EU Spectacle
The word spectacle is carefully chosen, since this is what the current drama of which Greece is the symptom, not the cause, has become. It no longer bears any relationship to coherent democratic leadership or process of governance in a workable political and currency union. The cancellation at a moment’s notice of a summit of all EU leaders is extraordinary.
There is a problem with Greece, but it is not that difficult to solve. Indeed this blog working alone would be able to negotiate a workable solution. What is proving impossible is to find an acceptable solution, because the institutions normally established to process decision making at national and international levels are not there, or there in such abundance nobody can detect who is in charge. And to make matters worse the structure of the currency itself is unsustainable as it lacks a treasury and a finance minister answering to an elected government. A committee of finance ministers at loggerheads, elected by only one member state in each case, on conflicting mandates and to differing electoral timetables will work only in the good times and becomes dysfunctional under pressure.
So all we know at this moment is that Greece may or may not go bust tomorrow, the euro looks more like an impediment to growth than an engine of it, and the reputation of the EU as a coherent political union is severely damaged. Beneath that a big gap is developing between the north and the south of Europe, between the politicians and their electors everywhere and between those in the eurozone who want to stand firm to high principle even if it brings the whole thing down, led by the Germans, and by those who feel pragmatic reality demands compromise, led by France and Italy.
At the heart of of this crisis now engulfing the whole EU are three violated principles. You cannot have a democratic political union without an elected forum from which all authority flows. You cannot have a currency which cannot be printed. You cannot have capitalism which does not permit debtors to go bust. The first is violated because the whole EU is wrongly configured. The last two are rescinded because Germany says No.
Men usually do like Helga. All three agents I had several years ago were men. The publisher in South Carolina who wanted to publish Captive at the Berghof was a man. I quote them all at the beginning of the novel we just published on our own. Also the email I get ever since the episode in Liverpool last July in 2015 is mostly from men. She is definitely my most interesting character. That is why I took her for my avatar and put her up on Facebook. She is also on my address labels.Helga should be running for President.
First of all, Great Britain and its nuclear systems are not separate from the US. So throw out your objection about Britain. The French could not mount a decent military maneuver any more if they tried. On that score they haven't done anything for 200 years since the days of Napoleon. The Russians and Chinese aren't even worth discussing they are so far behind. (China would never attack the US or offend the West. That is their bread basket and they are very, very practical!!! The Russians are at the bottom of the heap in the West and know it. They suffered the worst in WW1 and WW2. They were the most upset about 9/11. Putin was the first to call the Oval Office. If something happens to America they will suffer the worst). It takes more than having "systems" as far as nuclear stuff goes, you have to have the industrial complex to support them and the geographic space in miles to have secret complexes and even secret cities. Things may change over the broad expanses of history but 70 isn't long enough. Besides the more things change, the more they remain the same.
QUESTIONS:1)You still have not answered what would have happened to the Elgin Marbles if Lord Elgin had not taken them back to Britain when he did. How can you argue that they would not have been destroyed?
2)It has been two hundred years since the marbles moved to Britain and the British Museum. Why doesn't that count for something? A tradition has been established. People expect to see them there not in Greece.
3)Greece is more politically unstable than Britain. Therefore there is more risk to the marbles if they go back to Greece.
4)More people go to Britain than to Greece. More people from around the world would be able to see them in London than in Athens. Take it from somebody who has been to Athens as an eighteen year old. It's not that nice a place to visit. The accommodations are for the most part third rate. The food isn't edible for most westerners. It's more Middle Eastern than Western. Americans were slaughtered at the Athens Airport in August of 1973.
5)Greece tends to shut off objects from view. You can't get up to the Acropolis and wander around the Parthenon anymore at will. Do you want the marbles to be shut off?
Because they do not know anything else, I think most Americans just take it for granted. No one expects a Dictator to appear tomorrow or next year. They think the political system is firmly in place and the system will protect them. The individual politicians don't really matter.
The way I feel about this election so far without really having paid much attention to it is that it doesn't really matter who wins. Given the candidates it is bound to be entertaining. Also it almost never matters who is elected. The system just carries on the same anyway. Not so, however, at the time of Lincoln and FDR who are ranked number 1 and number 2 among US Presidents in that order.I never liked the Clintons. But they were such fun! I listened to the news in the 1990's. Gary and I used to drive around Charlottesville and then Tucson listening to Rush Limbaugh talk about them on the radio. There was always a scandal. But then the Clintons sort of symbolized that era which was sort of like the gay 1890's. Gary says it should have been called the "tabloid decade". Clinton (whom I nicknamed "Bozo" sort of like a clown) should have had a party mid 90's and invited OJ Simpson and Princess Di. They were the three leading tabloid figures of the decade.
I don't know anything about Trump except that I once saw a commercial with him in it. I don't even remember the year. He was getting divorced from a Scandanavian wife or something like that and they were both appearing in a commercial together. I don't even remember what the commercial was advertising. Also I'd seen his name in passing in financial articles. Just recently when reading the article about Patricia Kluge he surfaced again. Five years ago in 2011 he bought her former estate in Charlottesville, set up a bed and breakfast, and renamed it something like Trump's Cottages or Bed and Breakfast. But I've never yet heard him deliver a political speech.
Gary told me news about Dover. Tens of thousands of holiday makers were stuck at Dover for up to 14 hours after French officials failed to bring in enough workers to carry out terror checks at the port. Some families were stranded in their cars on Friday and were still there on Saturday morning. Some travelers faced back ups near 7 miles long and were delayed between 5 and 8 hours. One guy moved 1 mile in 10 hours. Helicopters were bringing in water. Only one French officer available to check passengers on each coach which took 40 minutes to process each bus. This is because of Nice? This sounds insane!!! Who would put up with this? Besides what does checking each passenger in each car and bus have to do with stopping terrorists? I can see having a problem with Iraqi migrants who should be fenced out and sent to camps or sent back where they came from if not exported to America or somewhere else. But terrorists don't get stopped this way.We were contemplating going on a Mediterranean cruise next year which would have involved taking a ferry ride from either Calais or Dunkirk. Also Nice was supposed to have been one of the shore excursions. It doesn't sound like the thing to do!
Last year on the way back from Europe the captain told everybody about British tourists getting killed on a beach in Tunisia. We had a moment of silence at lunch time. But we were already on the Queen Mary 2. We were already out at sea in the Atlantic sailing back to New York via Halifax and Boston. And that was the first such terrorist episode like that I heard about. Besides, Tunisia wasn't Europe.
Also just yesterday Gary was telling me about terrorist attacks in Munich and shutting down the city. Great if you were a tourist driving through! If we had been sailing to Hamburg next month on August 9 right now we would be on the way to New York, and we would have that prospect facing us.
I didn't think the Arab terrorists attacked Germany. The Turks were allied with Germany in WW1. Also the Germans had the reputation of not liking Jews. A lot of Arab terrorists have Nazi rhetoric.
I am sure the British have done all sorts of things with warheads, etc. Remember, Brits were the first to invent computers, etc. But the British efforts these days are always allied with the American efforts. It seems to be almost impossible to act separately. It wouldn't look right world wide. Putin would laugh at the English speaking peoples disagreeing and squabbling with each other.
Maybe what really happens is before a policy initiative is announced, British and American leaders meet and discuss privately what their concerns are and what they should say because they KNOW that can't publicly disagree.
I am sure you can build your own nuclear reactors and have your own submarines. But again they are allied with the US submarines. They exchange information, etc. Example: just recently there was the flap about the internet and listening in on Angela Merkel's cell phone. There was worldwide outrage, but the leaders of Great Britain were silent. They were in on receiving all the information and spying on everybody just like the US. They were part of the same program. This is the sort of thing I am talking about.
New point: I could also argue that the Greeks nowadays are not ethnically the same as the Greeks in ancient times particularly on the mainland part of Greece. For one thing they were occupied by the Turks and definitely have a more Middle Eastern flavor because of that. So why should they have back what doesn't belong to them? P.S. This does not apply to the people of Crete, but Crete is not Athens.
I haven't heard about one thing Trump would do. But if he is saying stuff like that, he is probably just acting like a demagogue. He probably doesn't mean half of what he says. As far as "freeloading" on the American defense system, that was what the results of WW2 were all about. It sounds like an extremely isolationistic position designed to appeal to Americans who are unemployed or underemployed and blame globalization or something like that.Also the system is designed to make it hard for a politician to change things unless he has a huge majority or even a mandate the way George Bush did right after 9/11 when he had 97% approval ratings. That doesn't happen very often. Especially when it comes to domestic legislation Congress will get in the way unless you know how to get things passed the way Johnson did, and you have an enormous majority.
Mr. Benley in my Edward Ware Thriller Series was a member of the America First Movement, and he was a Robber Baron, too. In fact, he was financing it. That is the Donald Trump school according to Gary.
Remember a few months back when I suggested that Trump's real motive was to become the Ambassador to the Court of St. James? You agreed with me!!! How little can we predict the future!
You say that the French are doing this on purpose as a revenge for the Brexit vote? Preposterous! The French have struck me for a long time as a people who are not capable of governing themselves. They don't act rational. Besides there are other people trying to use the ferries besides the British. What about them? Weird!
Who spies on each other? Do you mean the US spies on Britain and Britain spies on the US? I don't think so. They share intelligence. That would make it impossible, I think. I don't think the US spies on Canada either.
Trump is for Brexit? Why would he have an opinion about the affairs of Great Britain nowadays? Does he think that America should "do a Brexit" from the rest of the world?Actually in the days of extreme isolationism after WW1 when America "withdrew" from the world, Great Britain, Canada, and Australia were still OK. You would see pictures from debutante balls in New York. They invited guests from Great Britain, Canada, etc. But they didn't like any other Europeans, Asians, Africans, Arabs, South Americans, etc. It was as if they said only WASPS were allowed. Only people who spoke English.
Gary says Trump wants to do a trade deal with Britain. There you go!
What were WW2 watchtowers used by the Nazis? What did they use them for? Where?
Looks ominous if you think of a Nazi being up there. I do have a scene in Unlocking Trinity where Edward escapes from the Berghof at night. It was supposed to have watchtowers. Were they like this or taller?
I agree that Mrs. Bozo has issues and has baggage. But then the Clintons always did. The first woman president thing means absolutely nothing to me. I don't think it would be progress. I don't think it is an issue that should even be raised. No one should care about the sex of the President anymore than they should care about the race.As far as the healthcare issue, don't misinterpret the current healthcare in America for what you have in England. I agree they are starting down the slippery slope towards socialized healthcare, but it is a very slippery slope and it is not working the way they want it to. There are so many loopholes in the bill it is fabulous.
I wouldn't take a Trump win for granted. Bill the Bozo, or Bill Clinton as you would call him, is supposed to be a master politician. I remember Tony Blair saying that he was the most masterful politician he had ever met either in England or in America. He is somehow running the Democratic machine behind the scenes. All they have to do is catch Trump in one political gaffe or mistake and exploit it to the hilt. Clinton years ago managed to destroy Newt Gingrich in this fashion. Trump could be another victim.
So I could use your watchtower as a model for the one in Unlocking Trinity. I'll have to do that. Did they have illumination at night?
Why does he want to do a deal with Putin?
"Gossip among the spies"? Did you read a novel about this? That sounds intriguing, but I've never heard the phrase before.
France is a big country? How so? I don't think it is very big. Their idea that their northern border is safe from terrorism is strange. It may not be literal terrorism, but what about the Iraqi immigrants attacking ferries? It doesn't sound safe.
I don't know what you mean here. The US had no attitude towards Russia until the Cold War. The current attitude is a survival of that era, the Cold War. The President can't control that. It may fade with time, but Russia isn't doing much to make it fade. The people in the US don't like dictators. That is why they didn't like Hitler either.Does Trump propose a trade agreement with Russia? Something else? I am sure he would not invite Russia to join NATO!
You were in Alcapulco? What were you doing there? Vacationing? Why did it occur to you? I went to Mexico once the very first time we visited Arizona as tourists and arrived by Amtrak on the Sunset Limited. We drove our rented car to Nogales, Arizona and parked it in the parking lot right by the border station. We walked across the border (only a few steps) into Nogales, Mexico and immediately it seemed like a different world. Not even the worst slums in the US resembled it at all. And I have been through Camden, NJ on a high speed train. (Gary used to live near there in Haddonfield). There were beggars on the streets, and I mean beggars who don't look like the ones you sometimes meet in the US. Everything was very dirty and run down. I found it very disturbing. We did some shopping, had iced tea in a restaurant, and went back never to return. Even though we live within 60 miles of the border I would never go back to Mexico for anything, though lots of other people around here go there all the time for some inexplicable reason. It might be the nearest beach to Tucson, but San Diego is much, much, much better and safer, too.
Barry Goldwater? Now that is strange! Goldwater bears no resemblance to Trump. Goldwater was the last chance America had to have a real intellectual for President. He was an explorer. He discovered something in the Grand Canyon and mapped it. He wrote books about his explorations. He knew languages, including American Indian languages and left many of his collected artifacts to the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. Also he was running against Johnson who was already in office at the time. Mrs. Bozo is not in office right now.
Yes, they do look very similar to the one you encountered on your walk. I've never seen one in person in the US. As far as the photos go, they are supposed to be printed on postcard paper and came from the Facebook Party. Since only you and one other lady attended (separately, she before and after the actual event), I sent them to both of you.
You got an ad for Storm? I don't know how that happened. I certainly don't pay for it. I sometimes get notices from Amazon about my own novels being released. I guess this is what you mean. Storm is just a YA horror novel about Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It is not one of the Edward Ware Thrillers. Right now I am redoing all the covers and product descriptions for all the YA novels. This is an ongoing project that I started near the beginning of the year. I am about two thirds done. I am also reducing all the prices to $2.99 and changing the keywords. At the start of each novel we are including clickable links to ten other books. These are all changes based on workshops I listened to in January, all provided by the RWA, the writers' group I belong to. I really must send you the link to Amazon's "secret keywords". That is what I am using.
To show you how silly American elections can get Amazon is promoting Cat in the Hat for President. He even has a campaign headquarters and a date for an election among kids what he should support. Maybe it is a gimmick to sell books, but you get the idea.
I agree it is pretty slick. But it is not an ad I am responsible for. We did, however, pick out the cover art. The painting on the front cover is a Claude Monet painting called "The entrance to Giverny under the snow". It is in the public domain.Goodreads post: I have a hard time believing that Mexico was a place anyone would want to go at any point. I know there are lots of Caribbean cruises that go there. I don't understand myself why anyone would want to go on a Caribbean cruise either.Those locales aren't safe. I don't even mean in terms of people or politics. I mean the water is bad. There are too many dangerous insects, etc. Also there are dangerous molds that grow there. Also the food there isn't safe to eat. It's certainly not like visiting Great Britain or Germany.
ermany.Goodreads post: Only time will tell.
It is true that Lord Elgin took the marbles 200 years ago. No one is alive from that time period. The Ottoman Turks aren't even around anymore, and they were the ones who approved of Lord Elgin taking the marbles. I agree that it is too far back in time to change at this point.If you want to keep on correcting the perceived wrongs of history, where do you stop? Should Germany, England, and France get together and sue Italy? After all, the Romans invaded their territory, and they should have to pay reparations. That would "go over like a lead balloon", wouldn't it? Italy doesn't have as much money as Great Britain or Germany. But they did have more 2000 years ago. This is how nonsensical it gets.
But here this sort of behavior occurs on all levels. The whole political system is like this from top to bottom. It is all very light.
Now that I've actually read the article I can comment on it. The article writer assumes that somehow all the European countries are independent of the US the way they used to be. He assumes that they are making their own decisions. He assumes that Israel is independent, too, which it has never been since it was founded. What I say is that Israel isn't a real country. So the "example" it sets is meaningless. It is a hobby state for Jews in America who wield great influence. In other words it is a projection of America in the Middle East. If it weren't for America it would collapse and wouldn't even exist anymore.Europe is a much more complicated situation. Western Europe on the Continent is "America's Empire" won in the last world war. But it isn't an empire in any traditional or conventional sense. We preside over it in a military way especially in terms of defense but we are also a political superintendent. They have no choice but to be democratic in other words. They also have to be capitalistic. Whether Germany can start developing its army and sending it around Europe to keep peace is another question. But I personally think this is what is missing. The Germans should be developing forces to fight terrorism. They should send them around to various countries.
What part England plays is this is the muddiest situation of all. They used to play the role of the current US. Somehow they are now one with the US. They are not part of the US. But they are not separate either when it comes to international relations. Should they police Europe for us? You suggested this.
Maybe Europe thinks that Iraq was a disaster. But I say it was a disaster only because the troops were withdrawn. Also there needs to be more of a commitment in occupation. You can't just send a few military people and then assume the Iraqis will take care of themselves. You have to be part of the actual government. You have to build businesses and hire people, etc. And you have to control the schools, above all the schools. They should start learning English, too. And you should make a commitment to stay for several generations --- for the rest of the century. Goodreads post: It doesn't matter if you were at the hotel which had five stars. You still have the same water supply. Don't you? And even if you don't drink the water it could be used to wash and prepare the food. And the insects could be anywhere.
Whitehall/London just got new leadership. Washington will have new leadership soon. We will have to see what happens. I assume you will be blogging about the autumn election season here as it heats up. Now that the conventions are over nothing will happen much until after Labor Day. They usually take August off.
In America they don't work not because they are seen as non-democratic. They don't work because of isolationism. Nobody wants to spend all that time and money occupying a foreign country. They just don't care enough. You are probably talking about England.
I have never seen so many photos of Mrs. Bozo (Mrs. Clinton) in my life as I did this morning in the grocery store. She stared back at you from the front of every single newspaper and all the tabloids at the checkout. She seemed to be watching you as you did your grocery shopping. This is what I don't like about American elections.
What is all this about abundant and cheap energy and some mad hatter project that would cost phenomenal amounts of money and might have to do with some foreign dictatorship? Parliament just halted what?
This is what my publishing imprint was named after. This is where I get the pyramid symbol.
Have you ever been to the Roman Baths at Bath? I got an email advertising how you could go there in the evening up until 10PM in the summer and get your photo taken by the torchlit baths. It looks very eerie and atmospheric. Or are Roman baths not your thing?
I would not want the Chinese to own a nuclear power station in the US either. That sounds so preposterous it isn't even worth thinking about except maybe for a thriller movie. I assume in the US a big project like that would require US contractors. Why didn't you want to use British contractors?
Why would they ever so anything so silly? What was untested about the technology? Why didn't they build it themselves instead of using French and Chinese power companies? Why did they have to pay 35% above the market price? I don't think one has been built in the US for quite awhile. Although just last year as we drove into Harrisburg and crossed the river we saw Three Mile Island. Do you remember that? That might be one of the reasons why.
Right now my website is in flux. Yesterday I signed up for a Word Press website hosting plan with Go Daddy. Up until now I have had a weebly website. We are transferring data from one website to the other. But your picture would look lovely. I have a scene in the novel I am editing right now called Dark Horse where Edward drives past your part of southern England. He could drive past just what you are showing me.Dark Horse is my novel about the 1940 US election with FDR and Wendell Wilkie. It is the alternative history thriller that I told you about that starts when Hitler wins the Battle of Dunkirk and takes over Britain. I will write in the flowers today. I could send you a copy of the passage where that occurs. But it may take a few days to get it up on the website. I'll send you a link when it is up.
You mean this is a bale of hay? Is it the same thing? If I mention it in the Edward Ware thrillers, I'll make sure not to use the word "straw roll". Are those some sort of ferns in the foreground? What do you call them? And what type of tree is cut off on the left edge of the photo?Your pictures indicate you are having very good weather right now. How long does that last before the nasty weather sets in?
OK, so you haven't been to Bath in forty-five years. To me it seems like a big tourist attraction, but that is just me. I have to get into the mind frame that all this stuff is just passe because you live there and nothing seems like a tourist attraction. In fact, it might even be boring. You want to see something different so you travel to Ibiza. Now that's different.You do seem to like London, though.
My friend, Gertrude, has lived in Graz, Austria her whole life. She and her husband go on weekend trips frequently. They also travel sometimes to Germany to visit friends. Three years ago they went to Rome. She likes to send me postcards of everywhere she travels even if it is just Bad Kreusen, which isn't very far away from her house. But then I met her at Duke in North Carolina where she was taking her junior year abroad. So she likes to travel.
When Gary and I first moved to Virginia we spent a whole year traveling on weekends to different battlefields and plantations, etc around the state. We went to Richmond, Appomattox, Manassas, Washington DC, Fredericksburg, the Wilderness, Mount Vernon, Shirley Plantation, Berkeley Plantation, Colonial Williamsburg, etc. The only reason I found this interesting was because I was writing novels about it at the time.
Do you have a favorite sightseeing attraction in Great Britain? Or do you like best where you live now? You certainly seem to take nice pictures of the South Downs area. By the way, did you choose the South Downs because it was your favorite place? That makes sense.
What did Blair do wrong?By the way when we were in Belgium last summer they had so much electricity that all the roads were lighted 24 hours a day with overhead lights. It was a great safety feature. They must have a lot of nuclear generation, too.
Gary found out that he has an ancestor named John Robert Sulley born November 16 1872 in Aston, Warwickshire just north of Birmingham, England. He found it on Ancestry.com. How about that? He came into the States in 1893. This is on his mother's side of the family. They moved to Newark, New Jersey and then they moved to West New York. He was a pearl button cutter.Gary's father's side of the family is from Scotland. He will have to look that up next. They are from Edinborough. Cargill is supposed to be a sept of the Drummond clan. Lots of Cargills live in Edinborough.
Here is the new passage from Dark Horse where your heather now appears:Colonel Ware had seen too much already. He crept silently around the cove and headed into the woods. He found a vehicle that an eager functionary had driven from London to greet the Fuhrer. The official, whoever he was, had been so much in a hurry that he had abandoned his keys in the car. Edward took advantage of unknown Nazi sympathizer's euphoria to drive the vehicle away towards Salisbury, some one hundred thirty-eight miles distant. He had to discover if Dora had fled with Churchill, too.
He passed a field full of purple heather in bloom. It brought back poignant memories of his college days when he and T. E. Lawrence used to take hikes in the South Downs. Things were not that simple anymore.
He did not stop until he reached the New Forest. There he shielded his car behind an English oak while he took off his officer's uniform in the midst of a copse of trees and concealed his Victoria Cross from the last war. It would not be safe for anyone to recognize him as a Colonel in the British Army.
He drove as quickly as possible, watching out for spies along the road sent by von Wessel. Every time he entered a tunnel formed by trees arching across the road he wondered what would be around the next bend. He examined the larger clumps of gorse bushes on the heath for eyes peeking up and out of it. He froze when he saw a pair of yellow eyes fixed on him. But a wild horse quickly rose and fled across the road followed by a few foals.
I meant to send this to you. It is an audible edition of Captive at the Berghof part 1 given to us for free by Audible for the purposes of promotion. You have already read it. It is just in case you might want to hear Gary read part of it aloud. He is the narrator. We did this for $70.00. Other people wanted thousands of dollars. But we were able to find a Ukranian on upwork who was willing to make the recording acceptable to Audible for that amount. We now have him working on Captive at the Berghof part 2.I wish I could report such good progress with the German translation. We are working with an outfit called One Hour Translation because they are the cheapest, but we are having great difficulty with them. We keep on trying to plow ahead. But the pace is so slow we might never get Captive at the Berghof part 1 translated so we can get a German edition of the book.
You have mentioned that British officers don't wear their Victoria Cross many times. For the purpose of this novel and the series it seems to be very important that Edward has a Victoria Cross. It gets mentioned many times in different books. It is very inconvenient that the British don't wear it. Americans have to be reminded about it all the time. So I don't know what to do here except to say that I am aware of the problem. In fact I am so aware of the problem that when I sent you the passage I actually thought you would object to it again.As far as the heathland suggestion goes, I will change that today. Ditto with the oaks and English oaks. I am thinking of live oaks in South Carolina and Georgia. They are big enough to conceal a car. In Germany where we were visiting outside Osnabruck where the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest took place the trees seemed to be tall and very thin but they grew so close together you could conceal almost anything behind them. (There were also swamps if you could believe it. Very forbidding place.)
Last weekend I didn't even know there was a Republican Convention this week. But the emails made me find out.