Global

Peace, love and Donald Trump?

I get the skepticism regarding the tentative nuclear disarmament agreement the president and Kim Jong-un reached last week, but not the cynicism — not the outright dismissal.

It’s too easy to hate Trump, but he isn’t the point. In his reckless unpredictability — in his lust for applause and desperation to steal headlines from the Robert Mueller investigation — he snatched an opportunity to meet with the leader of North Korea . . . “Little Rocket Man” . . . and talk about reducing the danger of nuclear war. Say what?

It hardly seems possible — but maybe Trump has a mission far beyond anything he himself envisions: visiting creative destruction, you might say, on the planet’s geopolitical infrastructure, loosening the certainties of nationalism and armed self-defense. Perhaps the salvation of Planet Earth begins with cluelessness and ego: a superpower leader who has no idea what he’s doing.

A sociopath is a person whose behavior is antisocial, often criminally greedy, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility, empathy or social conscience. Sociopaths never sincerely apologize nor are they capable of exhibiting remorse for wrongs that they have committed.

A narcissist is person who has an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration, sexual gratification, applause and a lack of empathy for others.

A paranoid person or group exhibits excessive or irrational suspiciousness and distrustfulness of other individuals or groups.

A megalomaniac is a pathological egotist, someone with a psychological disorder who exhibits symptoms like delusions of grandeur and an obsession with greatness, power or wealth.

A xenophobe is a person who is fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or of people from different countries or cultures.

“Updated” and “re-imagined” versions of classics often misfire but like the transformation of Romeo and Juliet into West Side Story Eduardo Machado’s reworking of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata is one of the best. With Lysistrata Unbound, the Cuban playwright has transformed the comedy into a Greek tragedy for our own militarized times, but in doing so definitely retains the spirit - if not the letter - of Aristophanes’ biting 411 BCE satire, Just as Spike Lee did in Chi-Raq, his 2015 anti-gun, anti-gang violence adaptation of Lysistrata.

Trivia Pursuit Question of the Review: What movie ends with the song “We’ll Meet Again” and what happens when this WWII era song is heard?

One of the best things the dramatic arts can do is to transport us through time and space to long ago and far away and to bring back to life actual figures and historical events. Williard Manus’ Their Finest Hour: Churchill and Murrow does this and much more with his fine two hour two-acter, four-hander mostly set during the Battle of Britain. For in addition to resurrecting legendary CBS broadcaster Edward R. Murrow (Tyler Cook) and famed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Michael Karm), Manus tosses Murrow’s mistress Pamela Churchill Harriman (carnally reincarnated by seductive Chantelle Albers) into the heady mix, proving that the personal is not only political, but historical as well.

The United States is closely following developments in Hudaydah, Yemen. I have spoken with Emirati leaders and made clear our desire to address their security concerns while preserving the free flow of humanitarian aid and life-saving commercial imports. We expect all parties to honor their commitments to work with the UN Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary General for Yemen on this issue, support a political process to resolve this conflict, ensure humanitarian access to the Yemeni people, and map a stable political future for Yemen. – Complete official statement, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, June 11, 2018

In a recent article titled ‘Challenges for Resolving Complex Conflicts’, I pointed out four conflict configurations that are paid little attention by conflict theorists.

In this article, I would like to discuss a fifth conflict configuration that is effectively ignored by conflict theorists (and virtually everyone else). This conflict is undoubtedly the most fundamental conflict in human society, because it generates all of the violence humans perpetrate and experience, and yet it is utterly invisible to almost everyone.

I have previously described this conflict as ‘the adult war on children’. It is indeed humanity’s ‘dirty little secret’.

Let me illustrate and explain the nature and extent of this secret war. And what we can do about it.

Make no mistake: Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions’ assault on immigrant families and their “tactic” of separating parents from their children are right out of the Nazi playbook.

It’s no accident US immigrations officials are telling parents they’re taking kids to “bathe,” then making them disappear … and then telling their parents they will never see them again.

This ghoulish reminder of Auschwitz shames us all. It should also terrify us. And make us ACT!

However removed we may think we are, WE are next, and so are our children.

This regime loves torture and dictatorship, and aspires to both.

Thugs like these have nothing of value to offer, so they rule with hate, fear, and scapegoating.

Many of these families are coming to our borders legally seeking asylum. Some families under assault are not even immigrants, they are merely of Hispanic origin or appearance.

There’s no immigrant “crisis” in the United States any more than there was a “Jewish Question” in Hitler’s Germany.

Hitler needed an object of hate to become absolute ruler. Jews comprised 1% of the German population. They were handy. 

1. Introduction. Just because there are elections and an elected government, don't think that there cannot be fascism. One needs only to look at the Nazi German example. For some years before the German President Paul von Hindenburg named Adolf Hitler Chancellor (Prime Minister) of Germany on January 30, 1933, the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party had simply been one of several major political parties in Germany. They usually received in the neighborhood of 1/3 of the vote in the then fairly frequent German elections. Hitler assured the aging President that despite his party's tradition of violent rhetoric, he would rule in a Constitutional manner. And the non-Nazi Rightists, like ex-Chancellor Franz von Papen, assured Hindenburg that they would keep him "under control." We all know what happened, beginning the very night of Hitler's assumption of the Chancellorship with the rounding up and imprisonment without trial of Communists and Socialists. But he did come to power constitutionally. So it can happen.

A huge Legoland Discovery Center is slated to open at Easton September 21 for the tiny geeks in your life. The Center is supposed to be 36,000 square feet and cost $10 million, according to Business First.

What will you find at the Legoland Discovery Center? LEGO® 4D cinema movies with additional wind, rain and snow effects to really bring it to life and put you at the heart of the action! Three movies are playing: The LEGO® Movie™ 4D A New Adventure, Legends of Chima & Nexo Knights Book of Creativity. Maximum one person per seat.

Kingdom Quest: The princess has been captured and needs your help! Hop aboard your chariot on the Kingdom Quest laser ride to rescue her. Be warned, there are beastly trolls and sneaky skeletons lurking. Can you zap them all to save the princess? All riders must be able to sit upright unaided. You must be 4'3" (51") to ride this ride alone. If you are under 4'3", then you must be able to walk and get on the ride yourself and you must be accompanied by someone above 4'3".