Gimme Your Bike or I'll Beat You Up!

Bizarro World:  The American president just threatened to make war on Europe - our own allies - because he didn't get the Nobel Peace Prize.  I wish this were the premise of a Saturday Night Live skit - but it's not.

France 24 reports:

Secretary Pete says we don't have to accept this craziness:

Danish comedian Huxi Bach wants to speak to the manager:

Bach says we have always bragged about the checks and balances in our system, and it's true they have worked well for a long time. But what he and all of Europe need to understand is that the USA they knew and admired no longer exists, except on paper. It was the victim of a hostile takeover last year, which is still d/b/a (doing business as) the USA - but in name only. The Congress, which can indeed "fire the president," is populated with a majority of supine sycophants who are only too glad to shirk their duties and let the infantile CEO run wild. They are enablers of all the craziness, and will continue to be unless and until the voters turn them out.

But will they? Can they? I'd be deeply saddened, though not at all surprised, if there were no more elections in my lifetime - real elections, not phony ones. For anyone who's read history, the present state of affairs in America has a familiar ring. The august Senate of Rome, proud guardians of their republican traditions, all acquiesced meekly (with financial advantage) to the supremacy of the Caesars when the imperial government began, and though they continued to meet and debate with all due decorum for several more centuries, they were just a rubber stamp for whoever sat on the imperial throne.

Likewise in Germany when the Nazis came to power. Hitler expelled all the other parties from the Reichstag, and thereafter did as he pleased, with the Nazi members of the legislature gladly doing his bidding as required. It's important to remember that dictators, as a general rule, like to maintain the trappings of law and legitimacy - then they can say, "See? I'm only doing what I was supposed to do."  This sort of don't-blame-me charade has occurred many times in many lands, all over the world.

But as Europeans should remember, once Hitler came to power, he kept making incessant, outrageous demands on all his neighbors, blaming them for "provoking" confrontations, and demanding more territory for national security and industrial expansion. And constantly spouting one outrageous lie after another.  But the Europeans were afraid of him, and didn't want to get into another catastrophic war, so they kept timidly backing away from the fight, doing all they could to make nice and appease the insatiable dictator - who could never be appeased enough.  We all know where that led.

I have no diplomatic expertise, so I can't say what Europe should or could do if push came to shove in Greenland or anywhere else. But what I feel sure of is that if they cave in to this outrageous demand, there will quickly be another one, and another, and another, until Europe is overwhelmed and fragmented and prostrate beneath the heels of the billionaire cronies of the Emperor of the West.

The only thing a bully of any age understands, and grudgingly respects, is a swift punch in the nose! Enuf said.

Bonus:  Here is Franklin D. Roosevelt in early 1944, speaking as an American president ought always to speak:

"The doctrine that the strong shall dominate the weak is the doctrine of our enemies, and we reject it."

Wow, what a concept, huh?

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What I'm Watching: Rick Steves

Forty-four years ago today, your Head Trucker first set foot on the soil of merry old England, owing to the grace of a little unexpected windfall that came into my hands - though I really had no business gallivanting off to foreign parts when money was so hard to come by.

Owing to assorted family tragedies and financial reverses, too dreary to relate here, by the time I finished high school my mom and I were deep in poverty.  It took me ten long years of perseverance to finally get through college, meanwhile learning the value of a dollar the hard way, by working all sorts of ill-paid, bottom-drawer jobs with no future:  construction worker, apartment cleaner, warehouseman, delivery truck driver, retail clerk, night auditor, and so forth.

But to see Europe and its history, art, and culture with my own eyes - ah, now that was like a dream come true!  I decided there was no better way to use that little sum than to treat myself to a two-week tour of London and Paris - at the time it cost around $800 (about three months' minimum-wage pay then) for a hotel-and-airfare package deal via TWA.  It might have been more prudent to save that money or apply it to necessities; but I thought to myself at the time, what if I never get another chance to go? 

And in point of fact, no other chance ever did present itself, so I'm glad I went when I could:  a poor man's Grand Tour.  The memories are lovely.  It would have been even nicer if I'd had a travel companion to share the experience with, but none of my blue-collar friends could afford it, or were even interested in seeing them furrin places over yonder.  Why bother with all that boring old stuff when you could just stay home, pop another Bud, and watch the Bicentennial Minutes?

Fate being a rather capricious tour guide on the road of life, I am still struggling to make ends meet in retirement, but I'm sure that many Americans are by now familiar with the travel books and videos of Rick Steves, a lively, extroverted fellow who thinks travel is not only fun but educational as well.  Pick just about any European country you please, and you will easily find one or several Rick Steves videos on YouTube telling you just how to get there, and what to see and do.

But though Rick presents himself as a laid-back, happy-go-lucky type, he has a lot more on the ball than you might expect.  He has written a book whose title is self-explanatory:  Travel as a Political Act, which I have not read, but I believe he expresses some of the same views in this video I'm watching this week.  If you want to hear the philosophy of travel from someone who has spent a third of his life in Europe every year for the last forty years, give it a whirl; I'm about halfway through it myself, and find it very thought-provoking.




Or if you'd rather just imagine yourself soaking up some rays and cruising through the blue Mediterranean, here's a you-are-there video. Enjoy!

Brexit: A Comedy of Errors

Longtime readers of this blog will know that your Head Trucker is a thoroughgoing Anglophile who takes a continuing friendly interest in the scepter'd isle and its people, our not-so-distant cousins linked to us in all manner of ways, including law, language, literature, and custom, with amusing variations on both sides.  Not to mention all those fascinating BBC historical dramas we have loved so much over the years.

In just the last few weeks, I have become - most unexpectedly - engrossed in their newest historical drama, broadcast in real time, and it's a doozy.  I tell you what.  Not even ol' Will the Bard himself could touch this for intrigue, passion, plot twists, comic foils, drama queens, and bitter tragedy.  I won't spoil the plot for you - I can't, really, because there isn't one - but CBS Sunday Morning offers this helpful summary up through last weekend:



However, be advised that this summary is already clean out of date, events having moved so quickly over there in just the last four days. To give just one example: the well-starched Jacob Rees-Mogg, portrayed as one of the sternest champions of Brexit, has now done a complete 180 and is voting in Parliament for what he swore he never would, and encouraging others to do the same, whilst his boss, the embattled Theresa May, has promised (sort of) to step down as Prime Minister if only Parliament will pass her deal. Fascinating. This beats "Who Shot J.R.?" all to slap.  I tell you what.

The dizzying cast of characters and shifts of allegiances back and forth, and side to side, are guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat. Of course, it's hard to tell the players without a scorecard, but I can offer you this clue: it does seem to your Head Trucker that the Leave people are very like our current Republicans (Make America Britain Great Again); whilst the Remainers are rather like our current Democrats, and about as well organized, but great at coming up with clever posters and fun protest marches. Enuff said.

Although billed as a comedy, I do very much fear that it will all end in tears, and eventually, the collapse of Western civilization on both sides of the Atlantic, not just ours.  (Some people in Britain are stockpiling their closets with food and other essentials in case it all goes awry.)  But what do I know?

Perhaps you should just tune in and decide for yourself.  If you poke around in the Politics sections of the Guardian and the BBC, you will often find live broadcasts or blogs of the goings-on in Parliament, while Sky News usually has updates on the half-hour.  I offer these particular links simply because they are free and require no subscription to access; there are of course many other news sources in Britain that you can google up on your own.  The three I just mentioned are generally pro-Remain, neutral, and pro-Leave, respectively.

And for those few, those very few, of my fellow Americans who would like to hear a reasoned, impartial analysis of the Brexit mess, I recommend this lecture given two weeks ago by historian Vernon Bogdanor, one of Britain's foremost constitutional scholars, for your edification:

Super Saturday

The kiss seen round the world.

Three great news stories yesterday: first, Austrian drag performer Conchita Wurst won the Eurovision song contest with her rendition of "Rise like a Phoenix." Now the bearded-lady look doesn't do much for your Head Trucker; frankly, I think it's silly, show-offish, and extremely unattractive - but Putin and his evil homo-bashing thugs in Nowheresville are all pissed off by this, so fuck him - up with Conchita!




Second, Arkansas became the first Southern state where same-sex marriages were performed, following state circuit judge Chris Piazza' ruling late Friday that the state's marriage ban is unconstitutional.  In a very learned ruling that cited other recent rulings in Virginia, Utah, and Okalahoma, as well as the Windsor and Loving rulings, and even the Dred Scott Decision, Judge Piazza wrote:

Regardless of the level of review required, Arkansas’s marriage laws discriminate against same-sex couples in violation of the Equal Protection Clause because they do not advance any conceivable legitimate state interest necessary to support even a rational basis review. . . .

Furthermore, the fact that Amendment 83 was popular with voters does not protect it from constitutional scrutiny as to federal rights. The very purpose of a bill of rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. W.Ya. State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette,319 U.S. 624,638 (1943). The Constitution guarantees that all citizens have certain fundamental rights. These rights vest in every person over whom the Constitution has authority and, because they are so important, an individual’s fundamental rights may not be submitted to vote; they depend on the outcome of no elections. Id. at 638. . . .

It has been over 40 years since Mildred Loving was given the right to marry the person of her choice. The hatred and fears have long since vanished and she and her husband lived full lives together; so it will be for the same-sex couples. It is time to let that beacon of freedom shine brighter on all our brothers and sisters. We will be stronger for it.

The county clerk in Eureka Springs, a gay-friendly resort town up in the Ozarks, issued 15 marriage licenses yesterday.  The state attorney general plans to appeal the ruling, so it's not yet known when or whether other Arkansas counties will follow suit on Monday.  KARK in Little Rock reports:




And in neighboring Missouri, my fellow Texan Michael Sam made some fabulous history by becoming the first openly gay player in the NFL when was drafted by the Saint Louis Rams yesterday - and kissed his boyfriend, Mizzou swimmer Vito Cammisano, live on ESPN, which broadcast a number of instant-replays of the smooch.  It's quite a moving moment, if you haven't seen it yet:



Afterwards, Sam received congratulations from, among others, President Obama.  BTW, his story is even more moving when you consider that Sam is the first of his troubled family to attend college; read about his very difficult upbringing near Galveston in this NYT report.

The Reluctant Superpower

Street scene in Ingolstadt, Bavaria

I never studied economics (though I wish I had), so the current state of the world's finances flickers across the screen of my mental vision like some increasingly uncomfortable phantasmagoria in a Fellini film, incomprehensible and ever more bizarre.  Probably I could understand more if I buckled down to study the matter; but I just don't want to.  Even if I did truly comprehend all the causes and effects of this historical crisis, there is absolutely nothing I could do with that knowledge to help anyone; and the low, parlous state of my own finances away out here on the prairie is too uncomfortable already to bear the weight of much thought.

Like most ordinary folks, I realize that I am but a tiny cog in an enormous wheel, and just have to endure whatever the movers and shakers of the world decide to do, or not do.  Still, from an historical point of view, it seems rather ironic that Germany - a nation I have no particular affinity or antipathy for, though in truth I am not much attracted to sausage, sauerkraut, and gutteral vowels - that having been put to utter ruin within living memory, it has now miraculously, so it seems, rebounded so much as to hold the fate of the world within its hands. 

Why is that, exactly, when other European countries who also were laid waste by the war, and rebuilt with generous American help, are barely able to pay their light bill, so to speak?  This interesting article in the Telegraph points to an answer, though how true it is, I can't say; but here's an excerpt for you to mull over:

Ingolstadt gives an excellent impression, aside from all the kebab houses and cars, of still being trapped in some much-earlier historical period. It is also one of the reasons that southern Germany remains such a powerful motor for Europe’s economy – indeed, Europe’s last great hope. And it is the behaviour and attitude of people like those living in Ingolstadt which will have a profound impact on how the current crisis plays out. . . . The German people value their local towns, worry about their neighbours’ views, relish the rules and are rewarded accordingly by a social and economic system that really does work. . . .

The devastated, occupied and shamed West Germany of 1945 rebuilt itself from a smaller version of the same principles as before – hundreds of towns, each producing something exceptional. And it turned out that this new German prosperity was also intimately linked with the successful export of things which foreigners liked, the ensuing money allowing Germans themselves to buy things. This successful pattern, a sort of conveyor belt of investment, ideas, things and consumers, continues to the present day. But instead of just being a source of happiness to many of its fortunate inhabitants, it must suddenly bear the brunt of a global disaster.

Since the end of the Cold War, Germany has given two gifts to the world. The first was the decision to pour many billions of Deutschmarks into the somewhat patchy rebuilding of old East Germany. The second was to be the principal begetter of the euro – what was meant to be the final act to wind up the legacy of the Second World War. In a grand restatement of the principles that had cemented the original Treaty of Rome, Europeans who shared a currency would have so much in common that they could not dream of fighting each other. Some of the applicants to join the euro seemed a little odd or dodgy, but the Germans would ignore this because there was a higher, almost mystical issue at stake.

It is perhaps the fundamental question now facing Europe: what will the people wandering along Ingolstadt’s principal shopping streets think about what has happened? Germany’s attempts to dominate Europe militarily ended in utter moral and physical disaster. Germany’s more recent attempt to dominate Europe through the benign means of hard work, constructive engagement and backing the euro appeared to be a brilliant success. The unique form of provincialism that lies at the heart of Germany somehow resulted in the belief that the rest of the world shared its values – work all week at Audi, spend the weekend in riotous drinking and arguments about the relative merits of long-haul holiday destinations, and mix this with occasional marital infidelity and spiritual crisis. It simply could not encompass the idea that Greece or Italy would use access to the euro knowingly and contemptuously to pour that work ethic down the plughole. . . .

By chance, the President's weekly video address today from Indonesia, where he is making trade agreements, touches on a related idea:

These agreements will help us reach my goal of doubling American exports by 2014 – a goal we’re on pace to meet. And they’re powerful examples of how we can rebuild an economy that’s focused on what our country has always done best – making and selling products all over the world that are stamped with three proud words: “Made In America.”

This is important, because over the last decade, we became a country that relied too much on what we bought and consumed. We racked up a lot of debt, but we didn’t create many jobs at all.

If we want an economy that’s built to last and built to compete, we have to change that. We have to restore America’s manufacturing might, which is what helped us build the largest middle-class in history. That’s why we chose to pull the auto industry back from the brink, saving hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process. And that’s why we’re investing in the next generation of high-tech, American manufacturing.

Which sounds good. But what do I know. And as a matter of historical fact, we had the world's biggest and finest industrial plant already in place when the Great Depression happened, but that wasn't enough to prevent calamity.

It's Unanimous: Iceland OK's Equal Marriage

Reuters:

The Althingi parliament voted 49 to zero to change the wording of marriage legislation to include matrimony between "man and man, woman and woman," in addition to unions between men and women.

Iceland, a socially tolerant island nation of about 320,000 people, became the first country to elect an openly gay head of state in 2009 when Social Democrat Johanna Sigurdardottir became prime minister after being nominated by her party.

"The attitude in Iceland is fairly pragmatic," said Gunnar Helgi Kristinsson, a political scientist at the University of Iceland. "It (gay marriage) has not been a big issue in national politics -- it's not been controversial."

The prime minister's sexual orientation garnered far more interest among foreign media than in Iceland, where the attitude toward homosexuality has grown increasingly relaxed in the past two or three decades, Kristinsson added.

On Top:

Forty-nine of the country's 63 members of the Althingi parliament voted in favor of the law. The remainder abstained.  The legislation is groundbreaking in that it does not alter marriage to a gender-neutral institution, but instead includes “man and man” and “woman and woman” among the definitions of marriage.

The bill was introduced on March 23 and couples are expected to marry as early as this month. Marriage will replace Iceland's system of registered partnerships for gay and lesbian couples first enacted in 1996.

The legislation goes to President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson for his signature. Reports indicate the president will sign the bill into law.

And in Portugal, whose equal-marriage law came into effect last month, Agence France-Presse reports:

The first gay marriage in Portugal was celebrated Monday as a lesbian couple exchanged vows in a civil ceremony, one week after a law allowing same-sex unions went into force.

The divorced women, Helena Paixao, 40, and Teresa Pires, 33, were married in Lisbon before about 30 people.

The lesbians, who have two daughters from previous marriages and have been together for eight years, were also the first gay couple to submit a request to be married back in 2006, which launched the debate on legalising homosexual unions in Portugal, a predominantly Catholic country.

Same-sex marriage map of Europe (click here for the Wikipedia article): dark blue = equal marriage; medium blue = registered partnerships; yellow = under discussion; gray = not recognized; red = constitutional prohibition.

Canada and South Africa also recognize equal marriage nationwide.  New Zealand has civil unions, and Australian states extend limited rights to same-sex couples either through registered partnerships or unwed cohabition.

Equal Marriage Arrives in Sweden

Map of same-sex marriage status in Europe as of today, from Wikipedia.

Swedish gays and lesbians can begin marrying today, following legislation passed by the Swedish parliament last month. Registered partnerships for same-sex couples have been available in that country since 1995, but today Sweden becomes the seventh country to offer full marriage rights for gay people.

The Lutheran Church of Sweden supported the legislation and does provide same-sex blessings for couples, but will not offer actual marriage services until the question is decided by a church assembly later this year.

The other countries that offer nationwide same-sex marriage are as follows:

1. The Netherlands - 2001
2. Belgium - 2003
3. Spain - 2005
4. Canada - 2005
5. South Africa - 2006
6. Norway - 2009
7. Sweden - 2009

And of course, the U. S. states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, and Vermont (beginning Sept. 2009); but same-sex couples in those states are not recognized by the federal government.