Ach, We Hadn’t One of Those Posts in a While

I’m in a strange mood this evening. Feels like in a waiting room. I look over the room, through the window, and the full moon stares back. He, she or it moves up to the right, Southward, following the course of the sun. The idea that humans were already there, will go back there again soon, to built a “station”, perhaps within a crater – I read that there is the possibility to find water ice in such a cave – a “station” for crews who then will head for Mars – why, oh my GOd, why would someone do this ? Because “it is there” (I thought that was HILLARYs answer, just learned that it was MALLORYs, does it make a difference ?) – and because Mr MUSK thinks so ? This guy is already littering the nightly sky with his stupid little “Starlink” satellites – do I have to watch a single man’s vanity on the nightly sky ?
In earlier times men with too much money, wealth and spleen built strange houses or financed other megalomanic projects that nowadays usually sit abandoned and rot in peace. If this is the blueprint, will we have to watch Elon’s lousy satellites fall down one by one over the next decades ? I can not help, I think there is a good piece of assumption in this. Anyway, whatever drives yer spaceship, but I would really like to sit and watch the nightly sky without those damn little chains of light manoeuvering back and forth over Suebia, I simply do not like to have my night sky reduced to a shunting yard.
Ach, was soll’s ? It is celestial mechanics in the broadest sense, and I have no clue about it. The important things happen in the sublunar level, here on Earth. And I do understand less and less.
For example those protesters in Suebia, or elswhere. The most stupid placard I saw, read “Freiheit statt Corona”, freedom (or liberty ?) instead of Corona. Both substantives in this slogan are absolutely free from any informational value, it is a pure emotional message, and I can not rely on, I do not understand, “get”, it. And I do not understand the impetus, the force of the wave, behind this. I understand (at least I hope so) how the virus works, but I do not understand how this wave of uninformed, emotional nonsense works : What is triggered, how ? Where does it come from ? I see a fringe movement gaining force, all united against “the state”, in the end it is an emotional bomb.
I watched in awe, in fürchtender Ehrfurcht, how in the first Trump campaign emotions were created, channelled, used, how a society in a very large part became destabilised, the fall-out is still there and will not go away. It is fascinating and frightening. The USAmerican state and society came close to a coup, with the generous help of Russia, undeniably, just gone by, bah – was there something ?
I am far from really understanding this, I am just on the surface. But I see similar things happen here in Europe. It boils down to creating a climate of “Unsicherheit”, in-security on many levels ; it boils down to “I do not believe nothing (some official or authority says)”, and “All is possible”. So the most bonkers “informations” can be peddled, screamed out – since Trump’s megaphone was taken away it is remarkably quieter, and there is a chance of informed politics, as small as it is – the damage is already done.
Aber auch hier gilt : Was soll’s ? I slowly reach my limits in this pandemic situation. I feel like as if some corroding liquid would slowly nag and nag and nag on me – a silly picture, simply because I can not say what I contain ? My uglyness, meaness, and brutality ? Yes, that is what I contain, I try to be a civilised and cultured fellow, I do not want to be another idiot – of course I know that I will always be an idiot too, but a civilised, cultured, and non-violent idiot. But nevertheless I would like to spare the brutality, meaness, plainly all violation of humanistic values I try to live by, spare this to all those creatures I see living this out, not only in the news, but in real live, around me, too. I do not want to be one of them.
Sorry. In the end I am just pathetic, histrionic. The virus made me do it. And the moon is gone too.

The Cherry On Top

A bit of a rant, sorry. The last week or so just was ; there were strong emotions, a bit of drama, good times, a mixed bag of life. And lately something that vexes me seriously.
As I surely have mentioned earlier here, I live in a multi-party-house (I doubt that this word exists in English, it is the direct translation of the German “Mehrparteienhaus”), a block of flats with more than seventy tenants. A lot of fluctuation in the one-room-appartements, mostly rented to students, but on the other hand those who live here for longer than a few years learn to know each other and there is good neighborhood (“gute Nachbarschaft”). Usually.
On Tuesday morning we put out some things that should be removed from the appartement : A wooden chair beyond repair, a broken hoover, a small white cupboard I always hated, a thirty year old green desk chair with a defective mechanism and worn cushions. I put these things just to the right of my door in the “Flur”, the public space, I think hall is the usual word for this area. Accidentially the janitor dropped by, and I told him that I’d drive the things to the skip on Thursday or Frayday, he just waved and said “As long as I know …”, so all fine. He usually does not like things amassing in the hall, first because this is all defined as emergency exit (“Fluchtweg”), and second because he does wipe the floor once a week and then the stuff is in his way.
On Wednesday evening we returned late to the appartement after a visit to another neighbour, and noticed that the green desk chair was gone. I was not angry, but felt, well : miffed may be correct – a’ weng ang’fressen. It was my property I had put out there, and just because it is outside my appartement it does not stop to be in my possession. If one likes to have something, he she or it should ask. And if I am not here, leave a notice, like “Hello – I want to have this chair. Call me under this number …” And a “please” would also be nice. But just grab & go ? The lady next door has a nice pram besides her appartement door – do you simply take it away because you like it ? The name for this is theft.
It is a different thing when the community announces that bulk rubbish (“Sperrmüll”) will be carried away : Bring all that old furniture & clobber to the roadside, it will be collected and brought to the skip for free. In this case it is clear that the people who bring out the stuff do throw it away, and usually nobody will call it theft when someone takes something for his own, and carries it away. But inside the house, just next to my door ?
I plan to renovate my kitchen, which is of very limited space. I will have to put some things outside juat to be able to turn around – do I have to chain my fridge to the wall ?
Anyway, the small anger was outweighed by the now non-necessity to bring the cumbersome chair to the local “Müllplatz”, nowadays called recycling depot. And together with some other stuff I was given by a neighbour, that was what I did on Frayday. My vehicle has been resting for four weeks now, and it needed a bit of a run to bring all back to working order before passengers board, and I was allowed a skip stop by my dispatcher*.
Today I left my appartement to be greeted by the green chair, standing innocently (and cleaned) some meters away from my door. So it was not good enough for my stealing neighbour. If he, she or it (HeShIt ?) had asked me I would have pointed out that the mechanism is not working anymore, that the whole thing is beyond repair. (You do not want to sit on those thirty years old pads – if you start to replace them, or repair that gas spring, you can buy a new chair : “Recycling” that thing is not worth the effort, I mentioned this above, did I ?)
A little bit of thinking possibly could have led HeShIt to the idea that there is a reason why I put that thing outside my door – to do with it whatever I want to. And now I feel seriously pissed off (sorry) : Not only does HeShIt steal my old desk chair, but has the nerve to bring it back because it is not good enough. I feel absolutely no inclination to drive to the local civic waste collection point again. And it is generally a lousy state of things when you can not put something next outside your door (inside the damn house !) and trust that it is still there the next morning.

* I actually do work as a co-driver, we are far away from our regular schedule etc. I just act as stand-in. And yes, it all starts to get on my nerves. I start to sound like an old geezer.

Just Another Worried Idiot on the Web

I can’t help, but I have to watch the news. It is fascinating to see what develops in the US.
I think it is fair to assume that Trmp’s presidency has ended now. I do not believe that someone in his right mind – if someone in his right mind does still serve in this trainwreck – will obey orders from this ex-President. Especially re the nukes, I think the world can trust the American military : These are highly professional people, and I can not imagine that a USAmerican officer will start the nuclear holocaust on the orders of a deranged arsehole that tries to grab the last straw to “save” himself and his corrupt administration.
It is over. It may be wrong to compare, but I have the impression that Trump’s White House becomes more and more a caricature of a certain Berlin bunker.
Anyway. The dam has broken, the damage is done, it is now all about damage control.
I think the most important question is now what will happen after the 20th of January 2021. All we know now is that Trump will not attend the inauguration of his rightly elected successor. What simply rises the question, where will Donnie be – and stay ?
The worst possible situation that could arise, is that Trump somehow dies. If he simply drops dead the hard core mob will go into hyper-drive (is this “warp speed” ?), and I think then the danger of armed, brutal unrest is not only high & real, I think that in this case bloody real fighting will breake loose. They will not believe that he simply croaked, a new martyr is born, myth-making will start before he hits the ground.
I think the divine intervention will not take place, and the old battleaxe will just soldier on. What leaves basically two possibilities : Either he stays in the US, working tirelessly on his “comeback”, on installing the Trump Dynasty, holding “rallies”, and being generally a payne in the arse of this country until he dies peacefully in his bed. This would mean that the Republican Party (or what is left of it) sooner or later would be faced with the possibility of a kind of split. IF this party finds the cojones to draw a line, and to end the flirt with far right, dangerous militants, vulgo Trumpists.
This may be wishful thinking, but at the moment I can not imagine that they carry on as they did for the last years. Trumpists like Cruz, Cotton and Co. may have to find another club, but the party itself has a chance to re-invent itself. Of course it would also mean that there is a far-right, anti-democratic, violent movement installed that is here to stay. What reminds me of what Trump said in 2016, when he always blabbed about “the movement” and himself being “the leader”, exactly like Adolf, der Führer der Bewegung. Didn’t he say just in one of his last speeches that “the march has just begun” or something ?
The other possibility is that Trump signs some pardons, jumps on an aeroplane and goes to places. Scotland, for some golf – wonder how Boris would react. Or for a lenghty visit of his tower in Moscow – don’t laugh, I think this is a real option. Or he could go to this mystical island he supposedly bought – don’t know nothing about this, it is hear-say.
These two mentioned possibilities require that Trump a) has the brains left to organise these things, and to develop a kind of plan, and b) that he has the means – simply : money – to pull this through, for himself, and his entourage.
I doubt both. I doubt a) because it requires insight into the actual situation. And as I understand it, Trump has no more “insight” into what is “real”. I seriously believe that this guy is out in his own reality that has no more rapport to the “real” world of us small humans. I doubt b) simply because he started to collect money with this semi-fraudulent “re-election fond” shortly after the election. Trump never was a billionaire, rich yes, but not stinking rich. And what he showed through all his life is the inability to handle money. I simply guess he has a deficit problem, to put it mildly.
In the end, all my warble is futile. Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow, within the next ten days, and beyond. Trump may either piss off, and keep yelling from somewhere on this planet to a hopefully dwindling throng of believers ; or he may go fully Adolf and call them for the last stand, call openly for violence, rebellion, and overthrow, happy 20th then.
A way out for all involved, possibly even in the interest of “the Nation”, could be to declare him insane and to commit him to an institution, Guantanamo perhaps. But this is just a pipedream …
Trump is just a symptom, a nasty mushroom – the underlying mycel is still there. It is even strengthened. We saw the irrational break into the world, into a place that should be used for rational decision making, a place that should be safe, where civilised discussion should take place. The irrational is just a stone’s throw away.
When the assembly came together again, some blokes from Pennsylvania made a frivolous claim to overthrow the votes. A lawmaker reproached, they came close to throwing fists, Pelosi threw them out. The lady must feel like presiding over a
kindergarten.

To Chip In My Three Pennies

I do not see the fact that Donnie Rotten payed 750 $ federal tax for the two last years each as a scandalon. It is capitalism at work*, and I feel certain that the people responsible, surely mostly tax lawyers, did their job well – so it is without doubt all legal, and watertight.
It is also brazen, remarkably shameless, and morally banquerotte – but hey ! Look at the client – and if you are still surprised, I must ask you seriously where you spent the last four years ?
I find two things much more interesting. When you channel money away from the stately authorities, you create “black money”, Schwarzgeld. Where did it go to ? Of course there are the usual suspects, like Ireland, South Africa, Channel Islands, some Carribean affairs. This is a nice job for some agents, who like puzzles.
The other question is of course, where did the money come from ? Remember that Donnie Rotten payed for some things, for example that Scotish golf nonsense, in cash. And if I remember correctly for one hotel (in Atlanta ?) too. This does not reek, it stinks of money laundering. As I read, the files go back eighteen years. When was Donnie so active in Russia, together with his old “friends” (who now are out of jail) – wasn’t that in the early twothousands ? Maybe these files help to explain what exactly the connections are between Donnie Rotten and Deutsche Bank – that criminal institute that runs to this day the National Bank of Cyprus, the biggest money laundering machine of them all back in those years … why does the word “statutory period of limitation” pop up in my head right now ?
These files are a map. And in the hands of a good pathfinder, this map could lead to something interesting. Or disappointing – when we finally learn for how cheap the Russians bought their man.

* Wer hat, dem wird gegeben. Oder : Der Teufel scheißt auf den größten Haufen.