Allgemein – Über’n Tellerrand • Off the trodden track

A lie is a lie is a lie

“Die Fahnen hoch, die Reihen fest geschlossen…”

The American presidential election campaign is good for many a surprise and provides endless satirical material that writers of the future will draw on for decades to come. A striking example:

In Springfield, Ohio, a cat went missing and turned up a few days later. End of story* End of story? No way! JD Vance used an unproven allegation by a neighbour of the cat’s owner to construct a story about pet-eating Haitians.

Trump spread this blunt lie during his tv debate with Kamala Harris. Trump spread this blunt lie during his televised debate with Kamala Harris. But that’s not the end of the story for the people who live in Springfield. Haitians, fleeing very great hardship in Haiti and blameless, were threatened and two schools had to temporarily close after JD Vance and Trump’s lie.

But this is not the end of the story for people who live in Springfield. Haitians were threatened and two schools had to be closed in the aftermath of JD Vance’ and Trump’s lie. A group of Proud Boys came to Springfield and tried to exert their power on the streets. Not much different than what the SA did in Nazi Germany: they occupied the streets and threatened anyone they considered enemies by their presence alone.

Americans, think twice before voting for these Trump and Vance characters …

* https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/cat-at-center-of-jd-vance-pet-eating-claims-is-alive-and-well [thanks to your fact checking and your article]

The weirdo #2 — New Jersey 13 / 5 / 2024 Hannibal Lector

It’s the usual Trump style: Donald starts with the topic ‘migrant flood’, rows his arms back and forth a lot and ends up with… surprise … the character Hannibal Lector. This is what happened on 13. May 24 in New Jersey.

The sentence that interested me and others:

The late great Hannibal Lector. He’s a wonderful man. He oftentimes would have a friend for dinner.

For people who don’t know what to do with this novel The Silence of the Lambs, which was made into a film with Anthony Hopkins and the main character Hannibal Lector by novelist Thomas Harris: It’s about an extremely educated cannibal who cruelly kills several people in order to then eat them. What is supposed to connect the two topics of immigration and Hannibal Lector? Of course there is NOTHING. The attempted joke “He oftentimes would have people for dinner.” turns the subjects, guests, into objects, meat. This reversal figure is nothing new in our days. It’s quite typical for the humiliating style of Donald Trump.

It reassures me a little that most of the commentators on the film snippet think Trump is just as nuts as I do:

“The Late Great Hannibal Lecter” Trump’s Mind is Literally Melting
and Untethered from Reality. • Does anyone know the context • Diarrhea of the mouth. • Getting more bizarre as his mental decline gets worse.

Let’s see what else the great Donald produces in the coming weeks and months. If we hadn’t learnt that enough Americans seem to approve of such nonsense, we could only laugh our heads off…

Verbal diarrhoea. Trump on 6/9/24. Agent orange on the brink #1

It’s difficult to believe but everyone can check this piece of verbal diarrhoea performed by Trump on June 9 2024 in Las Vegas:

Teleprompter not working, not even a little bit! Great job. And then I dont’t pay the company that does it, right? And then I end up with a story Trump doesn’t pay. I don’t pay contractors that do a *** job. And that’s a *** job. I hope the military-revolts at the voting booth. So I said let me ask you a question, and he said nobody ever asks this question. And it must because of MIT, my relationship with MIT, very smart. He goes, I say, what would happen if the boat sank from its weight and you’re in the boat. And there’s a shark that’s approximately 10 yards over there. By the way lots of shark attacks lately. Did you notice that? Do I stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted or do I jump over by the shark and not get electrocuted?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VtW60uXAgQ

Don’t tell me that you are going to vote for this weirdo, do you?

Just put them in their place, ragazzi

…and give a strong answer to unfairness and nationalism.

Mayence & Blankenberg / March 2021

Jon Batiste – the black political wunderkind

Protests against police violence concerning foremost black people were perfectly right. But sometimes they changed to violence as well when shops were looted or cars burnt. Jon Batiste did probably suffer equally from this racial suppression. But he chose another strategy to bring his protest to the public: music.

Having a New Orleans origin and musical background from his family he accompanied street protests with very loud and energetic music. The new perspective of these marches is indicated by the motto We are [whatever]. This was quite effective when you consider the public feedback. Recently the Sueddeutsche, one of the two leading German newspapers, dedicated him the top report.

But Jon Batiste can make good music and funny performances as well. See the youtube video on top. And one more thing are the lyrics In a world with a lot of problems / all we need is a little lovin’. That’s it!

Mille gracie, Mr Draghi

Appeasement politics weren’t that successful in the past. Think of Hitler and Munich 1938 or Stalin in the thirties and fourties. Therefore I appreciate very much that Mr Draghi called Erdogan a “dictator” on Thursday. That’s clearly his main feature as you can see in his behaviour. Want some samples?

• Everyone who can menace his power is called “terrorist”, even if nice and peaceful people are concerned like Mr Kavala who is only fighting for human rights.
• Elections like that for the mayor of Istanbul are repeated if the outcome is unpleasant for Erdogan.
• To butter up the ultra nationalists Erdogan left the Istanbul Convention recently. This Convention was meant to blame violence against women. The need of protecting women rights can be clearly seen when you consider the hundreds of Turkish women murdered (470 in 2019) or hurt each year.
• Despite having a number of elected MPs the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) is effectively detained from exercising its rights of participation.

That’s what sensible people call a dictatorship and Erdogan therefore a “dictator”. Well done, Mr Draghi.

A letter to pope Francis

Cologne, St. Patrick’s Day 2021 [3/17/2021]

Dear Holy Father, dear pope Francis,
I’m a 65 year old former teacher, married to my wife B. and father to our three adult children M., M. and M. I’m doing a minor course of study of Theology at the KHKT (Koelner Hochschule fuer katholische Theologie). At first, I want to express that I very much appreciated your recent visit in Iraq and your support and encouragement of the remaining Christians there. I moreover am very thankful that you showed for years a way for a humbler church close to the people instead of a vain and self-satisfied church.

I’m writing to you since the Catholic church in Germany and even more in the diocese Cologne is on a steep decline. Some severe problems make people leave the church by hundreds per week. The people exiting the Catholic church are not those who want to spare their taxation money, these people have been gone a long time ago. In most cases at present the people leaving were faithful believers or even engaged as servers or occupied honorary posts. But now they can’t stand the neglecting of some problems by the leading persons in this diocese any more.

Continue reading A letter to pope Francis

Lock him in

after trying him for high treason.

One more thing: Fungie is gone

For 37 years, Dingle had a renowned and reliable attraction: A dolphin named Fungie remained in the harbour area of this amiable town. Thousands of people could watch this very special animal from close distance. Dozens of boats made it possible to experience Fungie. This source of income has vanished now as the dophin.

Even if the Fungie hype was sometimes annoying, it was nice to go to the lighthouse and have Fungie quite regularly near by. There were even people who swam together with this animal and reported exciting experiences.

Perhaps Fungie missed the action around him during the lockdown. The races with the boats weren’t possible any more. There is one relief for people who want to get in touch with dolphins: There is a group of several dolphins in the Moray Firth near Inverness. We could watch dolphins at the Ventry / Ceann Trá strand too. Even big media noticed the disappearing of the dophin like the New York Times, the BBC and the Irish Post.