Fa – the Green Dragon

A Place for the Odd Musings of an Expat Bristolian

Category Archives: Thoughts of Interest


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Believing is not easy unless it’s true

The trouble with most

missionaries is that they

want you to believe

the same as they themselves do.

Believe me it is quite true!


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OBSERVATIONS ABOUT DONALD J. TRUMP part 4.

5.29.2017

OBSERVATIONS ABOUT DONALD J. TRUMP – 45TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (Part 4) Moving on.

Donald Trump is not being noted as someone careful with the truth or about what he says. Together with his propensity for exaggeration, he seems to be extremely uninformed about some matters at hand. It is very apparent that Donald seems to have had no inkling as to what being the POTUS really means.

Take the matter of Syria. While at dinner at his private resort, Mar a Lago in Florida with the Chinese Premier Xi JinPing he decided to launch a missile attack. Some 60 cruise missiles (at great expense to the tax-payer) were launched against a Syrian airfield.  One or two would have sufficed since it was only intended as a shot across the bow so to speak.

This is a classic case of the difference between men and boys is in the price of their toys.  This was not a well-planned military offensive; this was more an after dinner fireworks display for his guest. He claims he did it for the horrible deaths that Syrian children had suffered as a result of a Sarin gas attack. A good line Donald but I think it was more a test to see if his commanders would actually carry out his orders. As an interesting aside, one can speculate that in doing so his commanders validated his reason for ordering the surprising attack. However, one is left with the thought; was this a case of I’m the POTUS and I can do this? I should add that it was reported that Premier Xi Jin ping was not impressed and put it down to Trump flexing his muscles.

Returning now to some of the people surrounding Donald Trump and occupying positions in the White House. Perhaps the best place to start would be the actual transition (team) if that’s what it could called.

At the very outset it is possible and correct to write that the transition from the President Obama administration to the Trump takeover was inept, unprofessional, sloppy and chaotic. A clear demonstration that Trump didn’t know what he didn’t know. Instead of listening and receiving advice from those in the know, he took a typical Trumpian approach redolent of bombast and ignorance almost like a marauding Viking chief, looting and pillaging a coastal villages in Ireland during the 830’s.

The dust still has not settled. Can you imagine that in their haste to occupy the center of power they did not even ask how to turn the lights on? It’s true! You can’t make this stuff up.

His transition leader was Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey. Christie incidentally was under investigation for a traffic snafu which occurred in retaliation against the mayor of Ft. Lee who failed to endorse him.

Mike Pence the Vice President elect took over and some semblance of order began to take hold. It is still unclear just what Donald Trump had in mind when making appointment. Many of his decisions were obviously based on that appointee’s loyalty and campaign participation and or contributions.

In other words it was more a distribution o the king’s largesse that a considered evaluation of experience, ability or talent. One can only characterize some of the appointments as bogus.


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Taoism

A quick note:  I wake up quite often during the night; why I don’t know. But, in order to go back to sleep I count syllables (not sheep). I woke up this morning and my bedside note pad had this scrawled on it like public toilet graffiti.

Speculating on

what is or is not is a

waste of energy


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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”.