EU: Who is defending Europe?

When Greenpeace was founded, back in 1971, their mission was simple enough, they would 'bear witness' to US nuclear testing and although that first mission was halted, they continued and are a well recognized world authority on environmental issues.

But it was not easy, and some of those intrepid fighters for all our futures, paid the ultimate price for their conviction.

Today, another renegade ship is sailing into controversy as the C-Star sails towards the Libyan coast in an attempt to end the terrible plight of refugees and migrants who are being ferried into Europe in their thousands. Those who do not perish on the journey, live mainly to regret ever setting out in the first place.

The Defend Europe project is straightforward:-

"Our goal is to document the doings of the NGOs, expose their collaboration with the human smugglers, and intervene if they do something illegal."

Simple enough, yet the media have already denounced the mission as racist, far-right extremism, and pounced on the first mainstream journalist who has attempted to meet with the crew. This is strange behaviour, because Katie Hopkins may not be everyone's favorite, but she is a known quantity and we should get an honest impression of what is actually happening.

When even Mama Merkel admits the folly of her failed policies towards unsustainable immigration, are we not entitled to know more about this voluntary attempt to uncover the real perpetrators of the human misery that continues, showing no signs of abating?

As we see here at section 30 the laws on rescue at sea are extremely vague, particularly where migrants or those claiming asylum are concerned.

"Since the “next port of call” with reference to the disembarkation of rescued persons is nowhere clearly defined, there are a number of possibilities, which would need to be further explored to clarify this concept. In many instances, especially when large numbers of rescued persons are involved, it will in effect be the nearest port in terms of geographical proximity given the overriding safety concerns..."  [Emphasis mine]

So, if it is true that NGO's are colluding with people smugglers to ferry people across the Mediterranean, rather than to the nearest geographical port, then we need to know so that we can put an end to it.

We know that International Law has fallen out of favor, and the EU appears incapable of fixing this problem, so perhaps a small band of volunteers is what's needed, regardless of their supposed political viewpoint.

US: Trivial Pursuit

The latest iteration of Trumpophobia has the placed president's son firmly in the unwanted glare of media scrutiny.

It seems that an enterprising lawyer enticed Trump Jr to attend a meeting on the pretext of serving up some juicy information on Hilary Clinton from the 'Crown Prosecutor of Russia', that such a post does not exist seems to have escaped everyone, but to be fair to the junior Trump, it's difficult to imagine who could resist such an opportunity.

Apparently the meeting lasted just a few minutes before he realized he'd been scammed, and left.

It is now being portrayed as a serious security incident, but I wonder what else was he supposed to do?

Should he have ignored the suggestion that Russia had sensitive information on a Presidential Candidate?

What if they had, and the Donald Jr had helped to prevent a major security incident, or if he hadn't gone to the meeting and some other catastrophe had ensued, would that have been preferable?

With the Clinton's links to foreign sponsors of terrorism common knowledge, was he not right to follow the lead, the only question is what would he have done with anything incriminating that he might have uncovered. Would he have used it for political gain, or would he have immediately turned it over to US security? We will never know the answer, but must surely give him the benefit of any doubt.

While the frenzy surrounding this nonsense continues, those politicians and pundits gleefully making all they can of the discomfort to president Trump, should be very careful about the outcome, because if the emails, texts and liaisons of their children are to be fair game for scrutiny, then I doubt that many in Washington or beyond, will escape unscathed.

US: A sickness of the mind

For some time, the practice of inventing new words by suffixing nouns to fit a narrative was an amusing tool of the tabloid press.

I remember when anyone in the UK who bothered to learn French, was called a Francophile to signify that they were not as virulently anti-French as our Thatcherite press corps would prefer.

Some people even invent such self-descriptive words, so that those money grubbers who had little interest in their family or friends, would call themselves workaholics, not just as an excuse, but as though it were actually a good thing.

Having started as a trivial amusement, this construct then took a more sinister turn when people who refused to accept the demise of USSR, became jolly Russophobes, and were left to continue as though the Berlin wall remained and International Communism was still our greatest enemy. Those who feel this is just a harmless bit of fun, might like to ask the families of the dead and injured in Boston, what they think about Russophobia, or the survivors in Eastern Ukraine after US democratization attempts.

An even more insidious use of the form arrived when anyone who opposed Jihad, or reported on the gruesome history of Mohammedism, was called Islamophobic and also racist - thus another invention, the Race of Islam, arrived.

But, despite my scepticism, I have now relented, and accept that there is a real condition of phobia gripping America (and much of Europe too), and in it's latest and most blatant iteration should be called out for what it is; Trumpophobia.