Blank Slate Media Newspapers, Friday, July 13, 2018
15
KREMER’S CORNER
Strange meddling of Donald Trump
I
t has become increasingly hard to understand what motivates the president of the United State in how he handles our relationships with our closest allies. He constantly berates the leaders of England, Germany, France, Australia and Canada and kisses up to Vladimir Putin and a host of other dictators. But worst of all is how he meddles in their affairs and ignores the same conduct by Vladimir Putin. Unless you have been living in an underground bunker or some mountain cave, the evidence is overwhelming that Russia meddled in the 2016 election and is hell-bent on undermining the 2018 vote. Every intelligence agency in existence has confirmed Russian meddling through forums like Facebook, Google and many other social media sites. Putin’s agenda was to drive a deep wedge between the American voting groups and he has done almost as well as Mr. Trump himself in splitting up the nation. At the same time that he is oblivious to Russian interference,
President Trump has actively sought to undermine the political landscape in numerous European countries. His first target was England where his allies worked feverishly to push for a vote taking England out of the European Union. The pro-Brexit movement had support from right-wing advocates like Steve Bannon and on numerous occasions Trump spoke out for England leaving the EU. It is a known fact that Trump kept in touch with the exit fanatics and spoke frequently with Nigel Bruce the leader of the movement. No doubt a number of the President’s contributors helped with the exit effort because President Trump wanted chaos in England which is exactly what happened. The winning group campaigned with promises of health care for everyone and railed against immigrants using the same language that Mr. Trump uses each and every day. It took only about three months before the voters who supported the departure realized that they had been duped, but it was too late.
JERRY KREMER Kremer’s Corner
Next in line for the Trump meddling is Germany. There is no question that Germany took in over 800,000 Syrian immigrants and that generosity has created a great deal of angst in the country. Chancellor Merkel is a conscientious believer in the need to welcome people who are being brutalized by their countries and is paying a political price for it. But it isn’t the business of the President of the United States to wage a steady attack on the leader of an ally and encourage political
chaos in a foreign land. To add insult to injury, Trump nominated a radical politician Richard Grenell as Ambassador to Germany. He has been outspoken in favor of the right-wing president of Austria Sebastian Kurz. Kurz’s agenda is identical to Mr. Trump who ran successfully on an antiimmigrant platform and his views line up very much with our president on every social issue. American ambassadors have a limited number of duties. Their job is to represent Americans in that country, attend social events and be a respected face for all of America. While injecting himself into those two nations he has taken the opportunity to meddle in the Canadian, French and Turkish political scene. Canada has been a proven friend to this country dating back to World War II and is a vital source of goods and supplies for numerous American industries. The so-called trade imbalance between Canada and the United States is minuscule but the president will never allow himself to be
confused by the facts. The President’s rambling attacks on the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) are even more mystifying. America was one of the major architects behind the creation of NATO and the idea that democratic nations band together to protect each other was the dream of countless American presidents over the past 50 years. There are currently 29 members in NATO and there is no doubt that many of them are not contributing enough money to the organization. But that’s no reason to try to tear it apart. There is no doubt that Russia has a stranglehold on Donald J. Trump and he has made Vladimir Putin a very happy man by meddling in the affairs of so many nations. There can only be one of two reasons for the President’s weird behavior. It’s either that Putin has compromising films of our leader or Mr. Trump skipped fifth-grade history and is badly in need of a refresher course.
A LOOK ON THE LIGHTER SIDE
A real dilemma: death versus cleaning I had just pulled the last box of photos out from under the bookcase when the doorbell rang. It was my friend Marlo from down the street. “I’m stopping by for that cup of tea you promised me.” Then she looked around at my patch of chaos: boxes all over the living room, photo albums piled high, furniture disarranged. “What on earth is going on here? Did you lose your wedding ring?” “No, just my mind. I have a family reunion coming up, and my cousins asked if I could send a picture of us as kids. And I know I have one, somewhere. But now I can’t find it!” “Can you remember where you saw it last?” This was my husband, the engineer. “Yes. Somewhere inside the house.” “Good thing you’ve narrowed that down.” “It’s driving me crazy; I can’t locate anything, what with all this junk!” “I have the answer for you,” said Marlo. “Three words: Swed-
ish Death Cleaning.” “What the heck is that?” I asked her. “And can I pick Death over Cleaning?” Turns out, it’s the name of a book: “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter,” by Margareta Magnusson. “Her point,” said my friend, “is that you should clean all the unnecessary junk out of your home before you die, so that your children don’t have to do it. For example,” she said, looking around the room, “must you keep every one of your children’s art projects? Couldn’t you pitch at least a few of these?” “Oh, no,” I say. “That’s definitely reserved for my kids. They brought it all into this world, they’re going to have to take it out. Any other ideas?” “Well, she says to get rid of anything you wouldn’t want your children to find. Got anything like that?” “Of course! But I’m counting on you to come over and throw it out for me, when my time
JUDY EPSTEIN
A Look on the Lighter Side comes.” “I’d be happy to,” said Marlo. “If I outlive you.” “You’re a vegetarian, and you walk everywhere. I think you’re a safe bet,” I reply. “In fact, here’s a set of keys — if you hear of my sudden demise, just come on in and purge my sock drawer. You can keep the chocolates.” “What about me?” says my husband. “You need to find your own sock-drawer person.” “No, I mean — don’t I get
chocolates?” He pouted. “You get a kiss. Now off you go, to your client meeting, before I make you move boxes.” “There’s something else you can do,” said Marlo once he was out the door. “You can give stuff away, as gifts, to friends and relatives. To remember you by.” “They’ll remember I was a menace,” I said. I eyed the chipand-dip bowl she’d given me last Thanksgiving. “So, that works for you?” “It did, for a while,” she said. “Until people started giving things back. Or pretended they weren’t home when I came by.” I can’t say I blame them. “Thanks for the suggestions,” I said, “but I don’t think they’ll help me find my photo. I’ll just have to spend all weekend, looking through all of these boxes.” Suddenly a stack of books fell over, and I spotted a dusty framed picture behind them. “Bingo!” I said. “Here it is!” “Maybe now you could give away those books?” suggested Marlo.
“No one wants books or furniture,” I told her. “Not even charities. I tried to give away my old sofa one time and they left it right at the curb.” I sat and thought a bit. “Say… just how authentic is this ‘death cleaning,’ anyway? Because the only Scandinavian death thing I’ve ever heard of is the Viking funeral pyre!” “Vikings were Norwegian, not Swedish.” “Whatever. You know what I mean — they’d put the dead Viking on a boat, push it out into the water and send a flaming arrow to set it on fire.” “It sounds dreadful,” said Marlo, primly. “Au contraire,” I insisted. “I think it’s glorious! Plus, I can see it now — All my friends and family would come running up, with all my junk, tossing boxes and clothing — and art projects — onto the boat with me, before setting it ablaze!” That would be fine with me — all of the glory, and none of the work. Best of all, it turns out, I can take it with me!