CANNOT BE THAT THE
BEST PAID AND MOST LAVISHLY REWARDED
ARE THE LEAST RESPONSIBLE AND THOSE
HELD THE LEAST ACCOUNTABLE WHEN
UNDER THEIR WATCH A PROGRAM HAD
BEEN CONVERTED TO A HELL-HOUSE
WHERE HARASSMENT, ABUSE AND SEXUAL
MISCONDUCT WERE TOLERATED, DENIED,
PSEUDO-INVESTIGATED AND CONCEALED.


Δεν αντέχουμε σαν Κράτος να έχουν κοινή γραμμή για
καυτά και επίκαιρα Εθνικά θέματα μόνο ο Πρωθυπουργός
και ο Πρόεδρος της Δημοκρατίας. Κύριοι/ες Μητσοτάκη,
Γεννηματά και Λεβέντη κάνετε κι εσείς επιτέλους το
σωστό και συμφωνείστε σε προφανείς για την Ελλαδα
πλεονεκτικές διαπραγματεύσεις. Δεν αρκεί να λέμε
όχι στο ένα, όχι στο άλλο, όχι στο παράλλο. χωρίς να
μπορούμε να αρθρώσουμε ούτε κίχ για το τί θεωρούμε
ρεαλιστικά καλύτερο και πιο πλεονεκτικό, ούτε είναι
λογικό σε καμιά περίπτωση να πασάρουμε (ή μάλλον
να σεντράρουμε) στην επόμενη (ή μάλλον επόμενες)
γενιές πολιτικών, κάτω από άγνωστες (και μάλλον
πολύ πιο αντίξοες) συνθήκες ένα ζήτημα και μία
διαπραγμάτευση που μπορούμε επιτυχημένα σε πνεύμα
Ειρήνης, Καλής Γειτονίας, Φιλίας και Συνεργασίας
να επιλύσουμε με ευελιξία, αμοιβαίες υποχωρήσεις,
δούναι και λαβείν. Καταλάβετέ το και υποστηρίξτε
στο θέμα αυτό τον Πρωθυπουργό και τον Κ. Κοτζιά
κι ας έχετε δίκιο για πολλά (ή για τα περισσότερα)
από τα υπόλοιπα. Αναρρωτιέμαι, αν εκλεγείτε,
νομίζετε ότι θα πράξετε πολύ καλύτερα και ότι δε
θα χρειαστείτε τη βοήθεια όλων; ΚΑΝΕΤΕ ΤΟ
ΣΩΣΤΟ ΑΠΟ ΣΗΜΕΡΑ ΚΑΙ Η ΠΑΤΡΙΔΑ ΚΑΙ
ΟΙ ΠΟΛΙΤΕΣ ΘΑ ΤΟ ΘΥΜΟΥΝΤΑΙ.



In France, the public is hypocritical because they are
supposedly outraged and indignant when they hear
of those stories happening in the U.S. during Black
Friday events, with people stampeding over one
another to get into stores, fights erupting over bargains
and, occasionally guns drawn over who enters first in
a store when doors open or when the deal TVs and
other consumer products on sale appear. But, the
French are proving equally uncultured and equally
brutal with an equal appetite for unchecked savings
and an equal attraction to consumerism. And what
is worse, the allegedly most ``refined" eaters and
drinkers on earth are willing and eager to fight over
(literally and metaphorically) cheap nutella, for
Goodness' sake... (Ultra-Sweet Cheap Cocoa,
Appellation d'Origine Protégée Piedmont)


What can one say? Comparing an accomplice to monstrosity,
either by omission or by commission (it remains to be seen
and investigated, but GOOD RIDDANCE; it should have
happened long ago, should the board of trustees have acted
faithfully and followed their mandate) to an Exemplary and
Faithful Servant of JUSTICE. Seeing the courage of the girls
and seeing Judge Aquilina giving them space and time and
not equivocating or mincing her words, but directly expressing
the truth, and the anger and the outrage that such a situation
should evoke in any decent Human Being, made one think,
that, after all, even in the face of untold sorrow and pain,
caused by unimaginable evil and monstrosity, there are some
Principles in at least one Branch of our State's Government that
are still upheld as they should, and allowed a glimpse of hope
that someone may always be out there ready to do the Right
Thing to help and to provide harbor in disaster and a remedy
for those abused, persecuted and/or victimized...


A No-Bell ``laureate" has lent her in-``fame" to criminals and
abusers of Human Rights to allow them to continue their
atrocious and monstrous acts against minorities, amounting
to blatant ethnic cleansing, with the least possible interference,
in the name of ``peace and security". Neither the No-Bell
committee, nor the U.N., nor Mr. Richardson should have
had anything to do with her in the first place, but, as humans,
we do make mistakes and it is never too late to withdraw our
support and to demand the return of our medals and tear
empty speeches and words offered in return, when we realize
that we have erred beyond the shadow of a doubt and beyond
comprehension. It is however, a sign of tolerance, acquiescence
and/or complicity to have clear, condemning and indisputable
evidence for Grave Human Rights Violations, including murder,
torture, rape, property seizure, damage and destruction and
persecution without due process, based simply on ethnic
and religious background, and to do absolutely nothing or
at most uttering a couple of half-hearted and equivocating
sentences of disappointment in the press, instead of vigorously
and vehemently trying to use all in one's power and connections
to convince national and international judicial authorities
to collect evidence without delay to bring those responsible,
monsters and perpetrators of unthinkable and despicable
abuse and suffering, to Justice.


I think the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Athens is
moving along the right lines on the FYROM issue,
with caution and optimism. It is going to take both
sides diplomatic skills, dexterity, flexibility, negotiating
acumen and a spirit of friendship, cooperation and
compromise to find a balanced and constructive
approach both in the name aspect and in the
accompanying issues, that will leave behind neither
winners nor losers and that will help both States to
build further on the feelings of mutual trust and
confidence and move forward with bilateral, regional
and multilateral agreements of mutual interest.


BRAVO to the SPD!! In my view, this vote proves that
the SPD is a Party with full recognition of its Historic
Role and of the current challenges that Europe and
Germany face and a Party that is not only of past
and receding relevance, but an integral player with
full responsibility and full participation in the social,
economic and political life of contemporary Europe,
with the will and the courage to contribute to the
solution of the many critical and difficult issues.


It is tragic and ironic that two, supposedly close,
military N.A.T.O. allies clash militarily because
they cannot find common ground in a petty
regional military conflict taking place on the
territory of a third State. How could one believe
or assume with good will, clear conscience and
straight face that there is any possibility whatsoever
that such volatile, brittle and untrustworthy allies
would ever agree to coordinate, cooperate and act
in unison to defend an allied Nation effectively,
should one find itself in need, when they cannot
even agree in relatively simple matters to at least
apply a truce and/or ceasefire and enter into
negotiations to avoid a military confrontation?
I think N.A.T.O. is proving that it is an alliance
that has lost its grip and cannot be trusted to
thwart conflicts and to repel threats and face
attacks, at least in cases where individual
members would not be able to do that by
themselves - and, then, what would the
``alliance"be good for anyway?


One issue that is very important and has been handled
awkwardly and unjustifiably by the morph is that of
the dreamers. The morph has stated that he is for some
arrangement -  some bill passed by Congress - that
would normalize the dreamers status. The morph also
should have known that bills of that - or any other -
nature in a highly politicized and highly charged
environment are difficult to negotiate and to pass.
Therefore, the wisest thing that he should have done,
instead of cancelling the dreamers' status with the
hope that congress would have worked some
compromise by the deadline and trying to force
them to work under pressure, would have been to
extend the status quo, while simultaneously taking
the lead in finding a bipartisan solution, with a
warning that, should such a solution no be agreed
upon, then he would have to take further action.
In this way, on the one hand, the dreamers themselves
and their livelihoods would not have been made pawns
in partisan posturing, in a petty, inconsiderate and
totally unacceptable and distasteful way, and, on
the other, the legislators would have been afforded
more time under less pressure and would have been
provided some guidance and leadership in order to
reach a compromise in an issue on which both the
public and the majority of the Members of both
Parties have express overwhelming support and
sympathy.


And, by the way, when it comes to standards of proof
where accusations of either molestation or cover up by
high-ranking priests are concerned, the tolerance of
their superiors should be in no way comparable with
the high legal standards. A priest accused of sexually
mishandling, sexually abusing or molesting children
should not be sheltered, even if the proof against him
and the evidence is not at the level required in a Court
of Law. The threat of having even one more child
subject to abuse, indignity and suffering in the hands
of pervert priests should make the appointment and
use of such individuals in positions of trust and as
parish leaders and confessors totally unacceptable.
Jorge Bergoglio, have you thought about that and
your and your associates' culpability before daring
to utter your despicable and heartless legalese to ask
for more ``proof"?


Racist, sexist, homophobes as directors of National
and Community Service agency? Stable genius must
be tampering with that huge and stable intellect...


I stand with the victims unhesitatingly and unequivocally.
First, they were kids. How would one expect, especially
one that is predisposed to show Humanity, Empathy and
Sympathy, of them to have known anything and to have
gathered evidence for what was happening to them?
Second, pedophiles, and especially priests and those in
positions of trust and/or authority, have multiple ways
and multiple ``techniques" to cover up their deeds and
to dress them up as something ``loving'' and ``legitimate".
Jorge Bergoglio should have known better. The ``pope"
has lost all confidence and all trust that he may have
once commanded, he has relinquished moral authority
and he has shown that he is one and the same with the
unethical and unfair interests of this despicable and
reviled institution that is the Catholic Church and its
Establishment. But, should we not have expected this
reaction, after his having harbored the Australian
monster under his roof for such a long time and
having shown such great insensitivity towards the
plight of Australia's ``faithful"?


Seven years for manslaughter by strangulation... I cannot
even start imagining how much a black man their age would
have gotten from the same judge under the same exact
circumstances with the same excuses and the same type of
lawyered-up remorse... I cannot even fathom how long of
a sentence the same judge would have doled out to a drug
dealing person, who also expressed remorse and sorrow.
I feel for the victim first and the murderess, if she is honest
and sincere in her remorse, but, sorry, this is a travesty of
Justice and the sentence totally disproportionate to the
gravity of the offense, and should not be allowed in a State
that wants its Justice system to be respected, like Canada...


Κατά τη γνώμη μου, η επιλογή του ``Νέα" στην ονομασία
της FYROM θα ήταν μάλλον άτοπη. Το ``Νέα", όπου
χρησιμοποιείται σε ονόματα πόλεων και περιοχών,
συνήθως υποδηλώνει καταγωγή και σχέση των κατοίκων
με την περιοχή στην οποία αναφέρεται το ``Νέα", όταν
αυτή απέχει από την αυθεντική περιοχή γεωγραφικά.
Στην παρούσα συζήτηση είναι άτοπο σε κάθε περιπτωση.
1. Εάν δεν υπάρχει καταγωγή, τότε δεν είναι σωστή η
    χρήση από μή Μακεδόνες του χρονικού προσδιορισμού.
2. Αλλά ακόμα και να υπάρχει καταγωγή, τότε ποιός
    ο λόγος της χρήσης ``Νέα", οταν η περιοχή αποτελεί
    μέρος της αυθεντικής Μακεδονίας;
Γι αυτό το καλύτερο αποτέλεσμα θα ήταν η χρήση
γεωγραφικού προσδιορισμού που θα επιβεβαιώνει
και θα επισφραγίζει 1. την οριοθέτηση του κράτους στο
συγκεκριμένο γεωγραφικό πλαίσιο και 2. την αποδοχή
εντός του συντάγματος του της έλλειψης οποιωνδήποτε
βλέψεων και επιβουλών επί του υπολοίπου χώρου της
μεγάλης γεωγραφικής περριοχής της Μακεδονίας.
Παρά ταύτα όμως, αν η ονομασία ``Νέα Μακεδονία"
γινόταν αποδεκτή, με την προϋπόθεση της χρήσης
erga omnes, δε θα το θεωρούσα υποχώρηση πέραν
του δέοντος ή προδοσία. Το σημαντικό είναι οι
προσπάθειες για φιλία, ειρήνη και συνεργασία να
συνεχιστούν. Αντιθέτως, όποιο και να είναι το όνομα,
οι σχέσεις θα είναι το ίδιο πολύπλοκες και ασταθείς.


He gave up his girlfriend for being his mirror image
and people now believe that he is a different person.
We are so pliable and so undemanding. That is why
we are so often taken advantage of by pseudo-leaders
and nonentities.


His excellency, the honorable least racist, the most serene
stable genius. Who can believe what this man utters any
more, if what he utters makes any sense whatsoever...


Υπό του κατωτάτου τμήματος του στεατοπυγικού μου
υποσυστήματος και ειδικώς με μία τάση υπό του οπισθίου
τμήματος αφοδεύθην Ζουράριον. Ερίδματε πρωθυπουργέ
και σύντροφε, καλά ξεφορτώματα. Τί ατομάντζες, θεέ και
κύριε, παράγει αυτός ο τόπος; Πού να δούμε προκοπή...


It does warm one's heart when, after such a serious
accident, every one on board ends up safe and unhurt.


There are individuals without degrees who achieve
significant and remarkable accomplishments, like,
e.g., keeping whole Continents together by navigating
through, and reconciling, many conflicting and often
diverging interests for the benefit of the many.
And there are individuals with degrees who are
abject failures and, not only do they not get elected
again, but are fired less than halfway because they
totally lack any sense of pragmatism and of negotiating
acumen and because, had they stayed, the consequences
for their States and the Continent would have been
catastrophic. Whoever can think, can classify these
two people in the respective categories where they
belong. THANK YOU, JEROEN! GOOD LUCK!


Bravo, Ms. Merkel, Bravo Mr. Schulz!


I heard today a very disturbing report on NPR about
several high tech companies where, as reported, workers
use habitually the n-word on their coworkers of color
and where male workers treat their female colleagues
in a sexist and inappropriate way for the workplace.
I do not know how true and accurate these reports are.
Nevertheless, I issue a plea from the heart to all those
involved. Treat all your coworkers, regardless of their
race, their sex and/or sexual orientation, their ethnic
background and all other personal characteristics and
preferences as you would treat your brother and your
sister and ask every single day how you can make them
accepted, welcome and comfortable at work, how you
can make them happier and make their workday better.
1. They are truly your brothers and sisters and they
     could actually be your biological brothers and
     sisters, if they were at the same profession as you.
2.  No Human Being, whatever their characteristics,
     deserves to be treated with less than Respect and
     Dignity, especially so when they toil to make ends
     meet and to fulfill their social obligations and their
     dues to their families and the World.
3.  Finally, if nothing else works, view it selfishly.
     Had yourself being at the receiving end of bullying,
     harassment or discriminatory remarks and jokes,
     you would have wanted first your coworkers and
     then your supervisors to come to your aid and
     address these issues and defend your right to work
     in a safe place and undisturbed, in an inclusive and
     an accepting environment. So do this for others!
     Because the environment you create is the one you
     will have to live in and, if it is not one you like, it
     will be the same one that will come back to bite you.
Finally, a short word for supervisors and bosses. The
rules and regulations that we have in the books in this
Great State of Ours are not ornamental and for show.
People do not complain just to complain, nor do they
express worry and discomfort just to make their lives
unpleasant and miserable. When you hear even bits
of what I heard this morning on the radio from staff
in your own company, it is past due time to take it
seriously and act. Call in those groups that are
concerned and/or outraged and ask them, not with
a legalistic and formal attitude and lawsuits in mind,
but as a Human Being, interested in the comfort
of your fellow Human Beings, in the safety and
integrity of their work environments and in their
personal happiness and success, what you can do to
help improve conditions and make things better.
Talk also to those that bully and harass and explain
to them those few points I outlined above. And try
to change the attitude and the culture in the workplace.
It starts and ends with all of us and we all have to
do our part, however insignificant, unimportant
and/or trivial it may appear.


Putin said that the cartoon is a mature and smart
politician already; in other words we have found
another stable genius...


Bravo to President Macron and to Prime Minister Gentiloni.
Very positive developments and very encouraging news for
Europe today from the magnificent Palazzo Chigi in Rome.
 

If Brexit comes again in front of U.K. voters in a second
referendum, there is no doubt that they will reverse the
former decision. All the disadvantages and all the false and
misleading rhetoric and misinformation that have been
revealed since the first referendum, would, hopefully,
make the British Public appreciate the advantages of
Membership and of belonging as Global Citizenry to a
big, wide and diverse political, social and economic block.
The ``go it alone" attitude is antiquated and bankrupt
and, sooner or later, even the most staunch advocates
of isolationism and nationalism need the support, the
cooperation and the help of others to survive and thrive.


I strongly applaud the State Department for putting out
these grave warnings. My hope is that they will be heeded
by American Citizens and that more warnings will be
issued as this despicable State and its politicians continue
to profit from the gang activities and continue to turn a
blind eye to a huge problem that affects primarily the
poor and unprotected and makes Mexico a pariah State.
American Citizens should boycott, regardless of alert
levels, Mexico and its tourist industry until that State
and its ``leaders" are forced to abandon graft, corruption
and servitude to the cartels and realize that the great
wealth of the Nation and all its resources should be
directed without equivocation and without sparing
to battle and to exterminate gangs rather that in
support of them and their activities, which have the
unfortunate byproduct of enriching local and federal
politicians and law enforcement.


The morph says you ``cannot say things that are false".
As him and his entourage have been the champions of
alternative facts, this is another case of ``the pot calling
the kettle black". What a travesty of a person, who only
gets the damage when it is inflicted on him and on his
own interests but could not care less when he is lying
or blatantly distorting the truth and when his own party
is generating and propagating propaganda and fake news.


Σκίζω τα ρούχα μου!!... Η ΛΑΕ έχει και εργαζόμενους
και γραφεία πλην του Λαφαζάνη και της οικίας του...


I understand where these women are coming from.
But they are missing the point. What they say they
are trying to defend and protect, which is courtship,
sensuality and sexuality, is appreciated by 100% of
the population in the United States, in France and
everywhere. What their attitude is missing and/or
deemphasizing, in a rather unfortunate way, is that
the World is dead set against what is happening,
which is using and exploiting those Noble sentiments
and sexual attributes and, under cover of sensuality
and sexuality, harassing and abusing in unwelcome
and, oftentimes, savage ways, coworkers (or, rather,
``under"-workers), especially in specific industries,
like film, journalism and politics, where power is
unchecked, awards are extravagant and where
everything, because of fame and power, goes.
Besides gravely violating the sine qua non Principle
``do not do unto others what you do not want done
unto you", a corner stone building block of respectful,
harmonious and civilized societies, it has the effect of
giving the opportunity to people (the overwhelming
majority of whom are ill-meaning, mentally devious
and psychologically unstable men) of power to impose
their will and oppress those under them, whose careers
and/or livelihoods may be at risk. No  one's worth should
be judged on whether they consent to be fondled by
or sleep with, or allow to be ``hit" or ``loved" by
``bosses", but only on whether they are successful in
what they are hired to do, whatever the generally accepted
measures of success in the specific industry they are
engaged in might be. There is no excuse, under whatever
argument or theory, be it naturalism, feminism, etc., to
condone, or even appear to condone, behaviors that
are not, as the writers erroneously make it sound,
primarily interpersonal or intersexual, but they are
mostly based on wealth, power, social stratification and
connectedness and, ultimately, a byproduct of a sick
and bankrupt attitude of laissez-faire laissez-passer
when it comes to the rich and well-connected doing
deeds they would consider scandalous if happened
to their own offspring, but managing to perpetrate
against the weakest and most needy without shame or
accountability.
 

There is no space for criminals or for imbeciles in the U.S.
Senate. The door should be hermetically closed for some
one fitting both bills....


``Gossip" and ``witch hunt" my a**... The spoiled brainless
idiot said it all and they do not know how to hide it and where
to run. As if we did not know how the rich, powerful and
well connected work it out in Israel beyond and above the
tentacles of the law, like everywhere else. Shame on both
the abominable Prime Minister and his equally repulsive,
and miserably matching, offspring.


If what is being reported from Iran is accurate, and for the sake
of all Iranian children and for the sake of the well being of this
Great Nation I hope it is not, it is a fatal decision for the Iranian
Children's education. Iran has been, is and will be part, and a
major contributor, of the World's Culture and of the World's
History, and English is, whether we like it or not, the language
that brings us together and through which we communicate as
Global Citizens. It is the language through which, not only do
we learn, get educated and get influenced, but, also through
which we teach, we discuss, we communicate and we inspire
and influence others and through which we express our opinions
on Universal Challenges and Universal Matters and through
which we interact and organize. Iran and its leaders do not
want to deprive their children and the future generations of
this Great Nation of the opportunity and the privilege to be
World Citizens and Global Contributors. That is exactly the
main asset on which our very positive and paramount opinion
on the Greatness of this Nation rests, regardless of our particular
opinions and ideas concerning political matters and the
temporary and short term character of political leadership
or of one administration or another. By disallowing or
discontinuing the teaching of English, you are effectively,
not only stifling expression, which may be your short-medium
term goal, but sacrificing and killing the Global Reach of a
Valuable and Historically Significant Nation and you are
damaging its Influence and its Potential in the World.
President Rouhani, you are an educated man and a Global
Citizen and you should know better! REVERSE THIS
UNFORTUNATE AND CATASTROPHIC DECISION!


Συγγνώμη, έκανε το λάθος και είπε ωμές ψευτιές
και μας φλόμωσε στην αμπελοφιλοσοφία. Αν αυτό
το περιγράφει η έκφραση ``πολιτικές απαντήσεις",
αυτό δείχνει πόσο γρήγορα έχει και ο ΣΥΡΙΖΑ,
αλλά και προσωπικά η Σβίγκου, προσαρμοστεί
στην ``πολιτική", όπως δυστυχώς οι άτυχοι και
άμοιροι ψηφοφόροι την αντιλαμβανόμαστε στην
Ελλάδα αλλά και παγκοσμίως και ο λόγος για
τον οποίο ακριβώς είδαμε τις αλλαγές, δηλαδή
το μαύρο και την καταστροφή των παλαιών
κομμάτων και την ανάδειξη, ή αφερέγγυων
σχηματισμών, βλεπε Trump και ακροδεξιά
σε μερικές χώρες στην Ευρώπη, ή ελπιδοφόρων
σχηματισμών, π.χ. ΣΥΡΙΖΑ, οι οποίοι όμως
``προσαρμόστηκαν" γρήγορα, α λά Μπαζιάνα και
Σβίγκου, και απογοήτευσαν άμεσα. Για τις αιτίες,
ποιός άραγε μπορεί να πει ακριβώς; Eίχαν επιπόλαιο
πρόγραμμα και σχεδιασμό; Ήταν αφερέγγυοι και
επιφανειακοί όπως τόσοι άλλοι; Ή, μάλλον και το
πιο πιθανό, ήταν κι αυτοί οπορτουνιστές καρεκλο-
λάτρες, σε συνδυασμό με το αμόρφωτο (με τη γενική
έννοια), με το ανέτοιμο και το απροετοίμαστο (κι
αυτό με τη γενική έννοια) και με μία τσαπατσουλιά
και μία προχειρότητα, χαρακτηριστική των
Ελληνικών πραγμάτων, που ο μόνος που κατάφερε
να ξεπεράσει και, έτσι να συμβάλλει με τρόπο
οργανωμένο και μακρόπνοο, αλλά κι αυτός με
έξωθεν παρότρυνση και βοήθεια, ήταν ο Τσακαλώτος.


The problems the World is facing today and the steps,
the progressive and innovative steps, that are needed
to face them, are not ``left" or ``right" colored, they
are universal. CDU and SPD, agree on a reasonable
platform and avoid going back to the polls again.
Germany and Europe (and the World) need a stable,
sane and forward looking leadership that comes up
with solutions to challenges that work, and pushes on
a visionary, ground-breaking approach in support of
common values, like Humanity and Equality, common
goals, like providing Quality Health Care and Education,
ensuring Peace, Safety and Security, and common
universal aspirations, like Unity, Community, Well
Being and Prosperity. We should all have the same
issues in mind and there surely must exist some
common ground on at least where to start. JUST DO IT!


We do not need lessons from abject criminals and Human
Rights violators and political opportunists of the worst
kind. We do not need lessons from Peru, a State that allows
crime to go unpunished and who encourages the worst
of the worst to play the role of ``leaders" and provides
them with a public forum whose crimes should have
excluded them from the right of maintaining.
SHAME ON PERU. SHAME ON ITS ``PRESIDENT".


President Rouhani, you admitted that the grievances of the
demonstrators were legitimate and that it was within their
Right to express peacefully their frustration and their
dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs in Iran.
I now urge you to put your money where your mouth is
and not only FREE THE STUDENTS DETAINED but also
MEET WITH THEM AND ASSURE THEM THAT THEIR
POINT OF VIEW HAS BEEN HEARD AND THAT YOUR
GOVERNMENT IS GOING TO RESPOND TO IMPROVE
CONDITIONS IN IRAN. They deserve at least as much!


What's the new quirk of the stable genius today?
(``stable genius" sounds like a code name of the
secret service referring to a volatile imbecile)
Unbelievable, isn't it? And yet it's happening in
front of our own eyes and it's from the President
of our United States. Totally, utterly dumbfounding...


Nikki Haley has put us again in a very embarrassing
position. One knows that her bosses and superiors
are, unfortunately, ignorant and unworthy of the
power and the positions they hold. On the other
hand, she seems a person who is acquainted with a
few fundamental principles and who is not totally
hairy. I am curious to know how it is that she does
not realize that matters of utmost importance in
preserving International Peace and Security are,
first, respecting the Nuclear Agreement with Iran,
second, respecting and closely observing the Object
and Purpose of the United Nations and faithfully
adhering to its Principles and its Mandate and,
lastly, truly appreciating, in theory and in practice,
the Fundamental Tenets of Equality and Sovereignty
of States and their inalienable Right to Non-
Interference in their Internal Affairs. Criticizing
a foreign administration or encouraging it to show
proper Respect for Human Rights, or supporting
the Right of People to Assemble, Express their
Views and Peacefully Demonstrate is, of course,
within the purview of diplomacy and foreign
affairs, but from that to convening the Security
Council, an Organ that is not convened oftentimes
for much more pressing and perilous issues as far
as International Peace and Security is concerned,
goes over the line and is an abuse of its mandate.
Use the United Nations prudently and learn at last
that, before convening a body, you need to do some
preparatory work to form as broad a consensus as
possible so as to make sure that the meeting will
have some effect and that you will not look at the
end as some brainless and isolated fool...


A historical and significant mistake from the morph.
First, it infringes on the Freedom of Thought, Freedom
of Expression and Freedom of the Press at a time when
the shallow and brainless administration should have
known better, given all the encouragements and the
empty and meaningless, as it now turns out, tweets of
the morph, regarding the Iranian crisis, on defending
the Basic Freedoms of the Iranian People. First, one
starts by fully respecting them at home. Then, there
is the proverb ``καθαρός ουρανός, αστραπή δε φοβάται"
(``a clear sky is not afraid of lightning") and, as it
turns out, the haste of the morph to file a law suit
against the publication of this book is almost an
admission of guilt and fear with regards to some
of the most controversial and damaging revelations
that the morph is anticipating by its publication.
What a pity to have reached this new low in our own
domestic politics when our attention is urgently needed
elsewhere and our credibility can hardly be allowed
to suffer another serious blow. But the writing was
already printed with large black letters on the wall
when these two untrustworthy, volatile imbeciles
started kissing and fondling each other...


Συμφωνείστε στο όνομα, Αθήνα και Σκόπια, φέρτε
το άμεσα στα Κοινοβούλια να περάσει και πηγαίνετε
όσο το δυνατόν συντομότερα στη Νέα Υόρκη ώστε
να αναγνωριστεί ομόφωνα και από τα 190+ Κράτη
των Ηνωμένων Εθνών, συμπεριλαμβανομένων και
των 140 που έχουν ήδη αναγνωρίσει, το νέο όνομα,
να υιοθετηθεί η χρήση του erga omnes και να αρχίσει
επιτέλους απρόσκοπτη συνεργασία επί της ουσίας
σε όλους τους τομείς διμερώς και σε όλα τα διεθνή
φόρα χωρίς εκρεμότητες.


Αρτσι μπούρτσι και λουλάς. Μερικές φορές είναι
καλύτερο να σιωπά κανείς από το να αναγκάζει
εαυτόν να ψεύδεται επαίσχυντα και να ε(κ)νδίδεται
σε χοντρές ανακρίβειες και αφερεγγυότητες...
``Δε λέω ψέμματα. Η Μπέτυ δε δήλωσε πως ο
Τσίπρας ``δεν πρόδωσε, δεν εξαπάτησε, δεν είπε
ψέματα"." Όσο για τα περί κυβέρνησης και
εξουσίας, από την πόλη έρχεται και στην κορφή
κανέλα. Απορώ πώς μία που παίρνεται και για
μορφωμένη λέει αναιδώς τέτοια βαθυστόχαστα...


Αγκαλίτσες και φιλάκια. Τώρα πλήρωνε τη νύφη...


Not exactly a champion of Human Rights, nor, of course,
on the Right Side of History, as a ``leader" and one of the
main beneficiaries of organized religion.


Eva Kaili: Geography A+; Compromise F.


Immature and ignorant a**holes and nonentities
given too much importance, too much attention
and too much wealth to know what to do with...
I am wondering who are all those stupid imbeciles
that pay money to watch such scum online.


Also another good development from the mother
Continent from Zambia, where the Foreign Minister
Harry Kalaba is denouncing that State's path of
``insatiable greed and shame". Unfortunately, with
past experience from Africa, one cannot but suspect
that this move is not in good faith, nor with the Interest
of the People in mind. In the past, as we saw recently
in Zimbabwe, the politicians who tear their cloths
protesting the greed of the government are those
that have been the right-hand men of the corrupt
leaders, complicit in that corruption and enjoying
its fruits, but are too ambitious and worried that the
leaders' ``greed" is not letting them fulfill their own
personal ambitions, among which usually the strongest
are a larger share and first dig at the primordial
golden egg and a larger piece of the pie of dictatorial,
unlimited and unchecked personal power...


I hail this development in Ethiopia. However, open or
hidden in this announcement is the admission that a
center of torture and murder existed, and exists up to
this day, not ``meeting International Standards", a
covert (or relatively open) language meaning involved
in Grave Breaches of International Human Rights Law,
and those operatives, be it government or individual,
who have taken part in any way in ordering or
executing those abuses and murders should be held
accountable. Changes are welcome, but with changes,
for History to be taken into account in a way satisfactory
enough to teach lessons for the Future, there also has
to be a persistent and unrelenting effort in prosecuting
and holding accountable those that broke Extremely
Important Tenets and Customs of International Law
to such extents that caused unimaginable pain and
suffering to Innocent Civilians. No one can white
wash and absolve such crimes simply because of
a declaration of a change of heart and the promise
of upcoming and future changes.
 

It is so ironic that the State founded out of the ashes of
the theories of ``ethnic purity" and ``ethnic superiority"
is one of the last States on Earth where such statements
about ``ethnic character" and ``religious character" are
still heard and not allowed to be buried in the trashcan
of an abominable and reprehensible history...


The mullah and all other mullahs are not elected leaders
and so completely lack legitimacy and they should rather
stay out of politics and only in the religious sphere and not
intrude to further provoke and aggravate an already
tense and unpleasant situation. Leave the negotiations,
the talking and the explaining to President Rouhani, who
is an Elected Representative of the Iranian People, and call
your police forces and the ``guards" (or however you call
them) back into the barracks. They are brothers and sisters
of the fed-up Iranian People and no one, absolutely no one,
and especially no mullah or religious leader, should call or
incite a brother or a sister to turn their weapons, maim,
torture of kill or otherwise act violently and full of vengeance
against their well-meaning and justifiably angry and upset
brothers and sisters, who have every right to express their
grievances and to have their voices heard.


The North is sensing the noose tightening and is now
proposing high level talks with the South. I am all for
fraternity and cooperation, but the sanctions should
be implemented without relaxation and without any
softening until they become so burdensome and so
suffocating that the North realizes that to be honest
and to be sincere about fraternity, good neighborly
relations and to embark on an effective and mutually
advantageous cooperation, stopping development and
testing of weapons of mass destruction is a sine qua non,
an absolute and nonnegotiable prerequisite.


I commend this initiative since I have no doubt that
it is well-intended and its stated goal is noble. On the
other hand, I am a little worried because I have been
consistently hearing from people that are close and/
or around those industries that are the most gravely
and most frightfully affected by the recent revelations
of an effort to insist that these things are happening
everywhere and, perhaps, implying with the same
frequency and intensity, and, even though the claims
may be well meant and without ulterior motives,
one cannot but suspect that some of them have the
purpose of deflecting attention from the plight, the
repulsiveness and the crassness of those specific
industries and of their representatives, who have
turned out in rather significant numbers to be
rich, ``respectable" and ``influential", multi-million
dollar earning, avaricious and degenerate pigs.
In industries like film, television, journalism and
politics, where the stakes are extremely high, the
rewards are extravagant, the perpetrators are all
too powerful and almost monopolizing and the
underlings' behavior can make or break, despite
and regardless of talent, and accountability is
almost totally lacking, one suspects that the amount
and percentage of shady behaviors and bad actors
must be higher. And, if it is, there should be no
equalization and no flattening by anyone to make
it sound that they are simply an equal part of what
is happening with the same rate and intensity every-
where else and, therefore, no effort at lessening,
retouching and absolving those specific industries
and their representatives from the greater responsibility
that comes, along with the culpability, complicity and/or
acquiescence in those traditions and acts, also with
their wealth, influence and position of power.


First, let me state clearly that I do not know, nor have
I heard of the relevant evidence, whether the Turkish
officers that are asking for asylum in Greece were
among those that participated in the coup against
Turkey's Democratically Elected Government. If,
however, they were among the coup plotters, then
I am totally surprised by Greece's Communist Party's
(KKE) stance and posturing. KKE and the left leaning
and progressive Citizens are the parties who have
historically suffered the most by military coups and
by unconstitutional adventurism. How could KKE
now object in good conscience and in good faith to the
return of those officers to stand trial for their role?
Would KKE be in accord if a military coup had
occurred in Greece and Greece's Neighbors had
been willing to provide shelter to the coup plotters
and refused to send them back to face Justice for
overthrowing a legitimate Democratically Elected
Government and for trying to create instability and
havoc? A really unexpected and puzzling stance...


It sounds now like siphoning oil off legitimate tankers
to illegitimate ones is a part of the problem in breaking
the embargo that would have worked if it had been in
effect. If such business is happening in grand scale then
two things are necessary:
1. An International United Nations sanctioned Force,
    with American and E.U. participation must be
    approved and sail immediately to provide assistance
    to South Korea in monitoring International waters
    off the Korean Peninsula and enforce the embargo.
2. Companies whose ships are caught in such dealings
    should face confiscation of ships and cargo and
    should be sued and mercilessly pursued, facing
    financial ruin for racketeering and for Grave
    Breaches of International Law in the United States.
The Trump Administration, the Justice Department
and the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. owe that much
to the American People. We have been complaining,
and rightly so, that others have not been doing their
part in ensuring success of the sanctions. LET US
NOW THAT WE HAVE A CHANCE DO OUR PART
IN A METICULOUS, CLINICAL AND FORCEFUL
WAY! NO REST FOR THE WICKED...
 

Instead of unleashing the ``nation's ``iron fist"" (one
wonders which nation's would it be, since no one unleashes
a fist upon oneself), what needs to happen now in Iran
is a calm, forward looking and hope-infused address
to the Nation by President Rouhani, acknowledging
mistakes in public policy and telling how his Government
proposes to take corrective action to face some of the
challenges and to satisfy some of the demands put
forward by the People of Iran. In my view, measures to
enhance Tolerance and Democracy and measures that
would guarantee the Right of Iranians to Freely Think,
Express themselves, Speak and Assemble without threats
to their safety or security by the State, as well as some
change in economic policy that would aim to boost
private business and employment, should be included.
Also, President Rouhani should humbly ask for some
time allowance and some understanding from the People,
explaining that such measures cannot work in a day or
a month and that they would need a short (not long)
time to be implemented and allowed to show some
results, and promise that he will address again the
Nation updating Iranians on his new policies and
how they are (or are not working) and his renewed
efforts. Iranians are bright people and have good will
and I hope that they will grant such a request, if
they are convinced that it is sincere and if it provides
some Hope for the Future. However, the President
must also keep in mind that he has been elected to
improve the lives and the well-being of the Citizens
of Iran and, should he prove or feel unable to do so,
then it may be time to resign and let someone else
give it a go and he should explicitly declare this and
let the Iranian People know that he is aware that he
is there for them and for no other reason and ready
to go, if failure in his policies looms and no improvement
is discernible in the horizon.



Sheriff Pollan is right and we all know exactly what he
is saying and we all know that our State has neglected
mental health and we all know that we have started
seeing the results and we have already paid too high
a price for that neglect. If we can either not see it clearly
or are not able to react forcefully and effectively to
face this situation and its consequences, and it takes
a few wise and well-meaning people in positions of
authority, like the Sheriff, to keep reminding us and
to prompt us and shake us into action to correct these
grave shortcomings, so be it. We must change those
conditions that result in suffering, tragedies and
gross injustice. BRAVO, SHERIFF POLLAN!
I HOPE MANY INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE WILL
JOIN YOU AND LEND THEIR VOICE AND THAT,
DESPITE INERTIA, YOU DO NOT LET GO, KEEP
ORGANIZING AND KEEP TRYING TO CORRECT
THESE ILLS AND PITFALLS!


I support the protests in Iran and especially the Right
of the protesters in Free Thought, Free Expression,
Free Speech and Free Assembly. I also strongly and
unequivocally support their calls for Iran refocusing
on domestic issues and domestic concerns rather
than trying to be an international actor and play
a bigger role, mostly surreptitious and detrimental,
in its region. Iran has a Stunning History and Iran
has the potential, in Peaceful, Fraternal, Cooperative
Ways, to exercise its influence in making the World
a better place for future generations and to improve
the life of its Citizens. Iran's leaders are misguided
in thinking that Iran has an interest, political, military
or in terms of security, to go through the expensive 
meddling in the affairs of other States and in providing,
as they see it, support to causes and organizations,
that, in my opinion, do not contribute in any way in
the well being of Iranians or in the reputation of
Iran, are not in Iran's interests, nor are they a
``luxury" that Iran can afford. I call on President
Rouhani to do the Right Thing and refocus mostly
and primarily on making Iran more tolerant and
more prosperous for Iranians and on making Iran's
voice heard in the International Community, in
issues where as wide a leadership as possible is
needed, such as climate issues, poverty issues,
refugee and migration issues and anti-corruption
and good governance efforts, through participation
in International Fora and through regional and
international cooperation. 


Of course China and/or Russia are violating sanctions
against North Korea and then have the shamelessness
and the audacity to appear in International Fora and
claim that ``sanctions do not work". They obviously
think that Citizens of the International Community are
stupid imbeciles and they do not realize the charade that is
going on and the ridicule they are exposing themselves
to. How could a State, isolated, bankrupt and impoverished,
pursue an expensive weapons of mass destruction program,
if it was not supported both financially and in terms
of resources (import of fuel and necessary materials
and/or technological know-how) by rogue States and
players, who vote one way in the Security Council
and either turn a blind eye or outright violate their
own decisions (which they vote for only to deflect
guilt and attention in the first place, knowing that
they carry very little value, since they are the only
States that can monitor the borders with the North
and they can do whatever they wish with impunity
in practice) afterward? THE U.N. NEEDS TO APPROVE
AN INTERNATIONAL, IMPARTIAL, MONITORING
BORDER CONTROL MISSION TO THE NORTH
KOREAN BORDERS, IF ``STRICT SANCTIONS"
ARE MEANT AS THEY ARE PROPOSED AND
THEY ARE GOING TO AMOUNT TO ANYTHING.


Blah, blah, blah... Worthless nonsense. The price of the
batteries that so magnanimously skato-apple is now
reducing to $29 from $79 should have been $29 or even
less in the first place... But why do the right thing when
so many non-thinking and ready-to-be-robbed and
unquestioning fashion victims buy these series of
products from a company that only cares about its
own wealth and about extreme profit and, as long as
victims buy, does not give a rat's a** about doing the
right thing.


Bravo to South Africa's Constitutional Court. In South
Africa, you may be a political scum and your public and
private life may be a veritable sewer, but, if you are
politically powerful, rich and well-connected, it is not
at all certain that you will be held to account for your
deeds, including abuse of power and embezzlement
of public funds, however obvious. It is a shame that
in some States ``Justice" is not only not blind, but it
has a 20/20 vision and, even when it tries to hold people
into account the amount of time it takes to navigate its
bureaucracy and its processes is dizzying, preposterous
and totally unacceptable. And, by the way, South Africa
is not alone in having a state of ``justice" that is, in this
respect, unacceptable, but it is the most striking example
of States, where total impunity and lack of accountability
at the top reigns strong and goes mostly unchallenged.


Διαβάζω εξελίξεις που είναι ντροπιαστικές για την
Ελλάδα στο θέμα της FYROM. Ελπίζω ο Κυριάκος
να μεσολαβήσει και να υλοποιηθούν αυτά που ανέφερα
παρακάτω. Δεν υπάρχει λόγος αυτό το θέμα να τίθεται
ώς θέμα πολιτικοποίησης και εκμετάλλευσης από την
αντιπολίτευση, και από την κ. Μπακογιάννη θα περίμενε
κανείς πολύ καλύτερα. Ό,τι πει και δεν πει Καμμένος
και Ζεματισμένος, τα σοβαρά και υπεύθυνα κόμματα
να συμφωνήσουν σε ενιαία Εθνική στάση που δε θα
αλλάζει και δε θα μεταβάλλεται ανά τις ορέξεις, τις
συγκυρίες, τις εσωτερικές εξελίξεις και τους εκάστοτε
πολιτικούς συσχετισμούς. Μόνο ΕΝΩΜΕΝΟΙ,
υπεύθυνα και νηφάλια, θα προωθήσουμε και θα
επιλύσουμε αυτό το θέμα προς το συμφέρον όλων,
ώστε να εδραιώσουμε Ειρήνη, Ασφάλεια, Καλή
Γειτονία, Εμπιστοσύνη και Συνεργασία σε όλους
τους τομείς όσο πιο γρήγορα γίνεται.


Προειδοποιώ τα κόμματα. Δε χρειαζόμαστε
αψιμαχίες και διαφωνιες στο θέμα της πολύ
σημαντικής διαπραγμάτευσης για την ονομασία
της πΓΔΜ. Ούτε χρειάζεται να ακούσουμε
δημοσίως στη Βουλή ξεκάθαρες θέσεις του
ενός και του άλλου. Αυτό που χρειάζεται
είναι να μαζευτείτε όλοι κεκλεισμένων των
θυρών και να αποφασίσετε, με μία όσο το
δυνατόν πιο ενισχυμένη πλειοψηφία, μία
ενιαία Εθνική Θέση, την οποία θα δεσμευτούν,
αν όχι να υποστηρίξουν, τουλάχιστον να μην
τορπιλίζουν και να μην υποσκάπτουν ακόμα
και οι διαφωνούντες. Και να πάμε όσο το
δυνατόν ταχύτερα σε συνομιλίες, τώρα που
διαφαίνεται παράθυρο καλής θέλησης και
υπάρχει κάποια θετική ανταπόκριση και
διμερώς και διεθνώς, ώστε να κλείσει αυτό
το ζήτημα και να συγκεντρωθούμε στις
διμερείς και πολυμερείς ενεργειες για να
εμπεδωθεί καλή γειτονία και συνεργασία
σε όλους τους τομείς. Το λέμε συνεχώς και
το υποστηρίζουμε σε όλα τα φόρα, ότι η
Ελλάδα είναι πόλος ασφάλειας και
σταθερότητας στην περιοχή και χώρα που
επιθυμεί αδελφικές και συνεργατικές σχέσεις
με όλους. Καιρός να το αποδείξουμε και πάλι.


Ρίξει δε ρίξει την κυβέρνηση ο ζεματισμένος, είναι
ήδη καμμένο χαρτί. Είναι πομπώδης και αλαζόνας,
αλλά και εγωϊσταρος και βουτηγμένος στο σκάνδαλο.
Ο μόνος λόγος που δεν έχει παραπεμφθεί σε εξεταστική
επιτροπή για τα όπλα και για τα προσωπικά του έξοδα,
που άν όχι παράτυπα, τουλάχιστον ήταν φανερά
αντιδεοντολογικά (και το ήξερε και ο ίδιος γιατί
είπε ψέμματα για να τα καλύψει και, όταν δεν
μορούσε πια γιατί είχαν όλα αποκαλυφθεί, άρχισε
να μασάει τα λόγια του) είναι ο Τσίπρας, που έχει
την ανάγκη του, κυριολεκτικά και μεταφορικά.
Αν ο Τσίπρας ήταν στην αντιπολίτευση, όχι μόνο δε
θα έβαζε πλάτες σε τέτοια σκάνδαλα, αλλά θα έσκιζε
κι αυτός και ο Συνασπισμός τα ιμάτια τους για τις
παράτυπες και ``καπιταλιστικές" ενέργειες του
υπουργού και του υπουργείου άμυνας...


Ο Ρεμάλ Χαραμοφάϊ αποφάσισε να διπλασιάσει το
μισθό του και οι πολίτες του Κοσόβου δικαιολογημένα
έχουν βγεί έξω από τα ρούχα τους και έχουν σκίσει
τις γραβάτες τους...


The European Union is pretending that they are
naive, innocent and/or imbeciles. They are
searching for pluralism in a State where it is
obvious and well-known that none exists and
are commenting on it and providing justifications,
instead of outright declaring things as they are,
that Russia's political system is patently non
democratic and that elections there are held just
for show and to legitimize a predetermined and
fixed outcome. In fact, one could argue that there
is much more openness and democratic fervor
in Iran, whose political system the International
Community often criticizes unhesitatingly, than
there has been in Russia for at least a decade now.


As long as protests and demonstrations in Peru are
peaceful and within the limits of the Constitutional
and Fundamental Human Rights of Freedom of
Thought, Freedom of Expression, Freedom of
Speech and Freedom of Assembly, I will stand
with the People of Peru until this preposterous
and despicable decision by a corrupt and totally
illegitimate ``president" is rescinded and the
Dignity and Stature of Peru in the International
Community is restored. Peru must demonstrate
again (unfortunately, since its Government has
completely failed and should collapse) through
the will and determination of its People, that
it is a well-governed State with Respect for the
Rights of Citizens and the Law and not only for
the Rights of the rich and well-connected,
especially the most corrupt, brutal and murderous,
and that it is a State where Humanity and Dignity
are not only remembered and conveniently quoted
when an abject abuser and mass murdered is
ill, but also when it comes to the treatment of
the State, his victims and their families.


A disgraced and illegitimate ``president", instead of being
shameful enough to resign and protect his own reputation
and his State's dignity, has pardoned one of the worst human
rights abusers and one of the most reviled criminals, not
just in Peru, but internationally, thus having, not only
disgraced anew his State, but, also, and emphatically,
having relegated it to a sham State and a pariah in the
International Community. Peru is a State with no respect
for Humanitarian Norms and no interest in doing the
absolutely minimum to uphold International Standards
and to protect its own Citizens, and his ``president" has
shown that he and the State are willing to barter with
nonnegotiable principles and cross red lines for personal
gain and survival. They have shown that being firm on
the exemplary and paradigmatic punishment of the worst
of the worst,  one of whom the current ``president" has
proven to be, is not currently in Peru's priorities nor has
it being in Peru's mind and in Peru's traditions.
It may be a ``great day" for Fujimori's accomplices, his
complicit family and criminal and fellow thugs, which of
course all have benefited financially and otherwise from
his tenure and despicable crimes,  and for ``fujimorism'',
i.e., for graft, corruption, abuses, violence and gangsterism,
but it is a sad day for thousands of Peru's families and
an infamous and atrocious day in the Memory and in
the History of both Peru's degenerate politics and for
Humanity.
 

As things stand, Sudan is best left alone. I would have
been ashamed to meet an alleged international criminal,
a murderous fakir, who should have been long ago
extradited to Rome to stand trial for grave breaches
of humanitarian treaties and custom. Unfortunately,
President Erdogan is indignant about murderers and
abusers of innocent civilians and children only if the
crimes are perpetrated against Muslims and turns a
blind eye to other, equally savage, despicable crimes.


Of course Mr. Kurz is not only an ultra-rightist politician,
a racist and bigot; he is also an idiot out of touch with reality.
If he had been the prime minister of Greece or of Italy, he
would not have expressed these idiotic and nonsensical
views about a ``failing system" of redistribution of migrants
and refugees, nor would he have dared to condemn the
``quota system", but would have put instead pressure on
his E.U. colleagues to apply it faithfully and make it work.
When a failed politician, with a bankrupt ideology and an
antiquated World viewpoint, is unable to comprehend
such simple facts and unable to see that the States of E.U.
where the large waves of immigrants enter have very few
options other than ask for solidarity and burden sharing
from their E.U. fellow members, there is something
intentionally dangerous and dubious in the pretense
of the inability of the basic comprehension of the moral,
the political and the economic principles that led to the
creation of, and that made the E.U., as a community of
fraternal and cooperative states, possible. To a reasonable
analyst, such politicians, unable or fearful of suggesting
the destruction of the E.U. and the return to an isolationist
and protectionist Europe, try, by stirring unreasonable
unrest and dissension within the block, to cause an implosion.


Διαβάζω γι αυτά τα περιστατικά χρηματισμού, που
πάντοτε, αλλά ιδιαίτερα στη σημερινή δύσκολη
οικονομική κατάσταση για τους περισσότερους
συμπολίτες μας, είναι απαράδεκτα και κατάπτυστα.
Όμως αναρωτιέμαι, τί έπεται αυτών των συλλήψεων;
Ένας γιατρός που χρηματίζεται, δε χρηματίζεται
ούτε μία, ούτε δύο, ούτε τρείς φορές. Και ένας γιατρός
που χρηματίζεται, φυσικά δε δηλώνει στην εφορία τα
δόλια εισοδήματά του. Αρα λοιπόν, αναρωτιέμαι,
γίνονται κατασχέσεις περιουσιών, ρευστών και
ακινήτων, και επιβάλλονται βαριά πρόστιμα όσον
αφορά μή δήλωση εισοδημάτων και μη καταβολή
φόρων, ή οι πολίτες πρέπει να είναι ικανοποιημένοι
απλώς με το ``ονόμασε και ντρόπιασε" και, μετά από
καμιά δεκαρια χρόνια (με τους ρυθμούς της Ελληνικής
Δικαιοσύνης) με ένα πρόστιμο, με το οποιο φυσικά
ο χρηματιζόμενος θα αστειεύεται και θα γελά για
χρόνια αφότου έχει επιστρέψει στις ίδιες
κερδοφόρες μεθόδους και τακτικές;


The Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have to be restarted
with the goal being the creation of a Sovereign and
Independent Palestinian State, living in a state of Peace,
Friendship and Security alongside Israel. However, there
are two preconditions that must be met.
1. Jared Kushner has to be canned and replaced by an
    experienced, skilled and wise diplomat. Nepotism and
    the appointment of inexperienced and unwise spoiled
    brats that win appointments through personal relations
    and favoritism are a no start in both domestic and
    international politics, but more emphatically so in the
    extremely difficult arena of International negotiations.
2. Since the United States has lost even the semblance
    of a fair and unbiased broker and since Israel has
    issues with the E.U., both the United States and the
    E.U. should play decisive roles to create a balanced
    and equitable mediation team, which is more likely
    to inspire confidence and elicit the support of both
    Parties.
The following steps should be followed:
1. Replacement of the son-in-law by an experienced
    and skilled diplomat held in high esteem and with
    good reputation both at the State Department and
    Internationally.
2. A specialized E.U.-U.S.A. summit in which a rough
    decision on the parameters involved, the steps that
    are to be followed and a rough timeline for the
    negotiations to be followed are sketched out.
3. The invitation of the Israeli and the Palestinian
    delegations at a specific geographic location at
    specific dates with a specific plan for a 4 Party
    Negotiations (Israel, Palestinians, E.U., U.S.A.).
4. Closed door negotiations with no public statements
    or declarations and no accusations and apportionment
    of blame, even when extreme difficulties and
    disagreements arise, while negotiations are ongoing.
    This is extremely important and has to be strictly
    abided by by all Parties. No one wants to derail
    a serious and constructive effort based on hasty
    actions and reactions in the public sphere that
    result from nerves, passions, ill-feelings, deliberate
    opposition and/or misunderstandings.
NOW IS THE TIME. GRAB THE OPPORTUNITY!


Votes against the Resolution on the Status of Jerusalem:
Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia,
Nauru, Palau, Togo, United States.


If I ever heard a lame excuse, this is the lamest
of all. I call for a TOTAL AND COMPLETE
BOYCOTT OF ALL FUTURE APPLE iPHONE
PRODUCTS until the company apologizes and
admits the real reason why it was doing this, which,
of course, was not to protect anybody's ageing
batteries, but to make people think that their
phones could not cope with new technologies and
new apps and that they needed to buy the new,
upgraded, sorry and super-expensive, apple gadget.


Clean hands, my a**... All politicians, left and
right, wherever they come from, promise fairness,
transparency, clean hands, getting rid of nepotism
and corruption, and it's all for public consumption
and show. With the first opportunity, they jump
on private jets and take expensive gifts and, in
general, become entangled head to toe with the
people that can provide for them a more luxurious
life than the one they already have arranged for
themselves through their lavish salaries and
lavish benefits and give no second thought to
their pledges and their promises. Trudeau is
different only as it concerns his sex appeal,
nothing more nothing less. The public is tired
of asking for their resignations. If they had any
shame they would not have done these things in
the first place and, if they had any decency to
resign, then, since they are all similar in greed
and avarice, there would be nobody to govern.


``Ruthless'' individuals and those that do harm
intentionally, without provocation, and with
fabricated and lame excuses and justifications,
pay sooner or later and this seems to be the
case here.


Turkey has many burning and unsettled issues on its
Eastern and South-Eastern borders and it would do
well to focus on those. On its West, it has a Peaceful
and Fraternal Neighbor, which respects International
Law and International Values and Principles and who
emphasizes Values that Unite, a Shared History and
recognizes a Common Destiny and supports and
encourages Democracy, Openness and the European
Aspirations of Turkey. So the Parties in the Turkish
Parliament, which with their rhetoric are trying to
push the Government to extremes and to instigate a
frictional, unfriendly and bellicose attitude toward
Greece, should reconsider their attitude and should
realize where the real issues and the real dangers
lie when it comes to Turkey's International relations
and International stature and to focus on those.


Our United States has scorned and ridiculed U.N.
decisions in which some 190 States in the General
Assembly have condemned a reprehensible action,
and the only dissenters have been Russia, N. Korea
and Venezuela, and justifiably so. The same scorn
our United States should deserve for decisions that
are nearly unanimous except by a dissension from
the United States and Israel. These are embarrassing
and unjustified decisions that become more so and
more a stain in the face of our United States when
they are needless and help no objective other than
placating domestic rich donors and supporters
of the President. That is, one of the most revered
international fora is used by an administration
with zero foreign policy credibility in the same
manner as domestic legislation, such as deregulation
and the humongous tax gift package for the rich.
SHAME! As 2020 is approaching, at least in terms
of foreign policy, but also in terms of domestic
economic decisions, not to mention issues of
equality and respect for minorities and favoritism
and nepotism  (White House staffing and Judge
appointment tragic failures), it is
HIGH TIME FOR A RADICAL CHANGE!
I hope that this terrible and disastrous morph
administration will have the effect of  totally
decriminalizing in our United States the words
``left" and ``socialism" and that we see in the next
elections a younger, charismatic and progressive
candidate from the center-left who would be coming
from and would be working for - and not just proclaiming
to work for - the lower-middle class and those that are
more in need for help than the millionaires who are
getting it now, and whose policies in issues of Global
concern will be aligned with all other States, e.g.,
supporting the Paris accord and being a fair and
balance broker in regions that need special focus
and attention, instead of losing ground and credibility
in the World scene. The United States became strong
and powerful in part because it has heard and has
responded to the concerns and needs of its allies and
has gotten in return strong International support
and prestige. Our United States is now abandoning
these policies and is receding in the International
stage and this is a development that it neither
deserves nor can it afford.


I do not know what the real reasons are, but this
deranged and disturbed human being is on track
to cause real harm and, unless someone provides
the help he is crying out for and he is not treated
differently that any similar case because of his
family's political connections, there is going to be
severe and irreparable damage done to someone.


Στην Ελλάδα, όταν κανείς κάνει τη δουλειά του με
προσοχή, με επιμονή και με ξεκάθαρους στόχους,
και όταν κάνει υπερβάσεις, χωρίς να υπολογίζει
προσωπικό κόστος για το καλό της πατρίδας του,
γίνεται αντικείμενο διωγμών, στόχος αφερέγγυων
και αποδιοπομπαίος τράγος. Ιστορικά, πιστεύω
ότι ο Τσακαλώτος θα δικαιωθεί πέρα και πάνω
από κάθε άλλο Έλληνα πολιτικό για τη συμβολή
του στην επιτυχή επίλυση της κρίσης. Ελπίζω
προσωπικά ο ``Γεωμέτρης", έχοντας επίγνωση
και σωστή εκτίμηση της Ιστορίας, να μην νοιαστεί
και να μην επηρεαστεί από τις επιθέσεις και από
τις παραφωνίες που, με μαθηματική ακρίβεια, θα
ακολουθήσουν, ακόμη και απο αυτούς που στήριζαν
θερμά μέχρι πρότινος την πολιτική του, αλλά ως
χέσ*ες, βλέποντας το αναπόφευκτο πολιτικό κόστος
και μη θέλοντας να επωμιστούν το μερίδιο της
ευθύνης που τους αναλογεί, είναι τώρα πρόθυμοι
να τα χρεώσουν όλα σ' εκείνον.


If there had been real Justice in the U.K. and, since
this purchase was Government subsidized, the U.K.
Government should step in, force the contractors
to return the entire amount and return to them
ownership of the house, and allow the person whose
livelihood was destroyed rather than helped by this
scheme to use the money to rent a decent apartment.
WHAT A SHAME, for a State that is supposedly
First World and developed, to have standards like
this, and, on top of that, allow scum and embezzlers
to make a joke of and play with people's lives through
substandard work and, at the end, adding insult to
injury, proposing ``plans to repair" the slum they
were permitted to sell for £325,000.


I would challenge Meryl Streep to clarify: Did she
not know about the allegations or did she not know
whether the allegations she had heard about were
true in fact? For her not to know about the allegations,
when Hollywood was ripe, not only with rumor, but
also with open, surreptitious but rather explicit, jokes
about them, is, to say the least, strange and could
only be believable if it came from a hermit or
someone living in another planet, and, at worst,
incredible. It sounds like coming from someone that
intentionally wanted to stay out of it, trying to stay
aloof from accusers and to refrain, out of a, perhaps,
misunderstood and misguided idea of loyalty, from
taking a clear, loud and unequivocal stance against
the hands that had fed her and others, and an elitist,
disengaged and dispassionate attitude that may not
be legally reprehensible, but, coming from a strong
female voice in the business, who commands respect,
has credibility, is widely admired and has sway, is
lacking and deficient.


Pigs with medals. Perpetrators of unthinkable
Crimes against Humanity, who have caused pain
and sorrow to hundreds of thousands of innocent
Civilians in Myanmar, whose only fault happened
to be that they have been born on the wrong side
of the tracks, and have deprived an unthinkable
number of their lives and of their homes and
means of subsistence, are still at the helm of a
degenerate State, a pariah State which maintains
pigs with medals in the highest ``offices", invests
them with high powers and, apparently, holds
them in the highest esteem.


In Austria of all States, the appointment by a sane
and progressive President of a coalition government
including neo-Nazist elements as ministers of the
interior, defense and foreign affairs sends shivers
down one's spine; a repulsive and emetic state of
affairs...


Every Greek Citizen should appreciate the explicit
warning given by the ECB President Mario Draghi.
Even those, and perhaps mostly those, that detest
the European and Global interference in Greece's
affairs should be thankful, since, it is well known
from past experience that, without some kind of
oversight or supervision, once the economic climate
improves, Greek Governments will be tempted to
relax some of the measures and the reforms adopted
and this will return the State, which has meager
resources and is financially constrained, to a similar,
if not the same, impasse as in the past and a new
crisis and a new support package will have to be
implemented, which no one would like to witness.
 

In my view the President of the Council of Europe
has lost his legitimacy over the refugee issue and
should resign. The president of the Council is
supposed to voice and reflect the opinions of the
majority of States and to strive for consensus.
In the issue of refugees, his opinion is opposed by
the overwhelming majority of the Member States,
thus showing that he is acting either as an individual
or as an agent of the very few renegade States,
of one of which he is a Citizen. Apart from this
procedural issue, which I consider, extremely
important for the President of the Council and
the integrity of his role, it is also important that
his position contravenes and undermines Basic
and Foundational Principles of the Union and
Cornerstone Pillars of its cohesion and harmony,
namely, the Principles of Cooperation, Sharing,
Solidarity, Equality and the Universal Legal
Principle of Pacta Sunt Servanda. I call on Mr.
Tusk to step down. If he wants to voice individual
opinions or to side with a small minority of States,
he can do so as a private Citizen or as a National
Representative, but not as a Head of the Council.


ZERO TOLERANCE for financial improprieties,
corruption and graft everywhere, but especially
so in South America, whose credibility as a well
governed part of the World is tottering on the edge
after humongous recent bribery revelations. Peru's
President MUST STEP DOWN. If not the letter
of the Law, he has certainly violated its spirit and
it IS HIGH TIME HE WENT and let clean hands
take the helm. PERU DESERVES BETTER.
You have no ``honor" left, your ``values" have
no credibility and ``your responsibilities as
``President" (or rather ``boss") of all Peruvians"
are not welcome anymore.


The only control that should be allowed on the internet
is over criminal activities, such as illegal drug and arms
dealing and commerce and human trafficking. No other
limitations, prejudicial measures or biases should be
introduced on how the internet functions and on its
mechanics. And this absolute prohibition should be
enshrined in a World-Wide Internet Agreement that
would be respected by all Nations without exceptions.


Last night it was a win for the People of Alabama and
for the Future of this Nation. The seat vacated by an
abject liar (or Alzheimer's patient) that ``cain't recall"
any of his meeting or visits or missions or machinations,
lies in front of Congress without being held accountable
and is, embarrassingly and shamefully, in charge of the
Nation's Justice System, was not allowed to fall into
the hands of a Hypocrite - in - Chief and an alleged
pedophile, who, if there had remained any speck of
dignity and remorse and self-awareness in politics,
should have resigned the race and immediately turned
his attention to clearing his name in court, had, as he
purports, all these allegations been questionable or
false. BRAVO to the voters of Alabama, who proved
that People in this State are not sheep following any
and all misguided voices based on traditional beliefs
and who insisted on basic ethics and accountability
when it comes to candidates for this Nation's Highest
Elected Officials and Representatives.


Greece's Government, in view of the positive momentum,
and the accompanying political international pressure,
needs to reconvene the Council of Party Leaders and reach
a new consensus on what is acceptable as far as the official
future name of FYROM could be and what are the red lines,
and work intensely and insistently with Skopje and other
International Parties inside the U.N. and under the auspices
of the Secretary General to find a mutually acceptable
solution as soon as possible. I reiterate that, in my view,
the best possible scenario would be if both sides accepted
the name of ``Vardar Makedonija" and the accompanying
shortening change from ``MK" or ``MKD" to ``VM" or
``VMK", respectively, erga omnes.
This name is objectively truthful, since much of the territory
that comprises the State of FYROM has been historically part
of the third of Macedonia, called the Macedonia of the Vardar
and, also, should be acceptable for both parties since it signifies,
beyond the shadow of a doubt and without allowing much
space for ill-meaning and dangerous misinterpretations, that
FYROM is a state established in that territory, without any
desires or claims on other parts of the larger geographical
region of Macedonia belonging to either Greece or Bulgaria.


``Populist Brexit promises
   have proved empty"
Sebastian Mallaby, The New York Post

Now all the far right abominable political elements,
who propagate and advance anti-Semitic rhetoric
and anti-Semitic statements and create turmoil and
an atmosphere of fear and intimidation in their
societies, for which too often Jews are the first to
bear the brunt of, are fanatically and vociferously
supporting moving embassies to Jerusalem, under
pretext of the unfortunate and misguided decision
by the morph administration. I am wondering what
the real motives are and what they truly have in mind...


YES! TO THE SPD PROPOSAL FOR CLOSER
EUROPEAN INTEGRATION WITH THE GOAL
OF CREATING A ``UNITED STATES OF EUROPE"
BY 2025. THIS IS THE NATURAL NEXT STEP TO
EUROPEAN INTEGRATION. IT IS A COURAGEOUS,
BOLD, AMBITIOUS, BUT REALISTIC, PLAN AND
WILL CONSTITUTE A CORNERSTONE IN THE
ONGOING QUEST FOR PEACE, FRATERNITY,
AND PROSPERITY THROUGH STRENGTHENING
DEMOCRACY, EQUALITY AND COOPERATION.
It is only appropriate that this new milestone is now
put forward by the SPD, a Historical Giant in Europe's
political affairs and a Historical Mammoth in the quest
of Germany's and Europe's People for Human Rights,
Equality, Democracy and a Human Economic and
Social Fabric that counterbalances unchecked and
destructive urges for excessive political power and
excessive financial power concentrated in the hands
of the few to the detriment and downfall of the many.
I URGE THE CHANCELLOR TO HEED THE CALLS
OF THE SPD AND TO NEGOTIATE WITH THEM TO
GRAB THIS UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY, UNDER THESE
UNIQUE CIRCUMSTANCES TO ADVANCE THIS
NOBLE CAUSE. Windows of opportunity come and
go and it may be difficult under different conditions
and different political balances to have another chance
in the near future. Make the best of a seemingly
unfortunate and unpromising situation to break
new and truly revolutionary ground with fresh ideas!


The U.K.'s debt to the E.U. stems from already assumed
responsibilities and already promised contributions and
has nothing to do with future status, future relations or
future trade and other agreements. Having U.K. officials,
speaking on behalf of the U.K. Government, relating those
two unrelated and separate aspects, one of Membership
and the other of Brexit and independence and loneliness,
is unacceptable, amounts to blackmail and the E.U. side
should react forcefully and convincingly to clarify this
and to bring the U.K. back from illusions due to its own
discomfort and failures stemming from Historical errors.
Also unacceptable is the suggestion that market access
and trade ties, as well as ties in labor market and services
can be bought and sold via a one time payment. These
agreements are never bought by paying a one-off, however
vast, sum. These agreements are negotiated reciprocally
beneficial arrangements with ongoing value for both
parties and, mostly, stem from feelings of friendship
and cooperation and a will for closer ties. The U.K. had
all that and chose distance and uncoupling.
Suggesting buying selectively for a price what they like
and not been subject to responsibilities or engage with
policies they don't like, but which constitute an integral
part of a European framework and play a balancing role
in the E.U. overall political, economic and social fabric
is cold-blooded, preposterous and very British. I guess
the Labour has not changed very much from the era
of the despicable Blair and his criminal behavior and
ideological bankruptcy.
 

Absolutely no one who is a diligent and meticulous
student of History or Law would support questioning,
reopening or renegotiating any Treaty that has been
agreed to arrange territorial boundaries in Europe,
and so much more so in Southeast Europe and the
Balkans. The Inviolability of and Respect for those
Treaties, enshrined as a Basic Principle of International
Law, has been the Cornerstone for the increased Peace
and Security in Europe in the last 70 years and, despite
appearances, as was showcased by both the Yugoslavia
and the Soviet experience, some regions are powder kegs
waiting for such hesitations and such doubts raised by
ill meaning players and parties to explode.
UTMOST CAUTION WITH OUR WORDS AND ACTIONS.
WE OWE OUR CHILDREN AND OUR CHILDREN's
CHILDREN AN EVEN MORE PEACEFUL, SECURE,
FRATERNAL AND PROSPEROUS EUROPE THAN THE
ONE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS VISIONARIES HANDED
DOWN TO US THROUGH FORESIGHT, POLITICAL
DEXTERITY AND NEGOTIATING ACUMEN.
 

Nikki Haley, instead of apologizing to the United Nations
for the morph administration's needless actions that unfairly
and unreasonably prejudice a negotiation process that took
many generations of much more skillful and much more
adept politicians than her to advance, and that took much
more respected and much more wise presidents than the
despicable morph to shape and preserve, has the audacity
to lambast the United Nations for ``hostility". I would have
been very upset about her and her support of totally biased,
unbalanced, perilous and destructive actions, had I not
known that, not unlike the Russian envoy there, her role
is not to make sense and discuss issues according to her
powers of reason and judgement, but only to be an
an obedient and unquestioning instrument to the whims
of her State, which, right now, is governed by an abject
failure, a totally incompetent president, and whose foreign
policy is, unfortunately, in shambles and in complete disarray.


Manuel Marín is with us no more... His Erasmus program
is one of those programs that contribute, in the three most
fundamental ways, to the reinforcement of the relevance
and the positive force of the European Union in the every
day lives of Europe's Citizens and demolish the propaganda,
initiated in various quarters, that the E.U. is exclusively a
club of ill-meaning oligarchs in Brussels who try to boss
Citizens' lives and amass for themselves excessive powers.
1. It has allowed Citizens, especially young Citizens, to
    become members of a truly European Community
    of learning.
2. It has fostered, especially in young Citizens, a feeling
    of fraternity, common destiny, togetherness and
    collaboration, like, perhaps, no other program in
    the History of the Union.
3. It has allowed scientists across Europe and Universities
    across the Continent to perceive themselves more as
    part of an integrated whole, rather than as isolated
    or National institutions, and has encouraged them
    to look for ways to foster international collaboration
    and diversity and to increase ties, and, thus, become,
    alongside the Union, more open, more adaptive and
    more accommodating and, thus, more tolerant, more
    accepting and more federal in character.
May the marvels of the journey that you made a reality
for the Continent's youth and for its future generations
accompany you on your last travels, Manuel.
 

A piece of History has died with Romania's Michael I
passing in Switzerland today.


Bravo to Pierre Moscovici, who, in the most elegant way,
described the real content and the intended audience of
the book of the most abject and repulsive narcissist of
Greek parapolitical junk life, who almost sank his State
for personal promotion and personal ambition.


The expected move from the State Department of the
Morph administration to recognize Jerusalem, in an
unqualified way, as the Capital of Israel would be the
biggest political blunder of recent times. Not only
will it derail the Good Will that one side has shown
in negotiating for Peace, but it will also fly square in
the face of the false and pretentious proclamations of
the alleged, but bankrupt, morph's self-touted ability
to break deals, which, under his idiotic, egocentric
and temperamental character and under the ``direction"
of his ``little", inadequate and totally inexperienced,
spoiled son-in-law has come to absolutely nothing,
nada, nill; a travesty of foreign policy and a ridicule
of fairness and equality.


Good Riddance.


Why is one not surprised to the least, I wonder...


Επικροτώ την απόφαση του προέδρου την Νέας Δημοκρατίας
να δεσμευτεί ότι κανένα συγγενικό του πρόσωπο δε θα λάβει
μέρος σε κυβέρνητικό σχήμα που θα προκύψει από τυχόν
εκλογή του ως πρωθυπουργού. Επικροτώ επίσης την υπόσχεσή
του να προσπαθήσει να εφαρμόσει λαϊκή εκλογή του Προέδρου
της Δημοκρατίας. Όμως δε μπορώ παρά να καταδικάσω την
υπόγεια αλλά σαφή δεσμευσή του για άδικο και απαράδεχτο
εκλογικό νόμο, που θα πριμοδοτεί αδικαιολόγητα το πρώτο
κόμμα με έδρες τις οποίες ούτε κέρδισε με βάση το εκλογικό
του ποσοστό, ούτε και δικαιούται με βάση κάποια πολιτική
ή άλλη αρχή. Το άλλοθι της πολιτικής σταθερότητας είναι
καπνός για να απαλύνει την πολιτική ανισότητα και αδικία
μιας τέτοιας απόφασης, που αντίκειται μάλιστα ιδεολογικά
στην απόφασή του περί άμεσης εκλογής του Προέδρου της
Δημοκρατίας, μια και η μεν είναι προς περισσότερη και
πιο διαφανή Δημοκρατία, ενώ η δε είναι προς διάβρωση
της Δημοκρατίας και της λαϊκής εντολής. Απλή και ακριβής
αναλογική και ευρείες συνεργασίες είναι η Λύση που εδώ
και δεκαετίες χρειάζεται η Ελλάδα για να αποσοβηθούν
μελλοντικά τα φαινόμενα, οι κακομεταχειρίσεις της εξουσίας,
η καρεκλολαγνεία και τα παρατράγουδα που μαστίζουν τη
χώρα και που ακόμα (και επί ΣΥΡΙΖΑΝΕΛ) δεν έχουν τελικά
εξαφανιστεί,  ειδικά σε ό,τι αφορά τη συμπεριφορά και τα
ψέμματα του Καμμένου, τα οποία υπερασπίζεται αντί
ασυζητητί να κατακρίνει ο Τσίπρας, και τους διορισμούς
που ανά διαστήματα ακούγονται (προσωρινών και εκτός
ΑΣΕΠ) φιλικά προσκέιμενων προσώπων και άλλων, περί
του ΣΥΡΙΖΑ, γλυφτρονιών.


I totally agree with the statement that warns gay advocates
that, if they consider it OK and legitimate to pray for someone
else to be gay, then they should be ready to accept other people's
prayers for them to fall in line with their biological sexuality,
and that being comfortable doing the former while vehemently
objecting and protesting against the latter is, to say the least,
contradictory and hypocritical. I would urge all sides to stop
praying that someone be ``this or that way" in terms of their
preferences and to make an effort to accept everyone and
everyone's preferences as they are, since they neither bother
anyone nor interfere with anyone else's preferences or affairs.


What a pity! I thought that, especially now that he is
at the dusk of his career and does not care about
reelections and political cost, the Honorable Senator
from Arizona would have done the right thing and
would not have let the country down on this ultra
important political and economic issue as well.
Alas, it sounds like I was too optimistic and it was
not meant to be...


One by one the States that have an interest in a nuclear
and a militarized North Korea are revealing their true
feelings and true intentions. Russia argues that sanctions
``do not work". Of course they do not work if States do
not respect them and have commercial ties with the
North Korean regime and, therefore, are, effectively,
bankrolling its nuclear and military ambitions. Russia
is exploiting in an absurd and, seemingly devious, but
in reality, blatantly obvious and petty way, a vicious
cycle that it and China have been creating for years,
saying that sanctions do not work, continuing political
and commercial ties with the north, refusing to impose
sanctions and, thus, giving fuel to their pseudo-arguments
that sanction do not work, and so on around the bush.
A reasonable human being would obviously realize,
that if China, Russia and the United States allowed
only foodstuffs and medical supplies to pass through
their borders and through sea routes into North Korea
in a well planned and effectively supervised sanction
regime, the North would not have had the financial
and material capability to continue on the path of
developing expensive weapons of mass destruction.
If the will had been there, this problem would have
been resolved yesterday. Since the will is not there,
the World will have to either witness another
expensive war and human tragedy or have to live
with a nuclear North Korea and a heavily militarized
Korean Peninsula, a chronic sore and potential source
of future disasters.


Immoral and unrepentant brutes dressed in suits and ties.
Good riddance, but little consolation for the families of the
victims of their heinous, unimaginable crimes, mostly
people who refused to give up their ideals and to stop
fighting for a better World or to settle for oppression,
nepotism and injustice.


I hear Myanmar's military is warning the Pope not to
speak about the plight of the Rohingya. Papa Francesco,
this is not a cultural issue, nor is it an issue of treaties
and/or international agreements. This is simply an issue
of HUMAN RIGHTS and of INDIVIDUAL FREEDOMS,
including the fundamental Rights of Free Thought, Free
Expression and the Rights to Shelter, Sustenance,
Education, Property and the Pursuit of Happiness.
Defy the military's commands and decry both the
despicable de facto pseudo-leader of Myanmar and
its military and urge them to treat the Rohingya as their
own, as they would treat their own brothers and sisters
and as every single Human Being on this Planet deserves
to be treated, regardless of race, ethnic background, sex
and all other personal preferences and characteristics.
IT IS YOUR DUTY, IT IS OUR DUTY and IT IS A
SACRED DUTY, THAT OF THE PROTECTION
OF ALL HUMAN BEINGS AND THAT OF SHAMING,
ISOLATING AND HOLDING ACCOUNTABLE THE
PERPETRATORS OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.


How easy to decry acts of corruption and pledge to stop
them when you are the most corrupt; how easy to ``humbly"
ask to ``let bygones be bygones" when you are the perpetrator
of oppression and terror; how easy to pledge for a ``new
beginning" when you had been for thirty years at the core
of a stinky, self-serving and gut-wrenching establishment
that should have been gotten rid of yesterday and must not
survive for even a single second more. ABSOLUTELY
NO CONFIDENCE TO THE SAME PEOPLE OF THE
SAME OLD REGIME that come now with new clothes
and ask for magnanimity and promise fresh fruits and
radical change and to belatedly care for everybody..


We are about to receive it seems good news from Germany.


The pot (and what kind of a pot) called the kettle black...


A very sad and disappointing day for Zimbabwe...
Zimbabweans, despite your naivete and ignorance
in political matters and despite your uncanniness
and credulity, I stand by you and lament without
you the nonexistent future of your State, as you
are jubilantly and inexplicably transitioning from
the ``Mugabe billion graft" era to the "one and
the same Mnangagwa" era. What a huge let down,
what a humongous loss of opportunity, what a pity...


If the rumor is true that Mugabe, an embezzler of public
property beyond the shadow of any doubt, has received
amnesty from prosecution and that none of the illicit
gains and illegally acquired properties in his and in his
family's possession will be recovered, then we are
looking at a political and financial scandal of almost
unheard of proportions. ZIMBABWEANS, YOU HAVE
ALREADY BEEN DUPED AND YOUR ``UPRISING"
RESULTED IN ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. INSTEAD
OF HAVING MUGABE STEALING YOUR WEALTH
AND YOUR FUTURE, YOU'LL HAVE ANOTHER
EQUALLY CORRUPT AND UNWILLING TO DO
RIGHT SUBSTITUTE. WHAT AN ABJECT SHAME.


NO TO MNANGAGWA OR ANYONE ELSE AFFILIATED
WITH THE ANCIENT REGIME. ZIMBABWEANS INSIST
AND FIGHT FOR A REAL, SUBSTANTIVE CHANGE AND
A CLEAR BREAK FROM THE PAST! Don't settle for
opportunist leeches that smell offices and let themselves
selfishly flow where the scent of money and power smells
the strongest for a few and the scent of repression, fear and
danger overpowering for the overwhelming majority.
ZIMBABEWANS, DON'T GET DUPED INTO WELCOMING
ANOTHER MUGABE WITH NOTHING DIFFERENT TO OFFER!


The ICTY closed its mandate with a very significant decision
yesterday, one with both a substantive and a clear symbolic
significance. Perpetrators of Crimes Against Humanity and
of Grave Violations of the Laws and Customs of War shall
be hunted down and punished, wherever they come from
and whatever the excused and attempted justifications for
their hideous and atrocious acts. The decision also inspired
the World to hope that similar decisions and similar lawless
and degenerate behavior by politicians and military
commanders alike will not be repeated, and that at times
of Civil or International Conflicts (that one hopes would
not happen, or at least would happen more and more
rarely and with lesser and lesser vehemence and intensity)
the Tenets of International Humanitarian Law shall be
Fully Respected and Fully and Forcefully Implemented and
no deviations for whatever reasons shall be allowed under
threat of paradigmatic and severe punishment.
 

Mnangagwa should only return to Zimbabwe as a private
Citizen. He has been closely associated with Mugabe and
Zanu-PF and is equally responsible for their abuses of
power and their corruption, mismanagement and nepotism.
He did not have the courage to speak out when everything
was going for him personally, and he would not have done
so had he not been ousted from the vice-presidential chair
and had he been assured the next dictatorial position.
He is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, an opportunist and
a venomous influence in the affairs of a State that needs
new blood, clear distance from the outgoing regime and
a break from cancerous institutions and personalities,
including Mnangagwa, and other Mugabe associates who
had only been interested in  personal offices and personal
advantages for personal power and enrichment.
DOWN WITH THE PAST AND ANYONE CONNECTED
WITH THAT PAST IN ZIMBABWE! ZIMBABWEANS
DESERVE BETTER AND THEY SHOULD STAY ALERT
AND VIGILANT UNTIL THEY GET IT!


The BBC put a misleading headline ``Morrissey defends
Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein". What the singer
is saying is that, in matters of sexual harassment allegations,
especially when they come so late and in such great numbers,
one has to be very careful with passing judgment and to
look very attentively at all surrounding circumstances.
But he does wholeheartedly and unreservedly condemn
all those who harass and physically assault anyone else,
especially in positions of power and responsibility. Anyone
knows that, had the stakes not being so high, had it been
a normal 8-5 job with a normal salary, none of the males
and the females that have been allegedly harassed would
go to get ``interviewed" or ``broken into" the job in their
prospective employer's bedrooms and that's simply what
Morrissey is pointing out. He is just saying the obvious,
but BBC is making it sound as if the singer wanted to
somehow lessen the criminal responsibility or absolve
of that responsibility the perpetrators of serious assault,
and, if one reads the article carefully, he is not trying to
do that at all. BBC, be more careful with sensitive issues!


I would like to add my voice to those that would like to
encourage the SPD, a Historic Party with a Historic
Mission and a Historic Responsibility, to do the Right
Thing for Germany and Europe at this 11th Hour and
join forces with the CDU/CSU and the Greens and
curve out a progressive and forward-looking agenda
for Germany and Europe. The Chancellor has done
her best, despite internal opposition and, at times,
personal cost and political peril, to advance Germany's
and European affairs and to steer State and Continent
in an enviable way, with steady hands, clear of immediate
and not so immediate dangers and substantial hurdles,
and to prepare the ground for a better Union, armed
with the conscience and the political and financial
weapons required to face future challenges. With
pressure from the SPD and the Greens, more can be
accomplished in terms of Social Justice, Social
Responsibility, Solidarity, Unity and more, and
more efficient, Democratic Institutions and Power
Sharing and, of course, Conservation, Climate and
other very important and urgent Environmental
Issues, in which, given America's absence for now,
the World needs a powerful leading example, so
much better and more convincing coming from a
right leaning party, or even better a right leaning
party with strong backing and support from left
leaning Democrats and Environmentalists.
SPD and GREENS DO THE RIGHT THING!
GRAB THIS UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO
WORK WITH EUROPE'S CHANCELLOR
TO MOVE GERMANY AND EUROPE IN THE
RIGHT DIRECTION! DO NOT MISS THIS
CHANCE, COMING AT THE RIGHT TIME!


Zimbabwe needs a clean start. Any one closely associated
with the deposed ``president" and anyone that was part
of this corrupt party and regime would be very unlikely
to initiate radical changes in the political process and to
change people and practices in the political life of the
State and, therefore, would be an unacceptable choice
for succeeding the fossilized leader of a fossilized party
and of a fossilized, stale and uninspiring regime. Now
is the time and the opportunity for Zimbabwe to hold
open, free and fair elections to transition to a genuine
multiparty democracy and now is the time to amend
the Constitution of the State to impose one or two four
year term limits in holding the highest offices of the
State and, thus, not only heed the call of History, but
also become a model, in that respect, in the Continent.


Presidential elections are taking place in Chile, with
the Conservative coalition predicted to win the State's
Highest Office. As the BBC reports, this would follow
a series of right wing victories in South American
elections. It shows that the left wing parties, among
so much hope and so many expectations, in the post
dictatorships era in South America, have failed to
deliver and, as has been witnessed, have been
involved in many corruption, graft and nepotism
related scandals, which disillusioned a large part
of the voting population and proved that the ``chair"
and the offices are equally corrupting and degenerating
influences for semi-ethical and semi-gifted people
no matter whether they dress up their words in
a left or a right wing ideology. My hope is that
a new generation of less graft-prone and less
selfish, left leaning, progressive and open minded
politicians will arise in South America that can
revitalize and renew the hope for a more just, a
more fair and a more equatable economic and
social order, and will continue on the traditions
of South American States of having friendly and
fraternal relations with all States in the World
Community. Lastly, Chile's term limitations
are to be applauded and celebrated in a very firm
and categorical way. I cannot even imagine how
different and how much brighter the past, present
and future of the Mother Continent would have
been, had the newly liberated from colonial powers
African States been blessed by leaders gifted enough
and forward thinking enough to adopt such strict
and non-negotiable term limits for their highest
offices and leadership positions...


I am speechless. It just breaks my heart to think that
there are still people in this World who would even
think of, let alone act on, auctioning and selling human
beings, their own brothers and sisters, to slavery,
especially in a Continent that has suffered and has
been humiliated so much and has still deep wounds
from that abominable and incomprehensible practice.


This macho man's first encounter was with the love of
his life in a hay barn in Gallipolis. His second was with
the torture of his conscience in a trench in Passchendaele.
His third was with the destruction of his questionable,
comedy engendering character in an open gutter among
many a political corpse in Waterloo. For a senior judge
to be so insecure to feel the need to brag about how many
and how much good-looking females he has had during
his lifetime, allegedly on account of , but totally unrelated
to, the revelations about despicable and inexcusable
behavior of powerful, affluent and well-connected males
toward female coworkers, prospective employees and
other associates, regardless of how long ago, there must
be some serious shaky ground under his feet and there
must be some serious personal traits that he is afraid
will be revealed during the campaign that motivated and
would very likely explain a desperate last ditch effort
at aimless attack and personal posturing before an
upcoming strenuous defense and total annihilation.


Three positive things one can keep from this visit of
Mugabe to the graduation ceremony.
1. His wife was not there, which means that she may
    be out of the political picture, which might imply
    that nepotism and corruption are part of the talks
    going on between the fossil and the military.
2. He attended this ceremony even under house
    arrest, which might imply that under discussion
    is continuing his role as Chancellor of the University,
    while withdrawing from politics. This will satisfy
    his egoism in keeping him relevant and in the public
    eye (at least occasionally), while also preventing him
    from doing more political and economic damage to
    Zimbabwe and fossilizing its public life.
3. He was nor reported sleeping, a pleasant surprise,
    given that he does not care at all about showing
    disrespect for important processes and important
    functions, which may suggest that, despite radioactive
    dating evidence to the contrary, his organism has
    not yet hit the 93% decay mark.


It is telling of the President's character that he was
asking publicly for ``thanks" for the Good Services
that he provided (no humility, no generosity without
expecting in return and no loving and embracing
spirit, in sharp contrast with his predecessor, but
we knew all these). On the other hand, the essential
thing is that he intervened on behalf of three
American Nationals who admitted their wrongdoing
and were prepared to pay a dear price for it in a
foreign land, and it is very positive when both the
President and the Department of State have the
interest of American Citizens in their minds and
act on it, since, in my view, it is, if not the most,
at least one of the most, important functions of
their Offices and of our Government. So, in spite
of the negative attitude and the negative traits
that his behavior and his tweets revealed, I do
applaud the President and all officials that took
the time, while in the Far East, to address this
issue and bring it to a happy conclusion.
One advice to the President would be to just do it
and not get on tweeter and the media to darken
and lessen his character and become a miser.
But, when one is insecure, emotionally unstable
and of weak and feeble mind and character, it
is difficult to resist the temptation to whine.


I have not been a big fan of ``President" Mugabe, nor
did I have any respect for his regime or appreciate the
machinations that he has been using to practice graft,
nepotism and cling to power way beyond his welcome
by manipulating elections and making Zimbabwe a
laughable State and a pariah in the International
Community. On the other hand, the military in a
modern and civilized society should always be
subjected to Civilian Control and should never ever
interfere with affairs of State, no matter how grave
the political situation and how degenerate the social
and financial situation may be, with the exception,
perhaps, of being called upon to provide help and
relief to those sections of the population that find
themselves in the brink of catastrophe. With this
in mind, I CALL FOR AN IMMEDIATE AND
COMPLETE RETURN OF CONTROL OF THE
AFFAIRS OF STATE IN ZIMBABWE TO
CIVILIAN HANDS AND FOR THE IMMEDIATE
ORGANIZATION AND PLANNING OF FAIR
AND FREE ELECTIONS UNDER NON PARTIZAN
OR MULTI-PARTIZAN OVERSIGHT, UNDER
STRICT RULES AND REGULATIONS THAT
WOULD ALLOW ALL CANDIDATES TO
PARTICIPATE AND TO SHARE EQUAL AIRTIME
AND EQUAL PRINT SPACE IN THE STATE'S
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE MEDIA.



The A**hole General and Liar-in-Chief cain't recall
forgetting to tell the truth.


I applaud Bob Geldof and would hope that all other
awardees of ``honors" that she has received either
return them in protest or write open letters saying
that they feel ashamed having been awarded the
same prize that has been awarded to and not been
withdrawn from her, when her criminality and her
covering and abetting serious Human Rights violations
and ethnic cleansing became apparent.


We are indeed getting very tired with Trump's ignorance
and naivete in political, military, intelligence and foreign
affairs. Especially this business about asking repeatedly
an ex-KGB man, for Goodness sake, whether he meddled
with U.S. domestic affairs and trusting that if he had, he
would flinch and burst out in tears and spontaneously
cry and apologize to his big daddy for breaking the rules
(if there are any) of international courtesy by trying to
profit politically by spying and propaganda operations,
in which, by the way, his State is not the only one on this
earth engaging or trying to engage.
Enough of ``how many times can one ask, he is always
denying it and he feels insulted." Perhaps, idiot, he feels
insulted and embarrassed that you are so incompetent
that you are not getting it at last that, even if he did it,
no matter how many times you ask, you should not be
expecting him, the unflinching and unemotional and
``steady macho boss", to give in and confess...


Και σχετιζόμενο με το προηγούμενο, ένα μήνυμα
για τους νέους του αντιεξουσιαστικού χώρου:
Από τις μολότωφ και τους εμπρησμούς κάδων
απορριμάτων και τις σωματικές απειλές σε βάρος
αστυνομικών, που κάνουν τη δουλειά τους, μέχρι
σοβαρούς τραυματισμούς αθώων παρευρισκομένων,
ή θανάτους λόγω πυρκαγιών σε πολυκατοικίες
και θανάτους αστυνομικών από υπερβάλλοντα
ζήλο και απροσεξία, η απόσταση είναι μικρή.
Και αν κάτι τέτοιο συμβεί, θα είστε δολοφόνοι,
ανεξαρτήτως ιδεολογιών και ανεξαρτήτως
πρόθεσης. Και τότε ούτε οι ``κολλητοί" σας,
ούτε οι συμπαθούντες, ούτε οι υποστηριχτές
σας θα είναι δίπλα σας; όλοι εγκαταλείπουν,
και δικαιολογημένα, τους δολοφόνους. Ας είστε
λοιπόν προσεκτικοί όταν πρόκειται για παιχνίδια
με ανθρώπινες ζωές που ούτε σας ανήκουν ούτε
διαφεντεύετε.

Στην Ελλάδα ακόμα και για τους νεκρούς και τους
δολοφόνους τους δε μπορούμε να τα βρούμε. Η βία
και ιδιαίτερα η βία που οδηγεί σε απώλεια ζωής,
πρέπει να είναι εξίσου καταδικαστέα από αριστερά
και από δεξιά. Όσο γι αυτές τις διαφωνίες μεταξύ
των συγγενών για το πώς πρέπει να μεταχειρίζεται
η δεξιά ή η αριστερά τους δολοφόνους του ενός
ή του άλλου και για το αν και πώς η κοινωνία
και η δικαιοσύνη πρέπει να είναι εκδικητική ή
ανθρωπιστική, ας τα βρούμε επιτέλους σε ένα
minimum: ΝΑΙ στην άδεια επίσκεψης συγγενών
στις φυλακές, σε ένα ανθρώπινο και ανεκτικό
περιβάλλον; ΟΧΙ σε άδειες, έστω και με αυστηρά
περιοριστικούς όρους. σε βαρυποινίτες δολοφόνους,
είτε είναι αναρχικοί, είτε είναι ``επαναστάτες",
είτε είναι παρακρατικά, παραστρατιωτικά,
παραεξουσιαστικά κοθώνια.


No one should be surprised anymore by ``tough on ethics"
for everyone but oneself republican arch-hypocrites.
The anti-gay, racist, anti-science, anti-Islam, pseudo-poet,
and pro-God-the-wrathful-avenger hypocrite turns out
not only to be a bad a** cowboy, as he really sounds, but
also, it appears, a bad a** predator, as he really seems.
``Crime", ``corruption", ``immorality", ``abortion",
``sodomy", ``sexual perversion" Heaven forbid (από
την πόλη έρχομαι και στην κορφή κανέλα...)


This is not a case of ``clean hands" ensuring that corruption
is wiped out. This is a case of one spoiled, fearful and ruthless,
equally corrupt branch of a family turning against their own
to ensure that they have absolute control over corruption,
graft, earnings and appointments and that no opposition or
control to their absolute power is possible from within.
The only thing they have not taken into account is that the
terrible, despicable polity in Saudi Arabia is hanging in an
extremely delicate and fine balance and can be sustained
for a little more if all ``princes" and family members are
allocated enough share of the pie, wealth and power, to not
form factions and start, first infighting, and, then, a civil
war, like in any other badly governed and absolutist state.
So the ``prince" is kicking out other ``princes" at his own
extreme and suicidal peril.


It is very critical to NEVER FORGET the atrocities of the past
and to speak and act against all those that express nostalgia for
policies and regimes that have been condemned to the trashcan
of History. It is also important to NEVER FORGET that each
and every individual in his/her own small way can contribute
enormously in maintaining and solidifying HUMANITY,
FRATERNITY, PEACE and COOPERATION, that were so
painstakingly, and through no easy or trivial, courageous and
bold steps, established after World War II. It is our heavy duty,
but a rewarding duty, and our inherited responsibility to pass
these Values and these Ideals down to Coming Generations by
educating them and by preserving for them the memory of the
terrible, gut-wrenching events of the past, but also the memory
of the distinctive Humanity and Brotherhood that many
individuals, despite risk and the prevalent fear and norms
of the times, chose to courageously adopt and preserve.


Black and white rapists of Africa. The sad thing is that had
it not been for the black and their utter disregard for ethical
rules, good governance and transparency, and their extreme
practices of nepotism, corruption and graft, the whites would
not have had the chance or found the opportunity to play
those terrible and devastating games on an economy that
can hardly sustain and support its own people.


Bravo to both the Mexican Authorities and the FBI for their
cooperation and successful arrests in this case. Having any
kind of relationship between consenting adults, that are
mentally fit and psychologically competent is, needless to
say, among the fundamental rights of individuals and it
should not be regulated, proscribed or restricted by any
religion or societal rules. On the other hand, involving in
such relationships, through  indoctrination, coercion or
by force, innocent and unsuspecting minors is akin to
slavery and the worst form of sexual exploitation and
should be persecuted and prosecuted mercilessly, with
the same mercilessness and equal zeal and determination
that the perpetrators use in subjugating those unfortunate
and defenseless minors in the first place.


We hear over and over again, after each and every
incident of this kind, which have become, unfortunately,
an everyday occurrence, that this and that and the other
restriction and law would not have prevented the specific
individual from legally purchasing/acquiring, proudly
displaying and disgustingly strutting and disastrously
using his weapons. To a  reasonable, sane and unprejudiced
mind, the only safe conclusion one can draw then, is that
the laws and regulations are not enough, since they cannot
discourage, inhibit or prevent these events from occurring.
As to the argument that more guns, and guns everywhere,
would protect against derailed, psychopathic and/or
ill-meaning and conspiring individuals, set upon sawing
death and destruction, this is also non-sequitur. If guns
are purchased/obtained more easily, then it is true that
there may be more well-meaning individuals carrying
guns around. But this will also unintentionally facilitate
ownership by mentally unstable and psychologically
derailed individuals, many of whom are undiagnosed
and wander free and untreated in our societies. Moreover,
it will also facilitate, due to wider ownership, their being
more easily and more readily mixing with the population
and, thus, being better able to conceal and disguise their
intentions by claiming that they are behaving like the
``guy next door" and not doing ``anything different".
Finally, as for the bankrupt Constitutional Argument,
the Writers of the Constitution lived in a different era,
when individual gun ownership made a difference and
when, having an armed population could prevent excesses
by a comparably armed weak State or Federal apparatus.
The argument that that clause is relevant now is false
and misleading, since the United States Government
and many of the States' National Guard and Police
units have weapons that could send, even well-equipped
and well-numbering contingents of disenfranchised and
oppressed Citizens up in ashes in the blink of an eye.
AMERICA, WAKE UP! Let us not get swayed
any longer by an industry that has intolerably strong
and  disproportionately influencing power on our politics
and has everything to gain and is shamelessly profiteering
from harm, distraction and death. Let us push Congress
and the President to do the right thing and institute very
restricting and tough regulations concerning purchasing
and owning weapons, especially those that are clearly
manufactured for more than hunting, to cause injury
and death.


Μπράβο, Αλέξη! Σήμερα τίμησες, μαζί με τον Αμίρ,
την Ελλάδα και όλους τους κατοίκους της, και εκείνους
με την Έλληνική Υπηκοότητα, και εκείνους που έχουν
προσωρινές ή μόνιμες άδειες παραμονής, και όλους
τους Φιλοξενούμενους μας στη χώρα, είτε είναι
εκδιωγμένοι και κατατρεγμένοι Πρόσφυγες, είτε
είναι Ανήμποροι και Φτωχοί, επιζητούτες μία καλύτερη
μοίρα κι ένα καλύτερο αύριο, είτε είναι προσωρινοί
Επισκέπτες. Αυτή είναι η χώρα της Ανθρωπιάς, της
Αλληλεγύης, της Φιλοξενίας και του Φιλότιμου, όχι
μόνο γιατί είναι Ιστορικές Αξίες μας, αλλά και γιατί
τις έχουμε όλες χρειαστεί και ως Έλληνες διαχρονικά
και επιζητήσει σε άλλα μέρη. Και στην συντρηπτική
πλεινότητα των Κρατών της Οικουμένης, όπου και
όποτε πόρτες χτυπήσαμε και βοήθεια ζητήσαμε, μας
παρείχαν Ανθρωπιά, Βοήθεια και Φιλοξενία και
κανείς δε μας απέκλεισε, ούτε μας κυνήγησε, ούτε
χειροδίκησε εναντίον μας, ούτε μας έκαψε το σπίτι,
ούτε μας έσπασε τα παράθυρα. Έχουμε τώρα λοιπόν
κι εμείς, πέραν του ότι διαφορετικά δε μας αρμόζει,
την ελάχιστη υποχρέωση να ανταποδώσουμε και
να βοηθήσουμε όπου και όσο μπορούμε και όσο μας
αναλογεί.  ΜΠΡΑΒΟ, ΑΛΕΞΗ!!



It is shameful for Greece, which has sent over many
centuries its own people as immigrants, laborers and
working professionals in many foreign lands, to have
even a few incidents of this kind. I strongly condemn
all those Greeks that perpetrate such hideous and
unbecoming acts, many of whom I am sure have
had, or still have, relatives and family living abroad,
and their antiquated and bankrupt ideology and
pseudo-nationalism, and I unequivocally and
passionately support the Minister of Immigration
Affairs and the Prime Minister for taking the time
to show (even a symbolic) support for this innocent
family and to reiterate the firm and strong commitment
on the part of the State in ensuring safety for ALL
and to reaffirm in the most categorical possible
terms the RIGHT OF ALL CHILDREN, regardless
of sex, race, nationality and personal preferences
and characteristics, TO A QUALITY EDUCATION
WHEREVER THEY AND THEIR PARENTS AND
FAMILIES HAPPEN TO RESIDE.
Bravo, Prime Minister!!


When your criminal acts and criminal history are so
shocking even to yourself that you try to erase your
own self from the face of the Earth, then you simply
deserve to go. GOOD RIDDANCE and may your
soul never rest, if there is anything of that sort waiting.

In Zimbabwe, cyber security and cyber threat means
inconvenient and damaging truth. Mugabe is a
``selfish and sick" man, who cannot even keep awake
to follow important speeches in international meetings.
What sort of a parody of a State and a travesty of a
Government is that? FREE THE INNOCENT
AMERICAN CITIZEN NOW and get instead
busy with repairing your degenerate and laughable
domestic affairs and with making your State a worthy
partner in the World Community instead of the abject
and ridiculous pariah it has become under this demented,
unworthy and despicable ``leader".


We sort of knew this, but, still, the revelations are quite
shocking. The Democratic voters need an answer and
they need an answer fast. And those scums that think
of themselves as being beyond rules and regulations
and as being above ethical standards because of their
names and their histories and publish garbage, hiding
grave breaches of ethical rules on their part and only
accusing others to paint a biased and blatantly false
pictures of themselves, should be held accountable
and pay a price for it. Our Democratic Ideals and
our Core Values are eroded not only by scandalous
and unwanted interference from foreign powers and
actors, but, also, and perhaps more seriously, by our
own disregard for Democratic Principles and our
own undermining, damaging and skewing what
should have been an Open and Fair Competition.


Knowing how the rich react and their machinations,
the only thing that will be accomplished for those at
the top is encourage them to shift their wealth to their
real or fictitious corporations from personal income,
so that they be taxed at  the lowest possible level while
hiring tax lawyers and other parasites to find ways
and loopholes to use the money as they had been
doing before. So the only outcome would be to get
things worse than before as far as who pays the
extravagant expenditures of a State whose size and
that of its military have gone beyond comprehension
and beyond sustainability. Where are those promises
by the lying and unworthy morph for an overhaul
and for a radical simplification of the code that would,
supposedly, have allowed citizens to file their taxes in
a postcard size return? All lies and all fantasies by a
loony president that had, and still has, absolutely no
connection with reality and no orientation, no compass
and no program to speak of. Everything done in a
haphazard, lame and meaningless way and all based,
it seems, on expedience and opportunism without plan.


Funny how, in our times, the phrase "I am seeking
treatment" does not mean ``I need help" anymore,
but has assumed the more nuanced ``I got caught".


Το ξόανο ήθελε να κρατήσει και τις περιουσίες.
Αφού τα φάγανε, απαιτούν από πάνω να βγούν
και λάδι... Ούτε γάτα ούτε ζημιά δηλαδή. Όμως
δε σφάξανε. Κι ας χωρίζει αυτόν που παντρεύτηκε,
όχι για το παρουσιαστικό του, αλλά ακριβώς γιατί
νόμιζε πως θα ερχόταν μεγάλο φαγοπότι, ώς και
εγένετο, έτσι ώστε να βρει κάποιο άλλο κορόϊδο
και θήραμα με την ελπίδα να επαναλάβει την
ίδια τακτική και να ξαναχτυπήσει διάνα. Όμως,
ας ελπίσουμε ότι τώρα που την ξέρουν όλοι,
και ξέρουν το ποιόν και την ξεφτίλα, όχι μόνο
δε θα τσιμπήσει κανείς, αλλά θα γυρνά γυμνή
και κατάπτυστη.


The head of the Jewish Public Radio joined the grand
cohort of movie people and journalists who thought
that their money, their positions, their connections
and their power gave them a laissez-faire, laissez-passer
and immunity to do whatever they pleased with whomever
they pleased, but present themselves as ``leaders" and
``benefactors" of the communities and the professions
they ``served". These incidents were not and are not
isolated. They were known and joked upon in the
circles perpetrating them and suffered in silence in
the circles subjected to them. These men, and their
enablers and abettors, formed a vast and coordinated
sex criminal enterprise that was conspiring to convert
professions and outfits into respectable brothels where
the young upstarts and the needy would be given the
impression that their careers would not advance
unless they were ``interviewed" by the ``bosses" in
the ``right" way to be ``broken into the business".


After she gave her acquiescence, and from her words
and actions, it also seems her consent, to ethnically
cleanse the province from the ``different" and the
``leprous", the despicable, stinky Nobel worm is
visiting the region to celebrate, triumph and admire
the devastation and the ``cleanliness" that her actions
brought on the defenseless and on the least fortunate.
SHAME, SHAME, SHAME on her and on
the World Community and on the Swedish Academy,
which only cares to reward and does not give a rat's
a** to expose and shame its awardees who stain and
insult the face of Humanity.


Only time will tell whether the new Fatah-Hamas deal
will be more lasting and provide a solid foundation for
the reconciliation of all Palestinian factions that need,
now more than ever, a common understanding of a
common destiny and a realization that only Unity,
Peaceful intentions, and extending a hand of Fraternity
and Friendship to all their neighbors, including Israel,
will ensure Global and firm support for a Homeland
and, perhaps, a new push for a resolution to this
disgraceful conflict. On the other hand, Israel must
do its part by halting the expansion of old and the
establishment of new settlements in occupied lands
and by showing a genuine support for this new State,
that could become, despite past frictions, enmity and
differences, one of the closest allies and closest
partners of the Jewish State. Let every side do its
part to see a Peaceful, Stable, Secure and Prosperous
Region rise from the ashes, death and destruction,
that has gone on for way too long by any standards.
 

Ενόψει ``ιδεολογικού συνεδρίου" (και μη χειρότερα),
ο τσέλιγκας χτύπησε την αγκλίτσα, έ*λασε δημόσια
και βάρεσε πολιτικο-ιδεολογικό μανι*έστο.


I hear that the Sultan is filing a law suit against an MP
for having called him a fascist. Well... he certainly is more
of a fascist and an absolutist than those European leaders
that he has been calling ``fascists" on and off for a long
time. So again the saying ``the pot is calling the kettle
black" is very appropriate here (or in the wisdom of
neighbors ``είπε ο γάΪδαρος (και τί γάϊδαρος) τον
πετεινό κεφάλα").


Η γυναίκα είναι χαζή... Θα μας πει τώρα ότι ένα κόμμα με
αρχηγό μπορεί να ελλείπεται ``βαρόνων" και ``φεουδαρχών".
Σε λίγο θα μας πει και ότι ο φασισμός και η αναρχία είναι ένα
και το αυτό. Εκτός και αν με την φράση ``χωρίς βαρόνους
και φεουδάρχες" εννοεί ότι, αν ακλεγεί αυτή, δε θα ανεχθεί
οργανωμένη αντιπολίτευση εκ των έσω, που είναι μάλλον
και η πιο πιθανή ερμηνεία. Όσο είμαστε στην απόξω,
κραυγάζουμε για δημοκρατικές διαδικασίες και ελευθερία
εκφρασης και μόλις ανελιχθούμε στην κορυφή θέλουμε
να την περιορίσουμε και να την απαξιώσουμε για τους
υπόλοιπους μην τυχόν και κινδυνεύσει η καρέκλα μας...
Από την εκκίνηση, μαύρα σημάδια στη ρητορία της
``προοδευτικής κεντροαριστεράς"...


Another shameful, atrocious stain in the face of Humanity.
When are petty warlords and ``generalissimo" pseudo-
revolutionary pseudo-leaders going to learn about progress,
Peace, Fraternity and Humanity in the mother Continent?
How is that Continent, with so much potential, raped by
colonialists and now by its own, going to be given respite
and Its Children a chance to breathe and live unafraid,
free and given a chance to be fed and educated properly?