USA

To quote another obnoxious American, "You cannot be serious!"

Still, at least we now know the real meaning of USA:

Unbelievably
Stupid
Americans

To allow a creep like Donald Trump to run in the primaries for the election of the new President of the USA is crazy enough; that such a buffoon, such a mountebank, such an obnoxious, megalomaniacal, clearly prejudiced individual can then actually gain sufficient support to win numerous primaries and to look as if he stands a good chance of becoming the Republican Presidential candidate is just grotesque (as if the Republicans were not already grotesque enough!); it is frightening, not only for the USA (the country and those Unbelievably Stupid Americans), but also for the rest of the world.

Eat your heart out, Dr. Strangelove, for here comes someone far more sinister.

Trump trumped

I do not follow the shenanigans of politicians very much, nor am I particularly interested in politics. I was, however, delighted to learn that arch-idiot Donald Trump lost the recent Iowa Caucuses to rival Republican Ted Cruz.

Not that any sensible individual would want Cruz as president of the USA, mind you: he's an ultra conservative, fundamentalist Christian (just as dangerous as fundamentalist any-other-religion-you-care-to-name), who is anti-abortion, anti-greenhouse effect (it doesn't exist), and probably anti anything else other than freedom to own guns and shoot the hell out of others (more on this below).

The Democrats seem to have a more sensible couple of front-runners, in the shape of Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Clinton has at least some experience, even if she's not someone I'd care to trust. Sanders is the most appealing and offers some interesting comments on the social conditions in the USA, which, let's face it, are deplorable. If Americans could get over their peculiar fixation that Socialism is the same as Communism, Sanders might even have a chance at the presidency. He's a bit old, of course, but at least he sees things with an openness and clarity that no other candidate possesses.

Do you understand the US gun lobby? I don't. Their arguments are based on the second amendment to the constitution, written more than 200 years ago and reflecting the conditions of the time. It made sense then to allow people who could not be protected by the authorities to have some meand of protection. These means then included arms such as muskets and flint-lock pistols, with an accuracy of a few metres and a limitied firing capacity. The amendment takes no account of rapid-fire, super powerful modern automatic weapons of frightening destructive capability, nor of the type of society in which we live today.

Grow up, Americans, and forget your guns.

Mais ils sont fous, les Français?

The French have been juggling with the Le Pen clan for several years. Sadly, since the Front National was set up in 1972 by Jean-Marie Le Pen, it has gained ever more popularity in France. Even more sadly, this increase in popularity has gained pace with the increasing misery of hundreds of thousands of other less fortunate members of the human race and, more lately, as a result of the terrorist activities on French soil.

Now, in the first round of the French regional election's, the Front National has made considerable gains in numbers of votes and this is very worrying. Why do people revert to mindless nationalism at times when sense and solidarity are required? Nationalism has been shown to be an ineffective, divisive tool, offering no long-term solution. There are sufficient examples in recent history to show that nationalism fails, fails, and fails again: Germany under Hitler, Italy under Mussolini, Spain under Franco. Is there really any need to look further to learn the lesson?

Come off it, people of France! You should be wiser than to turn to nationalism. Consider your country's motto, "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité." If that doesn't speak against nationalism, then I don't know what does.

Hopefully, by the second round of the regional elections, you, les Français, will have come to your senses, and will reject all of the Front National candidates.