Fa – the Green Dragon

A Place for the Odd Musings of an Expat Bristolian


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1:00p.m. in Sonora, Arizona

The streets are empty

No people out and about

It’s siesta time.

Las calles están vacías,

No hay gente fuera de casa.

Es hora de la siesta

 


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Observations about Donald Trump (Pt. 3)

5.28.2017

OBSERVATIONS ABOUT DONALD J. TRUMP – 45TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (Part 3)

During his campaign, Donald Trump displayed an extraordinary trait for calling people derogatory names. One wonders if that was supposed to be humorous or did he miss the Kindergarten days growing up where he would have learned the rhyme about Sticks and Stones?

Donald Trump considers himself a winner. He promotes this idea with self-propaganda. One has to suppose that He likes the tendency to refer to some as losers. He referred to Sen. John McCain as a loser for getting caught by the North Vietnamese when his plane was shot down. More recently, he included in his list of losers, the ISIS inspired terrorist who murdered 22 people at a concert in Manchester, U.K.

Donald Trump’s lack of respect for people renders him to nothing more than a wealthy, powerful lout. He is ham-handed, rude and displays a streak of both contempt and meanness towards others.

As I write this, Donald Trump is concluding a 9 day foreign tour with his family. On his list of people to see during his trip were His Royal Highness King Salman of Saudi Arabia, His Holiness Pope Francis and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. This was followed by a visit to NATO headquarters in Belgium and then a visit to Italy for the G7 meetings.

Although television news reported that for the most part Donald Trump did well avoiding any major pitfalls, I believe there were one or two points worth mentioning.

Ostensibly, his visit with King Salman was to talk about increased action against ISIS and I am sure this got some discussion however, the true purpose of his visit probably centered around the multi-million dollar arms deal Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s Son-in-law supposedly negotiated with the Saudis. Sorry if I sound cynical, but selling arms to the Saudis is a bit of an oxymoron when the Saudis. Nobody sells them anything. Simply put they place an order. Donald Trump will at some point in the very near future claim how many jobs he created as a result of this non-deal. I’ll come back to this point later in my section called Following the Money.

His address and conduct at the NATO HQ was I thought embarrassing.  I don’t believe it was appropriate for Donald Trump to call for a moment of silence because of the bombing attack in Manchester. I write this from the point of view that it was not his story to tell. It was presumptuous and as with most things Trumpian failed the sincerity test. I among others saw it as an attempt at piety when piety had not been called for. He would have done better to have left this to the representative of the U.K.

His lecturing of the gathered assembly concerning costs/contributions to NATO were insulting and lost. Citing unfairness to me as a tax-payer was juvenile, unstatesmanlike and stupid. Sounding stern like a headmaster talking to naughty schoolgirls and boys did nothing to make America Look Great.

When Angela Merkel of Germany made her opening remarks she addressed the assembly with Eure Majistaeten (Your Majesties) indicating to me that the Royal family of Belgium were present. Donald Trump however did not recognize them; another missed opportunity to make America look great.

Oh and what about physically pushing Dusko Markovic, the prime Minister of Montenegro out of the way. I guess the Donald has not learned three words – “excuse me please”. His body language, the buttoning of his jacket and the total lack of eye contact afterwards says it all; “out of the way can’t you see I’m the top dog here”. His arrogant behavior makes one want to cringe. The day will come when he is no longer POTUS and when that day comes monuments will likely be erected to remind future generations of what it was like to live with national embarrassment.

On a final note about his overseas visit, he paid a visit to a US naval air station in Sicily where he addressed the assembled officers and men. In his address he claimed that already money was “pouring in” from NATO members as a result of his speech. He went on to add that this would not have happened if he were not elected POTUS.

I wonder if Donald Trump realizes how amateurish he sounds when he makes such claims. How does Don the Con tell such lies while keeping a straight face? This is the kind of claim that people who voted for him, knew was false but they chose to believe, abdicating their responsibility for doing what was right in the process. And, I will add, at the same time shifting responsibility in the event things don’t turn out by claiming “Donald Trump said so”.


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Life on the edge of the prairie

Falling snow in May

Cottonwoods release their seeds

White wind-blown fur balls


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Observations about Donald Trump (Pt.1)

5.26.20017

OBSERVATIONS ABOUT DONALD J. TRUMP – 45TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (Part 1)

This journal was started on May 26th, 2017 at the suggestion of Joseph Aronesty who was a former classmate of Donald Trump at Wharton College. I will write more about Joseph Aronesty in due course.

At the outset, I need to clarify that I am not a politician nor do I have a degree in political science. I am not a psychologist or a psychiatrist. I am not a millionaire. What I am is a citizen of the United States of America, a tax-payer and a voter, holding views concerning the Constitution.  Some of the views I hold are simply that or, for want of a better word they are opinions and in some cases surmisal and or deductions.

As of today, 205 days have passed since Donald J. Trump was declared the winner of the 2016 presidential election and 126 days since his inauguration as the 45th president of the United States of America.

This journal is about observations. It is not intended to reach any conclusions about subsequent events either during or after the election with regard to validity or legitimacy of his appointment but rather to query the bizarre manner in which Donald Trump conducted his campaign and his conduct since the election.

Donald Trump presents himself as a very strange person. His personality has no appeal to me and therefore I will say that from the very outset I did and still do not like him.

I think that what I found to be unappealing were his facial expressions when speaking, his hand gestures and simply the sound and tone of his voice. His manner of speaking usually with terms of hyperbole were weird. Who for example would describe the results of his plan to reform taxes as being beautiful and something that everyone would love.

The most difficult parts of his self-presentation for me however were simply some of the ideas he had and his rationale for promoting them. One quickly got the impression that he does not know what he does not know. In other words, he floated ideas without really knowing much about the subject at hand. A good example is the Affordable Care Act; referred to by the derogatory term Obamacare. When it failed to get support in Congress he asked – Healthcare is complicated, who knew? We’ll come back to this in due course. His constant use of hyperbole in his speech, referring to someone he had just met as a good man with whom I have a good relationship to beautiful health plans and horrible events all display a remarkable air of insincerity.

I will try to write more daily about my observations.

 

 


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Rice

Fluffy or sticky.

Sticky rice good for sushi.

Fluffy for curry.


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Modes of Occupational Transportation

Peelers on their bikes

Police in their panda cars

old and new at work


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A little German for PoojaG

Mozart schreibte schon

Eine kleine Nachtmusik

ich mag es sehr gern


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Watching Riverboats on the Mississippi

Mark Twain they swing lead

measuring the water’s depth

as they ply their course


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The Chrysanthemum River

Kiku no gawa

Chrysanthemum River flows

downwards to the sea