I am not American and I don’t live in that country, so I can’t vote there.
Many things have been said about Hillary Clinton: accusations of being involved in paedophilia circles, black magic or satanism, being irresponsible or even treacherous with state secrets, corruption. All that seems to have been dismissed by those who matter. There is also the question of abortion and “political correctness”. Though these are serious and important matters, they are secondary compared with the continuation of life on the planet Earth.
Donald Trump is no hero or messiah for me. Gung-ho Americans are not exactly my style as I have mentioned in other posts about hyper-masculinity and related issues. I don’t know whether he knows anything about politics and constitutional law. He is a tycoon and a successful businessman like many others in the USA who are obscenely rich. He makes me cringe, but this thing is not about persons but about the future of all of us.
The criticism of the latter generally relates to his policy in regard to Muslims and other immigrants. There are various things that need discussing, and we have that problem much worse here in Europe. The “flood” indicates big changes ahead for the western world.
At present, the only thing that matters for us non-Americans is dialogue between the west, Russia and China. If we go to war, our war will not be a just one – and it will lead to the end of us all in a nuclear holocaust. As far as I see it, Hillary Clinton is for the same imperialist hegemony in the Middle-East involving regime change. She and Obama have left Irak and Lybia as dustbins run by Jihadist Muslims, and wants the same thing in Syria, a once-beautiful country that has become a pile of dusty and charred rubble. She would also have her eyes on conquering Russia and China. It all seems to be about Petro-Dollars, never mind the cost in human life or the future of humanism and rational culture!
It appears that Donald Trump is ready to dialogue with Russia for the sake of peace in the world (nuclear war wouldn’t be in the interest of his real-estate business). He might be a sleazy bore like Sarkozy in France a few years ago, but the world would be safer with him. For this reason, as a citizen of God’s world, I cast my vote for peace and a chance for a new social contract and dialogue between nations.
The Blue Flower 
It might not seem so safe if you are getting bombed by Russian planes in Syria or your house was destroyed by shelling in Ukraine.
Perhaps getting my own house bombed beats the whole world going up in a mushroom cloud!
Syrian children must die so you can sleep without nightmares?
This must be one of your most asinine comments yet.
Typical Brit. Wringing his hands and whining for the Yanks to go fight.
The English and the French are still licking wounds over the 100 Years War and the Napoleonic Wars. Many Americans can’t get over losing the paternal affection of George III and the skirmish of the 1860’s. Sometimes, history repeats itself because we haven’t learned from it. Sometimes, situations are unprecedented. As the world has suffered American hegemony since World War II, this is a worldwide movement. Most of us don’t fancy a horrible slow death from radiation poisoning. If Trump can get his act together with Russia, then there is hope for us all. Our petty concerns go by the wayside and it is for us to manage in our own back yards.
I’m a Brit too, but I have travelled a bit (including 4 trips to the USA), so I seem to have lost my parochialism – if I ever had it.
Ummm. Love you, Father, but I’m glad you can’t vote here. I voted today, and I voted with awareness that the most important issue was to stop Mr. Trump, even at such a heavy cost as electing Mrs. Clinton. Yes, they are both evil, but one, Clinton, will merely give us more of the same of what we’ve had and likely be unable to do much of what she desires. The other, however, os dangerous indeed. For one thing it is Trump who has expressed willingness that more nations have nukes and has expressed puzzlement that we haven’t used ours since WW2. I don’t want him anywhere near decisions of that nature. He and Putin are both belligerent personalities and I can’t see any alliance as remotely stable. It would break down explosively as did the alliance between Hitler and Stalin (much, much worse than these two, but similar dynamics involved,) Much of what you ay about Clinton is. a;as, quite true, but WHERE did you get that bit about her wanting to conquer Russia and China? Ridiculous. At any rate we all are in for a rough ride for the foreseeable future.
It’s interesting that the prophecy nuts I deplore seem to have got some of it right after all. They all see the Middle East as the hot spot that will spark Armageddon, and they all see Russia’s involvement in those events as a central thing. I don’t believe in a predictive use of the Bible, not at all, but some of this stuff is eerily like what we’re seeing, and it might be worthwhile to see it as a possible outline of factors to be considered.
Having said all that, here’s a rather glum poem I wrote yesterday:
A Hard Reign
The Orange Dragon and the Wicked Witch:
Each wishes to be the ruler.
Each wishes to sit upon the Oval Throne
At the heart of the Castle, so white and tall,
That sits in the heart of the City.
Each gathers an army of faithful friends,
And marches with fanfare through the Land,
Carrying mud in vessels of clay
To hurl at one another.
With shoutings and curses they damn each other,
Calling each other crooked and evil
And other disreputable things,
With seldom a word of what they would do
In ruling their much sought Land.
No friend to the unborn babes is she,
No friend of the poor and lowly he,
No friend of the Nation either one,
But for its control they vie,
And the air is black with lie and lie,
And the battle still rages on.
On the morrow, we hope, this battle will end,
And one or the other will win,
But whichever it is, hopes for the future are thin.
Darkness is coming and strife will go on,
And maybe years later there might be a dawn,
But it’s hard times a-coming,
And a hard reign arising,
A hard rain a-falling.
Wow! What a clever poem, Ed! I seem to know better what you’re Tolkein about! 🙂
Thank you, Ed, for your sensitive reflections and your poem. Read my most recent article. I am not a Trump fan, but I am enough of a Romantic to welcome a revolution against the self-serving political class and the one-worlders. The movement will spread to Europe, and it looks like Le Pen in France. Champagne Socialism is exhausted like the Soviet regime back in 1989. We need to see beyond the revolution and the danger of a reign of terror. Perhaps I will get my own head chopped off, and like Sidney Carton in the Tale of Two Cities, my life may mean something to someone…
Indeed the long Lent begins, but beyond it lies God’s forgiveness and the Resurrection.
It’s an evil choice to make, and I am glad I don’t have to make it. Personally, I would welcome Mrs Clinton as president. Not because I like her but because madam president would benefit Russia. Who exactly would better suit the Kremlin? A man who claims to be nationalistic, promises to improve American financial solvency, a non-interventionist foreign policy, &c. Or a lawless, corrupt and compromised woman whose only political experience was a lie about being shot at in Bosnia and a disastrous healthcare plan? Her presidency would almost certainly fast-track Russia back on its path to being a superpower again, by bringing about America’s much-deserved financial collapse and a new civil war. And what could be better for the Western world than the collapse of that Evil Empire over the Sea?
It doesn’t matter who wins, America is doomed. And thank God for that!
Ed, really? Making a connection between Hitler and Stalin and Thrump? Really? And any proof for such a contention or statement, other than the fact that you do not like Mr Thrump?
Perhaps you have completely missed the fact that it is Mx Clinton who has been brandishing the anti-Russian flag and, without a shred of proof, blaming Russia and Putin personally for leaking her very damaging emails that exposed not only her own personal corruption but that of the Democrats? Did you really miss this? On message boards those individuals who are in any way supportive of Mr Thrump are not being labeled Russkys, sounds like the Democrats are not only reinvigorating the Cold War, but the verbiage as well. And yet it is Mr Thrump whom you accuse of being the danger in starting a nuclear war? Really?
Or better yet, today the White House, without any evidence, telling Russia to stay out of the American election process? You think all of this will mean nothing?
Are you insinuating that if Thrump is elected he will get all that he desires?
Come on, Dale, reread me. I made a point of saying Hitler & Stalin were far, far worse, but the dynamics of the connection and the big egos is strikingly similar. Simply illustrating that the connection, for similar reasons cannot be stable. Putin is NOT Stalin, nor is Trump Hitler, but “He and Putin are both belligerent personalities and I can’t see any alliance as remotely stable.”
Also, please read my poem. Both are terrible. I did the best I can,but it’s, at best, a choice between awful and worse. I see it as balancing one way and you as another. Either way it hard times coming.
I voted for Cato the Younger. Even after 2000 years in the grave, he’s still preferable to the four disasters on the ballot.
I heard that one in every 100,000 had voted for Harambe (more recent but equally deceased), and that some or other young scientist on hearing that, thought it a pretty obvious choice over Mrs. Clinton(!)
I would have taken my vote more seriously had I lived pretty much anywhere else but New York. It’s practically a law of nature that this state goes to the Democratic candidate.
I just read a defence of the Electoral College system on the grounds that otherwise New York and California would always determine everything for everyone in a Presidential election.
In the case of NY, it’s not even the entire state, it’s NYC by itself that overwhelms the entire rest of the state. Both Long Island counties as well as pretty much every county north of NYC voted republican, but it still didn’t matter.
Lord Richards, not long before the election, said, ““If the humanitarian situation in Syria is our major concern, which it should be – millions of lives have been ruined, hundreds of thousands have been killed – I believe there is a strong case for allowing Assad to get in there and take the city back.
“The opposition groups – many of whom are not friends of ours, they’re extremists – are now intermingled with the original good opposition groups, are fighting from amongst the people. The only quick way of solving it is to allow Assad to win. There’s no way the opposition groups are going to win.
“The alternative is for the West to declare a no-fly zone and that means you’ve got to be prepared to go to war with Russia ultimately. I see no appetite for that and nor, frankly, do I see much sense in it. It sticks in my throat to say it because I have no love for Assad.
“The fact is, the only way to get it to stop now is to allow Assad to win and win quickly and then turn on Isis with the Russians.”
Mark Leftly, interviewing him, observed, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has warned that Hilary Clinton’s plans for a no-fly zones would “lead to world war three”, and Richards is equally unimpressed.
“Unless she’s prepared to do this properly and go to war with Russia, she shouldn’t talk about no-fly zones and nor should we,” the 64-year-old argues, his voice slightly raised.
“We would have to shoot down Russian aircraft in order to impose it. Do we really want to go to a shooting war over Aleppo?”
This is the narrative that most convinces me. Assad should go only if his own people wants him out and elects a new president.
Libya is now a civil war zone, divided between two governments both claiming legitimacy, where the Libyan National Army, which “controls 70 per cent of the country’s territories” is currently engaged fighting against “four terror groups… the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and a militia of mercenaries”.
This is what happens when you remove a leader who is held to be unacceptable and replace him with “democracy”.
It is interesting to compare and contrast the careful, elaborate, long-drawn-out efforts of the 20 July 1944 plotters, especially Goerdeler, to have something as substantial as possible to put in place, before venturing on their attempt to overthrow Hitler.