does this thing still work?

 

Howdy from Estonia

 I am  in the wonderful medieval city of Tallinn , Estonia; And traveling via ferry to Helsinki Finland later today. this is a great part of Europe.

Sorry, I have been missing in action,; I will add more detail to this post in the near future and will otherwise be visible!

This small country is, of course close to Russia, maybe a little bit too close. There are many signs of solidarity with Ukraine.

Kevin Myers is still with us! / Gript

 Over  the years, I’ve read a number of Kevin Myers’ column in the “ An Irishman’s Diary “ of The Irish Times. 

In my opinion, he is gifted observer of Irish and world events.

He reported from Northern Ireland during the  bad days. He’s been a harsh critic  of physical force republicanism, of Loyalist terrorism, and of foreign aid to Africa. There  have been many  other controversies.

In 2017, he was let go by the Irish Times, amidst a controversy where he was falsely accused of antisemitism by some RTE talking head. Mr. Myers won a defamation lawsuit against RTE after that.

 I don’t believe that he has been seen in Irish major media since 2017.

In  a self published article, Myers claims that RTE played dirty tricks on him - he says that on two different occasions, RTE scheduled broadcast interviews with him, only to cancel the interviews abruptly. this was after Myers  had given the RTE exclusive interviews.

Myers Official Ireland criticism

It’s clear that major Irish media don’t  want to have anything to do with Mr. Myers, despite his prominence. What to do?

Well, I’ve just learned that Myers is a writer on what appears to be a New subscription based website called Gript. . I don’t know if I will become a subscriber, but I’m happy that Mr. Myers has a platform again. 

If the Irish Times, Irish Independent, and taxpayer funded RTE don’t want to give the man a platform, these  entities should not be surprised when new media arises.

Trump attacks the world economy

 it would be good to be writing about other things. In the near future, I will be writing about other things. But how can you not write about Donald Trump in these times?

I’ve been an observer  of Donald Trump since the 1980s. If you lived in New York In the 80s or 90s, you couldn’t get away from him. He was on the front page of the New York Post seemingly every day. The good looking man about town, the guy who got things done.

To use a baseball metaphor, he was always one who swung for the fences. 

In the early 1980s, New York City was in bad financial straits, at a time when Manny thought that cities were over, that everyone wanted to move to the suburbs. Trump made two brilliant decisions In this era- He built the beautiful Trump tower in 1983, And he was a major partner in the rebuilding of the old Commodore hotel,  next to Grand Central terminal. Trump made an awful lot of money with these two Ventures, Which were very positive For New York City.

But no great batter swings  for the fences every time. Trump did.

In the 1980s, Atlantic City arose as a center for legalize gambling. A number of gambling hotels were doing well there. In 1990, Trump, who already owned two casinos in Atlantic City, Swung for the fences and built Trump Taj Mahal, With an astonishing 2248  rooms, at a cost of $1 billion, financed by junk bonds. Many at the time thought that this hotel was way too big for Atlantic City. It was – Trump Taj Mahal went bankrupt. Then, after the creditors got screwed, Trump made it go of it again. It went bankrupt for a second time. The bondholder got four cents on the dollar. Trump’s fellow investors got less than that if anything.

Trump‘s swing for the fences led to many other bad decisions, including an airline that went out of business pretty quick, and his ill-fated purchase of the plaza hotel, which he sold at a loss. There were other bankruptcies. Trump somehow always did better off than the people who invested with him.

Now, the guy who swings for the fences every time is the president of the United States.

He’s done  one very good thing – he has broken the back of the illegal alien trade on the Mexican border. unauthorized crossings are down well over 90%.

But he has also ruined our friendly relationship with Canada and with Western Europe. it was under Trump that trade  deals with Canada and Mexico were struck in 2018; now Trump says that those 2018 Trump  deals are no good. 

Trump‘s mocking of Canada‘s Right to exist  is even worse than his reneging on his trade deal with them. Many Canadians will never trust the US again. Canadians  used to travel in huge numbers to New York City and Florida every year – not anymore. 

Trump has long Said that our treaty allies don’t pay enough for their own defense. He’s been correct in that. Obama and Biden said the same thing. Some progress was made in this direction By some of the European countries, especially after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Trump deserves some of the credit for that Increased defense spending.

I think that NATO has been a huge American asset, and that it was always a huge Extension of American power, even when the Europeans were unwisely Skimping on their own defense costs. 

Trump has repeatedly hinted at taking America out of NATO, or not defending NATO allies who didn’t spend enough. These comments have weakened American credibility.

The Imposition of huge tariffs by the US , against friend and foe,after a Bewildering, couple of months of threats, Are likely to damage  not just the US economy, but the world economy. Many Average Americans own stock, either outright or via 401(k) pension plans - The value of these have gone down since Trump took office,  They are likely to go down much further today.

The US has legitimate complaints against some of his trading partners,  But I don’t see the EU or UK as particularly bad actors, and I don’t see Canada as being a bad actor at all.

The late Charlie Munger, who worked  closely with Warren Buffett for many years at Berkshire Hathaway, Is regarded as one of the more astute and thoughtful investors in modern history. In 2011, before  Trump ran for office the first time, Munger  said that Trump was temperamentally unsuited for the office of the presidency. 

The guy whose Taj Bondholders got four cents on the dollar is now driving the world economy into the rocks. He doesn’t know what he is doing.

hi guys

 i’m having some minor technical problems, I will sort it out and will be posting again before too long

Man of the Year - Volodmyr Zelensky

 I will soon be off to Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan. It is an old pub and restaurant, where George Washington said farewell to his troops. 

While I visit a place made famous by our  greatest president, it is impossible to tune out the noise coming from the worst. Every five minutes he or the Bearded Poodle is insulting one of America’s friends, or is acting to sell them out. 

Leadership is always in short supply. We can all agree that the brave President Zelenskyy is the most admirable leader that the world has today. He has led his people against a savage invader for more than three years now. He has certainly made his mistakes, he remains outgunned, But there is no quit in this guy, or in his nation. 

Trump and Vance Gang up on an Ally

In my last post, I wrote that American power, and our alliances, were being dismantled before our very eyes. This is what we saw, today, on live television.

President Trump, and VP Vance, met with Ukrainian president Zelenskyy, to do a photo op in advance of the parties, signing a deal, giving the US mineral rights in Ukraine, and exchange for our aid to that country. That’s fine.

Zelensky Spoke in front of The president About his need for security, guarantees, etc., which were comments best made behind closed doors. 

But what happened after that was astonishing. Trump, Who today didn’t know when the Ukraine war started, and Also, did not know how much aid we had given Ukraine, treated Zelensky with great disrespect in a series of comments. 

The bearded sneak JD Vance, then sucker punched Zelensky Questioning his gratitude for the aid already given by the US. ( Zaleski has publicly thanked the US countless times for aid given, including before both sessions of the US Congress ) 

A few interrelated things are  clear now.

One, For the first time in American history, We have a president who does not believe in our military alliances.

Two, We have a president who has no respect for our allies ( Canada, Ukraine, The NATO countries ) But who Has respect for dictators 

Three,  Our allies cannot count on the United States anymore. At this point, if Russian forces crossed into Estonia, To “liberate “the Russian speakers of Varna, do you think that Trump would do anything about it?

Friedrich  Merz, Who will likely soon become the new head of the German government, Said this week that Europe must become independent of the USA, Because, under Trump, the US is “ Largely indifferent to the fate of Europe “. 

You can’t really count Any checks and balances to come in to play here within the US system, Because the US Congress is controlled by the Republicans, And almost every Republican congressman and senator is either a Trump supporter or is it afraid of the Trumper  mob. Witness how Lindsey Graham turned against Zalensky  today.

Trump isn’t wrong on everything, but he is dead wrong on this important thing. He is a danger to the security of the United States, and to that of our friends. God knows what we will see in the next days and weeks.

Trump - The Art of the Sellout

 In his first term in office, President Trump, via the  Doha agreement, agreed to surrender Afghanistan to the Taliban. The agreement was between the US and the Taliban – the ( US ally  ) Afghan government was never permitted to take part in the negotiations.

This week, President Trump commenced negotiations with Russia to end the Ukraine war. The Ukraine government was not permitted to take part in these  negotiations. 

The Ukraine negotiation is a surrender agreement on the part of the US  every  bit as much the Afghan negotiation was. Trump has already conceded everything that was important before the negotiations even began- that Russia would not have to give back Ukrainian territory, that Ukraine would not be allowed to enter NATO.

The NATO nations have given significant support to Ukraine, But, like Ukraine, they’re not part of the negotiations, either. The NATO allies weren’t even notified beforehand about  the talks.

Trump has been exceptionally disrespectful towards the Ukrainian leadership, and is proposing that Ukraine repay the US on onerous terms, terms even more severe than were imposed on Germany after the first World War. This, while he has  been exceptionally deferential towards Putin and Russia. The Russians can’t believe their good fortune. 

It’s pretty easy to reach a deal when you give the adversary  everything that he wants. Trump did just that in Afghanistan, and he’s doing it now in Ukraine. 

Our  alliances, and our power are being dismantled before our very eyes.

Bad president abuses Canada

 I’ve been fond of Canada since forever. I’ve been there six times- twice to Quebec, twice to Toronto, twice to Vancouver.

Most Americans don’t follow the news in Canada, but I do. I look at the headlines at both the Montreal Gazette, and the Toronto global mail every day, via Apple News+.

President Trump has been a wild lunatic on a number of international matters since he was sworn in this year, but Let’s focus on Canada here.

Trump has claimed that Canada has not properly secured its border with the US, allowing ( non Canadian ) illegals to sneak in to the US. He has also claimed that Canada is allowing fentanyl to be produced in Canada, and smuggled into the US over the northern border.

Both issues are fair to raise but Trump grossly exaggerates the extent of the problem as respects Canada. 

Trump was about to impose a 25% tariff on most Canadian goods coming into the US, because Canada  was supposedly doing nothing to stop the drugs and the illegals- but then, at the last minute he paused Tariff implementation, because PM  Trudeau agreed to devote more security at their side of the border. 

What Trump did not tell us That Trudeau had -already- reached The same deal with President Biden In December 2024.  The screaming and roaring on the US side was about nothing. 

Canada has been a good neighbor and ally of the US for as long as our two nations have been around. Trump has seriously harmed that relationship. Not only by his inept  “ negotiating “, but by his disrespectful Comments about the Canadian nation, his comments about making Canada the 51st state, all The asinine comments that no real president would ever make.

It has long been the tradition that The anthems of both the USA and Canada are played before NHL hockey games involving teams from the two countries. Recently, we have seen Canadian fans boo the US anthem, and In return we have seen US fans in some cities booing the Canadian anthem.

I expect the trade  and security issues between the nations to be resolved shortly. But damage has been done. 

 Americans will forget this affair shortly, Canadians won’t.

Je me souviens. 

ATW Roll Call!

 A Tangled Web was an interesting place. I believe that it lasted for most of two decades.

It was the site of much verbal fisticuffs, also the place where some good conversation was had.

ATW went away, and I was sad when it did. 

I would  like to Invite all participants of the old ATW to add a comment here. Just a few words to say how you are getting along these days, more if you wish.

I hesitate to invite anybody by name, because I will forget people, But here goes – this invite applies to David Vance, Troll, mahons, Patty, Daphne, Frank, Noel, Petr, Peter, Andrew, Charles in Texas. Colm, Alison, Aileen,  Allan from Aberdeen, the  guy from rural Canada, whose name I forgot. 

Also, if it is possible, I would like to hear what’s going on with Chris Gaskin, who used to run a couple of websites of his own, and to the folks from United, Ireland, Irish Eagle, And another Irish website called El Blogador. 

I don’t have contact information of a number of these people, if anyone could reach out To the long lost, I would appreciate that.

Did Trump Push a bad deal for Israel?

 As I have mentioned on the former site, I listen to the English stream from  Israel News Talk Radio every week.

It is a private opinion station, tilting right.

There is a lot of angry comment on this station at this moment about the truce agreement between Hamas and Israel. I think that more than a few Israeli share this unhappiness.

While everyone is happy To see the Israeli hostages released, there is great anger that  a much larger number of Hamas terrorists  will be released. 

In an earlier agreement with Hamas,  Sinwar was released by the Israelis. It is likely that this agreement will see the release of other is just as bad as Sinwar.

Both Biden and Donald Trump are taking credit for making this deal happen. Both of them are believed to have put pressure on Bibi to make it happen. .The  Israeli right tends to support  Donald Trump, but maybe not so much anymore. Some might not like Bibi so much go forward, either.

Patty is OK!

 The other day, Patrick asked for Patty’s  information. He and David were worried about her, As she lived in the Los Angeles area. We all were frequent contributors to the ATW website. I am happy to report that she is fine, as she moved to Florida a few years ago.

Below, you will see a photo of her former house in Pacific Palisades, burning to the ground. . Please share.

Also below, please see a note from Patty. I will continue to correspond to The old gang, and perhaps bring the group together now and then…

Hi Phantom: So nice to hear from you. Thank-you for checking in. 

My husband and I moved out of the Palisades a little over 3 years ago. We sold the house we built; our timing was just plain lucky. We moved to Jupiter, Florida and we are extremely happy here.

We lived in Pacific Palisades most of our lives, and it was a charming, beautiful spot to live. We left some family, many friends and many memories...so it is beyond words to watch the town burn down.  Traumatic really.  No water.  No fire trucks. Speechless.  I just cannot express the magnitude of what happened. 

Thanks to the incompetence and stupidity of those in charge, a bad situation became catastrophic. And, it is not over. 

Someone sent me a photo of our old house burning and also a photo of one of the neighborhoods (the Alphabet Streets).  I'll attach with this letter.

The silver lining of this horror is that I have heard from so many people. Most that live there  are seriously traumatized.  

Before I sign off, though, let me ask: how are you?  Are you still in NYC?  and do you still write anywhere. I hope you are well and enjoying a brew occasionally with a great group of people for comraderie.  I always thought of ATW as a very rowdy bar, like Cheers.  

Patty

Congestion pricing in NYC- A good idea?

 As of this past midnight, Congestion pricing is in effect in the southern part of Manhattan, below 60th St. During peak hours, The additional toll for most drivers of private passenger cars will be nine dollars.

The stated goals of this program are to reduce congestion in the central business district, and to use the toll  monies To fund needed mass transit infrastructure work. If these Two things happen – that congestion is reduced, and that all the money is efficiently, used for transit infrastructure, then I’m for it.

You would never know that anyone is in favor of it if you listen to the New York Post and WABC AM talk radio. They’ve criticized congestion pricing endlessly.

I think that any normal person Who works normal hours and who drives into Manhattan every day is probably a complete fool. I’ve driven into Manhattan during peak hours a few times, it is no fun at all.

But for some – medical workers, and first responders who work Unpredictable hours, Or those blue collar workers who live in places like Northeast Pennsylvania that don’t have good transit options, The additional $45 a week toll will bite hard. 

I think that similar congestion pricing plans have worked fairly well in places like London, and in the well run city of Singapore. Let’s See this scheme in New York really does what it’s supposed to do.

Jimmy Carter RIP

 It has often been said that Jimmy Carter was “the worst president in American history”. But many things that are often said are not true, and this is one of them. 

In my opinion, Jimmy Carter was a very good foreign policy president. 

He officially normalized relations with China. 

He brokered the Israel/Egypt peace  treaty, a  deal that has stood the test of time.

 And he pushed through the Panama Canal treaty, which in my opinion was a deal that was good for the US, and good for our relations with Latin America. Things in that part of the world could’ve gotten very bad if the US had insisted on holding onto the Canal.

Carter had the bad fortune of being president when the Iranian revolution, and the hostage taking of US Embassy personnel took place. And he took office not long after the Vietnam war came to an end for  the USA, but not for the unfortunate populations of Vietnam and Cambodia.

Unlike Many presidents and former presidents, I didn’t see Jimmy Carter trying to cash in on his time in  office. He did many Weerth file things after leaving the oval office. 

We saw  him organizing and getting his hands, dirty and building houses for low income people in various places all over the US with Habitat for Humanity. When there was a major hurricane in Florida, The roof blew off many buildings, but not from the Habitat for Humanity houses built there by Carter’s organization. The Habitat for Humanity houses were built properly, with the right amount of nails.

Syria Falls, Bad news for Iran and Russia

 The most important story in the world today is the fall of the Assad regime in Syria. You’d never know it by watching Sunday morning US TV news shows, where 99% of the reporting is on Trump, this and Trump that, along  with an update on the hunt for the guy who murdered the insurance executive.

The Bibi government in Israel Seems to be pretty happy with the  fall of Assad. I’m not sure that I would celebrate anytime soon. The largest part of the rebel force, HTS ( formally known as the Al Nusra front )  was once a part of Al-Qaeda. That is a pretty bad history.

The big losers this weekend are Russia and Iran, both of whom supported the Assad government.

Russia has a  Navy  base in Tartus, Syria, which they should lose now. If they do lose that base, they won’t have any naval facilities in the Mediterranean. And the Russian ships now in the Med will not be allowed to go into the Black Sea,  as Turkey  will not permit them to transit the Bosphorous. Those ships will be without a port, unless they travel all the way up to Saint Petersburg. 

Iran has projected power in The past years by Supporting Hamas, Hezbollah, and Assad. Now, Israel has broken the back of Hamas and Hezbollah, And  Assad is bye bye.

Iranian and Russian power looks to be much weaker in the region that it was even six months  ago. That is probably good news, but let’s see what Syria looks like a couple of months from now 

Election – what lessons have been learned?

I didn’t expect this result, and I don’t think that most of us did either. I think that the Democrats expected to win a close election; while a lot of Trump supporters were more confident, but still nervous.

Trump didn’t sneak in the electoral college way the way he did in 2016, this was an impressive majority vote in the majority of states. 

Even in deep blue New York City, Trump got significantly more votes than he did eight years ago. Trump had a double digit gain in votes in Brooklyn. He won an overwhelming majority of the orthodox Jewish vote.

I don’t think that this was so much an endorsement of Donald Trump as it is a  rejection of Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party.

I’ve spoken to a number of Trump supporters who agree that he is personally dishonest, generally a man of low character. But they voted for him because he was strong on the issue of border security, and because he was perceived, as being stronger on the economy. 

Some will call Trump a racist, But it’s hard to Square that opinion, with the fact that Trump sharply increased Republican, share of the Latino vote, while increasing the small Republican share of the black vote.

Bill Maher, the comedian is as committed a Democrat as there is, But he has for some time Been disturbed by the thin, lipped intolerance of many Democrats, and their embrace of lunatic cultural positions. Months ago, on his HBO program, he wondered why The left wanted to die on the hill of minors ( supposedly) changing their sex, without the consent or knowledge of  their parents. ( see the bill that Gavin Newsom signed in California ) 

Some have said that Latinos wouldn’t vote for Kamala Harris, because she was a woman. That’s hard to believe, when they voted for Hillary Clinton, and at a time when Mexico now has a woman Prime Minister. Latinos And other Americans aren’t anti-woman, they just aren’t insane. They don’t want boys in the changing room, and they don’t want an  uncontrolled border. 

The backdrop to all of this is that Joe Biden was seriously impaired for years, and the Democratic Party power structure and all of the Democrat friendly media, covered it up, and lied about it. How can you trust a party that does a thing like this?

 We have a mentally impaired president right now for the next two months. Whose fault is that?

But also, you can’t avoid the fact that Kamala Harris was just a god awful candidate. In my opinion, she is a  vacuous, unserious person. 

Some said that she Moved to the center, but she did no  such thing. A couple of weeks ago, she said that the concept of rate operations for slavery “ should be studied” . That means that she’s for it, I don’t see too many former slaves when I go about my day, and I don’t think that any of the slaves that did exist 160 years ago were held in captivity by the US government. 

So we are now about to be ruled by an evil, probably  the lesser of two evils, but evil still, supported by a meek, subservient , Republican house and Senate. 

Heaven help us all.

Photo taken yesterday afternoon in Dyker  Heights Brooklyn. American flag, Madonna, Trump poster. 

No one to vote for

 Yesterday, at Fort Hamilton high school, I voted early for the first time. 

I am in a Democratic, one party state, so I really have no say in this presidential election. I don’t like this fact. But it does allow me to be a free agent. I don’t have respect for either Trump, or Kamala Harris, He is wildly, undisciplined and divisive; she is stealthy and divisive, a wolf in  sheep’s clothing.

 I voted for neither one of them. 

Both camps sound  pretty confident. 

I think that Trump will take the state of Georgia, which he lost last time around. If he is also able to take Pennsylvania, he’ll win the election. 

Box of Rain

Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead has passed away.

I have long admired “ Box of Rain “, From the Dead’s  “American beauty “album. 

It was created by Lesh and Robert Hunter. Phil wanted to create a song for his dying father. He composed the music,  Robert Hunter supplied the lyrics. Lesh rehearsed the song as he drove to see his father in the nursing home.

I just discovered this cover by Steve Forbert, I’m happy to see tis still around.

October 7 2024

It has been one year since Hamas crossed from  Gaza into Israel, killing about 1,200, most of them Israeli civilians. 

October 7 was not the beginning of the Arab/ Israeli conflict, But it certainly was the first page of a horrific chapter.

The Hamas supporters in America and in Europe chose October 7, 2024 to have their celebratory commemorations. Not on the one year anniversary of Israel’s invasion of Gaza, but On the one year anniversary of the murders, the rapes, the abductions. I think that tells you everything you need to know about these demonstrators.

This evening, I watched a documentary on Al Jazeera TV about  what has gone down over the past year. 

Al Jazeera’s report began with the Hamas attack, but at no time did it  mention the large scale murders, or the  sexual assaults. 

There was plenty  of footage of Israeli soldiers mistreating captives in Gaza, Of large groups of Gazan Civilians being marched out of their neighborhoods, of the demolition of apartment houses in Gaza, while Israeli soldiers cheered on and sang songs about it.

If you are an American, who gets all his news  from The likes of MSNBC or Fox News, you won’t be well informed about this war at all. These stations devote The majority of their programming to Democrat versus Republican, cops and robbers. 

CNN or BBC will do a better job of reporting the overall picture.

But you will understand things better if at some point you watch  Al Jazeera, Israeli TV, or Israeli, talk radio. These sources from within the region will absolutely be slanted, will absolutely exaggerate some things, and leave other things out, But they also give you glimpses of the terrible situation on the ground.

Could Trump carry Bay Ridge? Nah

The other day, I saw a Harley rider.zooming  down Bay Ridge Avenue, with a large blue  Trump 2024 flag at the back of the bike. That’s not something you see every day in New York City.

Bay Ridge has historically been more conservative than the rest of Brooklyn and New York City, but it’s not as conservative as it used to be. Biden carried Bay Ridge in 2020; but Trump did carry a few blocks, which you see in the specs of red in the block near Shore Road.

Trump had a major campaign rally at the Nassau Coliseum, the other day, where he said that he was going to win New York State. That’s insane talk, Considering that he lost the state last time by about 2 million votes. But the Republicans are competitive in a number of counties in New York State, which is probably the reason for the big  rally. To motivate the congressional voters.

I have not seen any Trump or Harris political  lawn or window signs near me. . I’ve not discussed politics with any of my neighbors. I think that most people around here don’t like either candidate, and are keeping their opinions to themselves. No one to vote for, only someone to vote against.

Harris will win my neighborhood, but we might see a few more blotches of red on the 2024 map.

2020 NYC presidential election map shown below