A Most Unwelcome Guest

To visit or not to visit?  That is the question.  Never mind the 'nobler in the mind' bit, because this is Donald J. Trump we're talking about, and there is nothing - but nothing - noble about him.  Trump's state visit to the UK has been on and off more times than Mae West's underwear, and a question mark hangs over the whole ghastly event.

When Theresa May - whose own reign may very well be in question - rather prematurely invited Trump over here mere days after his inauguration, there was an unsurprising sharp intake of breath from many politicians and most of the British public.  The Scots, bless them, were particularly outspoken in their views on the man, and one memorable picture shows a Scots woman holding a banner proclaiming "Trump is a c**t".  It is not in the nature of the Scots to hold back or not say exactly what they mean.

The government stance is that the President of the United States of America is one of a select group  of 'World Leaders', and as such it is both statesman-like and expedient to extend this courtesy in order to further cement relations between tiny, vulnerable, Great Britain, and the powerful giant that is America.  All well and good, and absolutely right -up until now.

In the past, we have delighted in state visits, although the Chinese President  Xi's visit was marred by some friction between Chinese officials and the British Ambassador.  Her Majesty, generally a watch-word for diplomacy, described them as "very rude".  However, that apart,  these visits have failed to provoke large-scale protests, and this is very largely because the visitors themselves have had sufficient diplomatic training,  common courtesy, and statesmanship to behave themselves and not act like prats.

Some, like Trump's predecessor, Barak Obama, were welcomed with a great deal of warmth.  Obama isn't perfect, of course, but he is a very intelligent, sensitive, and decent man, with considerable legal, legislative and governmental experience, whereas Trump is a wheeler-dealer 'businessman' whose businesses have gone bankrupt six times while he - by his own admission - "played with the bankruptcy laws".

The British are a stoical lot, but there are limits.  Among the things most people wish to avoid is guilt by association.  In other words, we are quite willing to accept someone whose views we may not agree with, but can understand the reasons for those views while at the same time hoping we may change them by discussion. 

We  will not, however, be seen to welcome a misogynistic racist, who happens also to be a warmonger and pollutionist who pulled the plug on climate change.  We do not want him here at all, but have to resign ourselves to the fact that he is - tragically - President of America, and will probably turn up at some stage.  It is, I think, the thought of this ghastly individual being afforded all the grace and dignity of a state visit which he has done nothing whatever to deserve.  His visit will also serve as a slap in the face for almost three million UK Muslims, the vast majority of whom are decent peaceful people.  A state visit is more than just inappropriate for this man - it is unacceptable.

One thing, I believe is certain - if and when he does come, neither he nor Theresa May will be left in any doubt of how loathed and detested he is, and what a bad idea inviting him was.

Still, the EDF will probably be pleased.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

I have to say that 2016 ended on a somewhat depressing note, but that note was trumped (if you'll pardon the ghastly pun ) by the start of 2017.  Let's start, however with late 2016, a time when some people in America decided that they'd had more than enough of sanity, and elected an idiot to the post of the most powerful man in the western world.  I know I once said he was no idiot, but - in typical Trump fashion - he's proved me wrong.  Well done, that man.

Wasting not a second, he went about living up to his image of the most unpopular U.S. President of all time by pissing just about everyone off.  The American Judiciary sharply reminded him that he was not above the law by declaring his ridiculous travel ban unlawful, and I daresay that Trump sacking his Attorney-General because she could not let him break the law probably did not help his cause, or endear him to the judges.  There were mass protests, and they continue to this day.

There was also the small matter of alleged Russian involvement in the Presidential Election, and some easily-discovered porky-pies told by members of the Trump cabinet.  There was more to come;  Some of it came in the shape of Mrs Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President, and the woman who coined the somewhat euphemistic phrase "Alternative Facts" in order to make some of her more outrageous statements a little more palatable.  Conway it was who defended Trump's immigration policy by citing the now-infamous 'Bowling Green Massacre', allegedly perpetrated by two Iraqi terrorists in Bowling Green, Kentucky.  This incident did not, in fact, ever take place, the two Iraqis who were arrested in Bowling Green had been involved in acts of terrorism whilst in Iraq, but no evidence was ever presented to suggest that they were planning attacks in the U.S.  The other anomaly, of course, is that in order to have a massacre people have to get killed;  it is an absolutely essential part of the plan, and no-one did.  Strike one.

In February of this year, Conway discussed Ivanka Trump's products, giving what appeared to be a "free advertisment" for them.  This was too much, even for the Republicans.  It was a clear breach of ethics that drew widespread condemnation. Strike two.   Many Americans also find it somewhat strange that a woman who co-authored a book with the rather cumbersome title of 'What Women Really Want: How American Women Are Quietly Erasing Political, Class, and Religious Lines to Change the Way We Live' should choose to defend - at every turn, and using 'alternative facts if necessary - a man who is so blatantly both sexist and racist.  Small wonder that many TV companies have dropped her from their interview list because of her questionable credibility. Strike three.

Then there was the unfortunate National Security Advisor Michael Flynn (who Conway had said "had the full confidence of the President") who promptly 'resigned' hours after that statement.  It is strongly suspected by those who should know that Flynn was actually sacked by Trump, the man who, it was claimed, had such confidence in him!

Meanwhile Trump continues down the Road to Hell, showing little sign of applying the brakes or steering in the right direction.  His much-vaunted White House 'Team' - Trump claimed he picked only the best - continues to fall apart at the seams, despite Trump's claim that everything is running "real smooth".  I'd hate to see it running "real rough" then.

So there it is, folks; we have the most powerful government in the western world in disarray, a team of politicians who - to quote from 'Good Morning Vietnam' don't appear to know if they've been "shot, fucked, powder-burned, or snake-bit",  Putin rubbing his hands, the rest of the world shaking it's head in despair, and a headstrong, ignorant, fool, with the nuclear codes.

What could possibly go wrong?

He Did No Harm

(Or, at least, not much!)

Of my three greatest heroes, I have written of two; Fred Dibnah (the subject of my very first post), and 'The Last Great American', Mr. Johnny Cash.  The title of this post is a phrase used by Hero 3, and he wanted it to be his epitaph; I don't know whether he got his wish, or whether Death was as kind as he had portrayed him, but I hope so - on both counts.

The mention of Death, complete with capital letter, may possibly have given a clue to those who know me, because Death became a character with some very human traits, which is not surprising, since he's been around humans from, well, the start, really.  In short, Death became what this hero described as "an anthropomorphic personification", and the man to whom I am referring is the late and very great Sir Terry Pratchett.

When he first started writing, the incredibly snobbish so-called 'Literary Circle' pooh-poohed his material, laughingly dismissing it as "something no woman would ever read", and sneeringly deriding him as "a complete amateur - doesn't even write in chapters".  An art critic, the late Brian Sewell, simply did what he did best; he sneered and drawled "who's Terry Pratchett?"  It seems curious now that I cannot remember the names of those TV critics (although I will never forget Terry's), and Sewell died without ever receiving a knighthood, and is usually remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Fortunately for us, Terry Pratchett's rage at the establishment and his headmaster was channelled into an imaginative energy that produced some of the most popular books ever written.  Possessed of an incredible imagination, an uncanny knowledge of human nature, and a whacky and witty sense of humour,  Terry's cocktail of darkness, wisdom, and hilarity spawned a whole industry and a huge fan base.  It was all richly-deserved.

A self-effacing, gentle and kindly man who always had time for the fans he knew had put him where he was,  he was never rude, arrogant or disdainful.  He never rubbished other authors, although some were not so kind to him - possibly because he out-sold most of them many times over.  He was not a man with a huge ego, and possessed, in spades,  that most endearing human trait of all; the ability not to take himself too seriously.  This was apparent in the slogan on one of his t-shirts, which said, simply "Tolkien's dead,  J K Rowling said no, Philip Pullman couldn't make it, Hi, I'm Terry Pratchett".  Typically of the man, the Terry Pratchett line was in the smallest font.

Terry's discworld characters must be among the most loved on the planet, and there cannot be a reader of his books who doesn't have his own very personal image of what these characters looked like.  He had a wonderful way of making the most ghastly and shifty examples of humanity fairly lovable - or at least understandably ghastly.

So thank you, Sir Terry, for being the writer and person you were, for making us see ourselves for what we are, and teaching us that a ridiculous view of the world is the only sane option.  

A flat disc supported by four elephants standing on the back of a giant space-turtle?  I don't see anything wrong with that.

As long as you stay away from the edges.