America's Image Abroad

 
Published without comment.

Source: Pew Research Center, America's Image Abroad Rebounds with Transition from Trump to Biden

Waiting To Be Read

This ebook just landed on my iPad, it should be an interesting and fun read.

SCOOP: Trump Proposes Another Border Wall

The editor at large of this blog has learned - from usually well informed and trustworthy sources - that president Donald J. Trump, in talks with family and his closest co-workers, has been proposing the constructing of yet another border wall, this time at the border between the United States and Canada.

Trump is supposed to have told his confidants:

"I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great great wall on our northern border and I’ll have Canada pay for that wall."

The news comes as no big surprise considering president Trump's fascination with border walls and after Canada (together with the European Union, Mexico and Southern Charm) was named as a threat to the national security of the United States.

If built this wall would be 8,891 km (5,525 mi) long.

PLEASE NOTE: This is actually fake news!

Russian Conspiracy or Collusion?

The highlighted counties show, roughly, the path along which people will have the best views of the
Aug. 21 total solar eclipse. Counties shaded red voted for Trump; those in blue voted for Clinton.

(via The Boston Globe)

Bock & The Russians (Updated)

I am probably a Russophobe. I have a profound and insistent belief that president Vladimir "Little Father" Putin, his fanboy prime minister Dmitry Medvedev and the rest of the present Russian leadership wish to expand the Russian hegemony over their neighboring countries (like Ukraine, Finland, the Baltic states and also Sweden).

Trump & Putin by Liutauras Strimaltis

In 2013 the (then) Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces admitted that in 2023 Sweden would not be able to defend itself longer than seven days against a concerted attack by an enemy (and "an enemy" for your information is Swedish code for the Russians) against any given target, until 2023 the time frame was shorter.

The Russian people, as a collective, seem to share the notion of being Biggest, Best and Most Beautiful with a god given or historical right to subjugate the rest of the world, much like the Americans today. (Just as the British and French people in the 18th and 19th centuries and perhaps also the Swedish people - in the time of our former glory - in the 15th and 16th centuries.)

Although Sweden has never been a part of any alliance, our defense policy has hitherto always relied on an intervention by NATO in the event we were attacked. Our defense policy has been built upon the reliance that we only need to see to it that an enemy cannot just roll in over us without expecting any losses or delays until the NATO - in it's own interest - would come to Sweden's protection if nothing other than keeping a buffer between NATO and the Russians.

After Trump's victory in the presidential election that defense policy is being jettisoned, because president-elect Trump is perceived as not abiding by formerly accepted rules, seems disinterested in in NATO and is a fan of Putin. So as a result we are now getting signals that the Swedish defense budget must be severely increased.
---
Update, later the same day
The more I think about it, the more absurd it seems for a country consisting of some nine million inhabitants to keep up a defense against a country with 146+ million inhabitants.

Perhaps we should do as the Danish populist politician Mogens Glistrup (1926-2008) once suggested, that we replace our defense ministry and weapons with an answering machine that says "We surrender!", in Russian of course.

Still Shattered &Disillusioned

Following the American presidential election and Brexit referendum in Great Britain has now given me a sound skepticism towards opinion polls. I will never trust their results again,

Ever since I saw the final results in both these elections my thought wander off to somehow come up with as viable explanation - I am getting nowhere and then I just feel a great sadness.

I have to leave it behind or I will go crazy.

Coffee with His Unholiness

My royal consort Tomais and I were honored by a surprise visit today by His Irreverent Unholiness Butch Diavolo-Gracemount, the pope of Southern Charm.

The pope dropped in for some coffee, croissants, muffins and conversation about involuntary euthanasia with regards to Bashar Al Assad and Donald J Trump, our worries concerning the upcoming presidential election in the USA and Egyptian airplanes missing over the Mediterranean. 

Kinsey Sicks: Putin In The Ritz

(Tipped by the wonderful Tomais)

Clip description - Published on Jul 20, 2015
We know that there is no news that does not involve Donald Trump. However, it may not have escaped your attention entirely that a certain Vladimir Putin (also known as the “Donald Trump of Russia”, only much richer and less humble) remains the head of state of a country next to/inside of Ukraine.

The Kinsey Sicks have released a musical love-letter to him, intriguingly filmed in an undisclosed military installation, as only America’s Favorite Dragapella® Beautyshop Quartet can. You will undoubtedly want to watch it right now, instead of reading the rest of this crap. If you like it, please share it with your many friends. If you hate it, please share it with your many enemies.

I love it, so I am sharing it with both my many friends and my many enemies!