The 46th President of the (still) United States of America

Finally the 46th President of the USA has been sworn in.

Kamala Harris is now de facto the new President of the USA, despite losing the primary to Biden after being obliterated by Tulsi Gabbard in a now iconic debate. This was the turning point of the Democratic primary that showed that the real candidate was Tulsi Gabbard rather than any of the old guard represented by Biden and Sanders.

North America has chosen a President, despite the refusal of the establishment to check on the accusation of foul play. Believing in that or not, the fact that the same Media that sold us the Iraq war (remember Colin Powell showing the proof of weapons of mass destruction at the UN in 2003?), refused to link Bill Clinton to sexual abuse (Epstein, Monica Lewinsky, etc.), refused to talk about allegations of rigged elections or that a proper recount linked to a paper trail was not authorized is disturbing. If this would happen in Africa we would have sent the UN. 

But enough of the past, let's look at the not so bright future for the US.

Biden is for now the "de facto" President but Biden may not even make it through his first 100 days and even die before they end. In any case he won't be able to make it through till the end of his mandate. Kamala Harris will sooner or later become the first woman President of the United states despite losing all the elections for it. Leaving much more competent women away from what they were born to do. Instead we will get an opportunist that will only serve the usual lobbies besides herself.

For the next four years, alongside a Kamala Harris as President we will get a corporate America that will oppose Trump in 2024. Probably within a new party and a new face: Ivanka Trump Americans for freedom. Woman, Trumpist and ready to solve the problems that this current admistration will bring. She probably won't be the answer either. But there will be many issues during the next four years:

 

War.

Somehow it will be of uttermost importance to save the world to invade one of the famous Wesley Clark seven: Iraq (done), Syria (botched but kinda done), Lebanon, Libya (done), Somalia (still needs to be done), Sudan, or Iran (the crown jewel that is probably not invadable). More troops are moving into Syria and Iraq as this article is being written. Many more. War is the real motor of the US economy. Ever since they have existed as a country Uncle Sam has been stampeding the world for their own good. Yes even the holy saint WW II. But that's another story.

Freedom of speech Vs Corporate America

Tech companies will decide who can talk, who can have a website. President will follow the orders of the same lobbies that hide his campaign failures and misshaps with the excuse of fighting fake news (basically anything not manufactured by the mainstream news. Being conservative will be like being a communists in the 50's or a hippy in the 60's. A transition from journalism to Corporate's PR will be swift. Witch hunt 2.0 will be in force. Anything that doesn't follow the political mantra, trend and is socially acceptable will be rejected. You will be labelled racist and will be removed from social life altogether. A new kind of Apartheid. 

 But if you want to ban child porn from twitter, it won't work. 

If you are Google and don't want to share the benefits you take from operating in a country, you can threaten a country or strike a deal with the cowards in the French government.

You can also let people die till the candidate you like win the elections offering your services to help against COVID relief. Of course there is a catch, it is mainly to be authorized to have free hands in the future with a new kind of private medical centers. Or you can avocate electronic vote for your opponents but refuse it for yourself. Amazon, I mean Jeff Bezos claims that "that in-person voting is needed for a “valid and fair” election". It wasn't the same mantra last year.

Or you can try to pave the way to have control over the data of all of users only to see this request backfire (Facebook, whatsapp). After years of failing to not share, and make money, with your users data. I am almost surprised. This is a Daenerys move from Mark Zuckerberg.

Gender equality

Transgender man to woman will take over women's sport with ease under Biden. It has actually started. Strangely the feminists that were against Trump since day 1 are nowhere to be found. Equality will be applauded but competence won't be king. Just a quota to have in mind. No real equity in the horizon as usual. All this fight for gender equality is just sand in our eyes to forget  that CEO salaries and perks have grown over 940% since 1978 while the worker salary has risen only 12% during that time. Cry wolf if a man makes more than a woman but please forget that the rich are richer and the poor poorer.

Corporate gains

Insulin is already higher than under the bad orange man. But Biden is the man of the people! I am sure more situations like this will happen and anything Russian will be heavily taxed and embargoed. Especially European attempts to reconnect with Russia. It kinda worked with Cuba and Iran, so maybe Russia will bow at some point? China will be the friend next door. More connections with the Biden family and China will be found. Watch this to see where we are going. I mean, where we already are, since Lobbying is actually legal in the US of A.

 US politics

Same O same O. Nothing will really change. Electoral College, gerrymandering, dual party system, same -win a state to win all the vote-... But a huge care will be give to give the correct pronoun, name and non offensive denomination to minorities. Unity will be the word. Reality will be getting back at any Trump supporter  by every single means possible. Removing any possibility of Trump being relected in 2024. Because Democracy is not letting the people choose who they want but providing them with the choices you, as government believe to be the only good ones. If you, as governement and mainstream politicians, would do your job right, nobody would vote for Trump. How dare he try to get a piece of the pie the usual millionaires are in?

Corona

Joe Biden, October 2020: “I’m going to shut down the virus.”Joe Biden, January 2021, on his vaccination plan: “Gimme a break, come on man.” Once again another campaign lie. Now elected he can tell the world there is no stopping to this virus from his actions or noexistent plan. Of course all the blame will be on Trump for what he did or did not do previously.

Imigration and racism.

All aboard the American Train to success! No control, just white cards given to all that ask. Europe is so much richer since the Open Border Policy started. Expect the same. BLM was another political movement leading to nowhere and will continue that way. Reparation for the Native American won't even be mentioned. If someone needs to be compensated first, its all of them. Find a way, like for Mount Rushmore. No effort will be spent to compensate all the countries the US destabilised in the past (most of South and Central American countries). That's also something that somehow the Democrats never mentioned: if the USA would never have meddled in their neighbours politics they wouldn't be in the poor state they are now. But those pesky natives wanted to own and get rich with the many resources the americans (like in USA, not like in continental America) wanted to get rich with!

International Affair

Such friendly. Wow Paris accord. Amazing friend. While the Western World continues to destroy its industry we order factories over the rest of the world to do everything we need not look at any environmental solution for their countries and safety. India, China, Pakistan, African continent... nobody cares what happens there because we eat tofu and have a Tesla. 

Now that our industrialization in urban centers is over we want to be a no polution planet. I am not sure the 1900's Europe and US would say yes sure! And slave work in China is not a problem because China is friend, Russia is bad. Did I mention Russia is bad and to blame for everything wrong happening in the US? They have spies everywhere and want to destroy the Western Way of life, damn commies (Again, China is friend, not commie, just friend). 

I am also looking forward to see what good will come out of this next four years of establishment.

Like halting the construction of the wall. I am actually in favour of a wall to protect borders. But not as it currently was. Destroying sacred native american land is not the way to do it.  Otherwise... I haven't seen anything that Biden could be proud of. He probably doesn't even know what executive orders he's signing anyway.

How to make the best of COVID-19

 COVID-19 is no joke and a huge risk for our planet.

After reaching a quarter million deaths in Europe only the trend seems to only go up and is making the EU restricting our basic freedoms in the hope to mitigate the virus expansion.

We can expect a 2020 with more than 1,5 million people to die from diseases of the circulatory system and more than 1 million of cancer related deaths. Diseases of the respiratory system should also rise near half a million casualties too.

Sadly the EU does not invest or restrict anything regarding those issues. Unhealthy food, tobacco and cancer risks can wait. But this is not what I had in mind today.

With all economy going South we should use this disgrace as an opportunity to change some of the wrong in our economy.

Here a short list that should be applied as an emergency patch:

GOVERNMENT

1 - reduce the number of politicians to two thirds in every Government.

2 - Cancel the right to hold more than one job when working in the Government (Looking at you Portugal)

3 - Readjust pensions to % of time worked instead of holded office full pension.

4 - Mandatory limited mandates and an age limit identical to each country pension age.

5 - Limited assistants to 3

6 - No more cooks, drivers, free appartments, free this, free that. You serve the country not the opposite.

7 - Reduce the salaries of all politicians. Deputies make nearly 5 times the minimum wage in Portugal. President makes 10 times more. All with special anemities. Public companies administrators salaries are just insane.

8 - Lean Sigma the shit of the Public Offices. Too many managers for to little workers. Excel pushers and team meeting lovers are in too big number. You lead a team being in the team. 

With this money and reduction money can be redirected to where it is actually needed.

US 2020 Elections: why things can still go wrong, or how things can go 2020 style?

Change, everybody wants change.

Trump was one of them and as it stands today he will leave the White House next January 2021.

Till then, many things can still happen. Trump will obviously look to challenge in court some vote counting in many states and, it is still a big question mark if this was a boast or just the plain truth. The mainstream news channels didn't let their President talk about it claiming it was a conspiracy theory. Showing again that they are far from independent journalists. They should report and not decide who is right or wrong. After 3 years of claiming that Russiagate was real and no proof was given they hammered Trump for it. Now they decide that when Trump claims that votes were added to turn the vote to Biden, they simply deny it. 

If Trump can prove it, the Presidential Race will change sides in no time. If not, the Democrats will be able to hold their breath a little longer for Biden to be President of the USA. As another unusual thing can happen. Biden dying. I don't believe he is capable of staying alive for all the duration of the mandate so Harris will jump in sooner or later.

From a Democrat point of view should Biden die before the electoral college vote the party would decide on whom to put on the presidential ticket. Clinton would probably try to take the election on her side.

After the 15th of December but before the 6th of January the decision would be on the Congress side to accept Harris as the presidential candidate or not, validating the votes for her instead of Biden. With a Republican Congress the decision would be no for sure.

Then the fun part comes: the House of Representatives would have to decide who between the surviving candidates would be President. Even with a majority of Democrats in it, they would have to choose Trump or, God forbid, Jo Jorgensen.

Alone you go faster, together we go further

Long time no see, dear few readers.

Life has been a downhill experience the last year and a half but a good one.

More like a full restart with a lot of of clarifying moments in order to clean up both my act and the people I hanged with and, by association, defined me.

Starting anew can be seen as a terrible thing or can be taken as a great opportunity for improvement, which I am aiming for. Having that say, and knowing how much I like to voice my peculiar way of thinking, now is a good moment to expand in two different ways:

1 - Focusing on other themes on this blog as how to, social curiosities, tips and tricks and even recipes. To be honest anything else that I have been writing so far. Not as a substitution but as an addition instead.

2 - Bringing more voices to this blog, and not necessarily ones that I agree with. One of most dangerous time in peace is when you only wish to listen to your own opinions expressed by others (looking at you Antifa, Fascists and religious groups) instead of reaching out to reach compromises.

I am looking forward to hear back from some of you (you know who you are) and publish something you wrote (except of course calls to arms, discrimination etc. the usual stuff).

See you soon!

Hard reset on Alban Elfed

Once Autumn arrives it is time to collect the year's final harvest and to get ready for the Winter.

The seed of what is to come is now waiting to show their full potential when the Spring Sun will show itself.

In the meantime we can seat down and relax looking at all our achievements and celebrate.

Not all years are equal and some bring more disruption and changes than expected. Looking back a great cycle start lead to a very different outcome to what was planned. Plans years in the making, hard fought challenges, sacrifices made, all ended with an hard reset at the most unexpected moment this time.

From the time of joy of the Summer Solstice to the Autumn Equinox all that was build crumbled and faded one after the other. Love, home, work, material things. Nothing is where everything was. Nowhere to be and everywhere to go. All new and only possibilities ahead are this year last harvest.

All bads come for good.

French banks suck. Big time.

France points the finger to countries like Hungary and Poland for defending their own political opinions about economic migrants on their on soil, claiming tthat these countries are not respecting the European ideal. At the same time using a EU bank account with the French Social Security is forbidden despite breaking several EU laws.

Being blackmailed to open a French bank account (to keep cash in France) I started an Odissey of unimaginable length, complexity and stressful non sense. Without a French bank account the Social Security cannot provide me the mandatory coverage.

First of all you cannot walk into a bank and ask for opening an account. No, no. You need to call a special number, explain what you want, and what you are going to do with this account. Then the bank will make you an appointment for a live interview. A week later at the best.

After calling a few banks and making appointments (as I was expecting challenges) I finally waited for my first meeting for a bank account at one typical commercial bank. Here, I ended up making an appointment in a city 40 km from where I live to get a special meeting only 1 week after my call. It made me feel confident about the upcoming result. What a fool I was!

At my surprise I had to explain - again - everything that I had talked about with the lady on the phone. After 15 minutes the bank officer excused himself, needing to go talking to his boss. Not a good sign. I know. And it wasn't. The bank didn't want to do business with me even when I was OK with doing their minimum obligations for a creation of an account (have money in it, and make transactions 4 times a month). So their minimum were not really what they had said it was. Pissed, I left, and went to visit 2 other banks that subsequently also declined my request because I was not going to have enough money coming in or be moved within.

Online banking is “booming” in France, which means they just discovered it, so I tried 4 different banks hoping for better luck.

The first couldn't accept my request because I didn't have a French cellphone number.

The second needed a cheque from my own other bank. In France, of course...

The third would accept a cheque from anybody else (yay!) but I had to present a utility bill. As I live in a shared appartment with all included, it became a no go.

The fourth required what the 3 last ones wanted, at the same time.

After giving up, I choose a bank that was the closest to my house and where the staff was actually nice. I signed up for an account here, although sad to have to pay a maintenance fee for the first time in 12 years (thank you  dear German DKB for not having ANY maintenance fees). After a week of apparent peace I tried to set up a payment to my German bank. What an idiot I was. Of course I couldn’t do that! No, because in France you need to ask for the permission to use your money the way you want. Ha!

What's next? Honestly: France, do stop claiming to be pro EU. You're not.

Global warming is our responsability, not politicians

It's so easy to put the responsibilities of global warming on politicians or countries, blaming them for the existing evident problems and at the same time we ourselves abstain from any type of error having to do with it. Honestly, after all... we ALL are social justice warriors.

Global warming has to do with pollution and, at its core, over consumption. Yes. You. Me. They. Ie all of us. Instead of buying new smartphones every year despite their explosive behaviour, new cars despite not needing a new vehicle for transportation (but rather getting it  to show off our social marketed status), the newest trendy device in audiovisual (HD, Full HD, 3D, LED, 4K, curved or whatever comes next), why not stopping production of unnecessary products for 2 years? Could you live with having only 1 of the following things new every 2 years?

Smartphone

Car

TV or anything audiovisual

Computer

Clothes...

Or anything really.

We. Do. Not. Need. New. Toys. Every. Year. 

Not all companies can afford to produce new shiny products yearly but certainly the top brands can. 

Imagine a world in which there is no need to dig for raw material, transport it to the factory, produce things out of it, transport the made things to new countries, store these in these different countries, sell them, perhaps recall them if needed every couple of month and so on...

That - i.e. we not indirectly asking the company giants to dig for raw materials - would certainly reduce the carbon impact on our planet. You think it will make the economy collapse? Well. Think it through twice. In the meantime while digging, part of the World is collapsing due to this excessive consumism. But as long as we (mostly in the West) can have our toys and claim we are the good guys, everything is fine, right? Think again. And next time you need something new, think thrice before going through with it...

Trump is out of the Paris accord and he is right

We keep on restricting countries to do what they want but we currently allow companies like Exxon, Apple and Starbucks to produce in several countries, increasing pollution and trash all over the planet. Just look around you in a city - which companies trash do you see the most of? At the end, these companies make more money for the famous 1% leaving their host countries a mess and/or with garbage everywhere.

Even Monsanto says no to pollution but destroys more nature that we can account for around the world. Stop the bullshit. Really.

 

Apple mines for rare materials and destroys the environment in every country they are related to. Besides enslaving Chinese workers for the sake of yearly Iphones. Exxon... Should I really spell it out for you? Honestly?

Profit is master and businesses do not care about the environment. Just like you. Yes. You like to think you are green and ecologically minded because you say "I am for the reduction of the green house effect". Good. Now show it. What about those little pads for your Nespresso machine? Terrible, terrible. Those cigarettes you smoke? Do you recycle the butts? Those clothes you buy at Primark - do you know how they´re made? And whose children made them? Those products from among other Mondelēz International with palm oil, did you know that the use of this oil is equal to taking down rain forest in order to plant more of these palms to create more palm oil? 

 

All the pollution comes from an excess of useless production, but are you ready to not buy a car every year? Or to not buy the newest year model of TV, smartphone, audio or video system? Do you really need so many clothes and shoes? Do you really need to buy prepared food with ingredients from the other side of the world (like the ones with palm oil)? Or to every day have fresh fruit coming from exotic places? Do you really want to not create tons of trash a year with the fast-food industry packaging (and boldly considering that you are in fact also eating trash)?

No worries. You are against Trump and his non-adherence to the Paris accord. Damn it feels good to be a good person.

You want to change the climate? Fine. Just start by taking measures yourself. Make less trash to destroy Earth yourself.

Why aren't the US policing North Korea as they should?

Really guys? Come on! Just bomb them and democratize them back to stone age.

You've been doing that from your white horse, freeing people from the oppression of so many tyrants! We'll skip the notorious genocides on the native Americans as you were the oppressors, it doesn't fit the theme of this article. Let's focus on this century: many wars previous to these happening the last 17 years were actually legitimate, as legitimate as killing other people can be, but still you were not always the bad guys (you still helped Europe to not speak Soviet Russian after WW II. And yes, Europe doesn't speak German because of the Red Army, not you guys - so get over it.

First came the 2001 and ongoing War on Terror in which you attacked Afghanistan for harbouring the leader of Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden from Saudi Arabia, to have sent citizens of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon to make the 9-11 attacks (despite all the controversy about this being a false flag or not).

As we all can see it was a victory, and the country is now liberated.

Same with Iraq in 2003-2011 were the Weapons of Mass Destructions are still being found, despite the comic demonstration of Colin Powell at the UN.

Iraq - or what's left of it - is now a full grown democracy for all to see.

Finally we get to the Libyan War of 2011. Let's get rid of another baddy that kills its own people and liberate one more country this century!

Now nobody talks about Libya: the country has descended into living just like in the middle age with all the little warlords controlling the leftovers of a destroyed country.

And finally Syria with another dictator that kills its own people. Mixed with Daesh, the Kurds, Turkish expansionism, hundred of thousands of migrants, thousands of terrorists and oil in the middle.

Don't get me wrong - these guys were bad guys but at least the Middle East was stable. Democracy is like maturity. You don't get it when you turn 18, it takes time to understand that issues are solved with words and consensus. Not an AK-47 or bombs. But I am diverging. Let's get back to North Korea.

Yeah! North Korea! Why don't you save them as those above mentioned countries? They have been under worse treatment since at least 1953!

Too afraid to get into a fight against an enemy that is not against the rope? Or just a lack of oil? You are right, too much trouble for just some civilians with no chance of profit.

Better to focus on Iran - they are next right? Or maybe you prefer Somalia and Lebanon to come first?

Macron, du pareil au même

France will be the loser of their next Presidential elections.

Again.

After choosing to not elect a candidate like in 2002, where a crook was elected instead of a fascist (Jacques Chirac was elected to avoid Jean Marie le Pen to become President), and in 2012 where an incompetent François Hollande was skyrocketed to power to punish Nicolas Sarkozy for his delusion of grandeur and self enrichment (one of his first actions as President was to double his salary as President), 2017 seems to be the year when the golden yuppie boy Macron will be elected President to avoid Marine le Pen.

Macron is just a rebranding of François Hollande policies that favours the Corporations turning France in a more US/UK corporatism where workers are just another disposable commodity to use for profit.

For the rest of his policies just check how the US/UK are acting France will be following by a mere meter - or should I say an inch? Sure, Macron wants to accept the refugees and migrants that both US  and the UK are not accepting - despite that these countries policitics are being the real cause of those migrations.

SSDD.

At least Chirac didn't follow the US/UK war for oil in Irak 2003 which lead to today´s Daesh and migrant crisis.

For 2022 I wonder if the French people will finally pick a better candidate after realizing that they were duped just like in 2012. Unfortunately it will probably only be Marine le Pen that will be able to say: I told you so!