Trump/Russia: Follow the money (1/3) | Four Corners

Late night show

Late night show

The days seem to pile up ever more insults and in the famous words of the lunatic from The Network – ‘I am mad as hell and I can’t take this anymore’, although I probably would take it, for there is a way to vent and find revenge for the multiple demeaning, awful names that the spouse is calling me, from something like old fart – although that is contradicted because I am supposed to be sexually active (for five minutes she says) with all sorts of whores, which is not exactly the usual occupation of those who are passé and unworthy – to goddamn stupid, such as about one hour ago.

Yesterday there was a new zenith, or is it a nadir, for when I got home, I found that the kitchen has been cleaned and very little, if anything from my stuff – which granted, tended to clutter and occupy all available space – has been left in the open, prompting the question and fear, what will I do in the morning, if I am trying to find something, or perhaps worse, leave essential things home,  old fart that I would become – psychology studies have underlined time and again that if we are primed, conditioned, we tend to become influenced and project this new self…one study comes to mind, in which participants have been divided into two groups, in one, they addressed them with words that are related to old age, such as grey and Florida, and they found that this ‘old age related team’ took twice as long to return to the exit as the others who have heard no words connected with senectitude.

I protested yesterday and then took it further, after the usual you are no good, you do nothing, look at so many others, instead of making some money you are just a lazy fool or the equivalent, I took the opportunity, when there was a crisis with the Ocean fish tank, to come out and look at the immense mess and say something like ‘hey, but what about this nice calamity here?’ and that was like the straw that broke the camel’s back, for the echoes of that earthquake have been felt even today, when indeed, I rubbed some salt into the wound, reminding the aggressive alpha female about the catastrophe of the other day and this triggered yet a new explosion of damn you stupid, instead of supporting someone and showing consideration when they are down, you just go on with your own obsessions and etc.

Perhaps I should see now why writing is supposed to be good for describing crisis, and one reason is that writing uses another side of the brain and a different logic and therefore we tend to see some sense where otherwise there looks to be none, when engaged in a quarrel with the wife, for instance and yes, she may have a few points there, because she was really distressed and under the pressure of the moment, for it looked like the pump would give up – it would eventually, but she was smart and my bank account was even smarter, old useless fart that I am, and another pump was somewhere in the garage.

In the heat of the moment, she did something almost tragic, for she used some four (?) bottles of mineral water, to prevent the system from collapsing – we could smell burned plastic or rubber, albeit for a while it was hard to say from where, for at the same time, I was trying to start the fire in the fireplace and as this consort keeps stating, I use it as a sort of garbage dump, with paper, plasticized paper and all sorts in there, ready to kindle the fire for the logs, which I collected from the neighborhood, making the wife ashamed again and then the vicious circle of more labels – you fool, the garbage man, old people collect garbage, you are a disgrace and on and on.

Nevertheless, the mineral water added to that complicated mixture, which needs to have a fixed percent of salinity and whatever – that fucking dodo bird costs me a fortune there, for these damn fish – seemed to be killing the fish, for first the yellow tang, then the black and the stripped ones started gyrating, upside down and ready to meet their maker, for they presumably lacked oxygen and the carbonated water has added enough CO2 to make them helpless and the spouse agitated and saying ‘chi, chi, chi’, every other three minutes, for what seemed to be hours on end, until finally, after bumping their nose – the black one – into the corals or something else, they looked like their making sense again…

So today, when I returned, my favorites, the macaws – who can be as obnoxious as hell, that would be Balzac, who is shouting like crazy, even now, as I write in the ‘office’ and he is with Puccini in the living room, with their dear ‘mother’, who kicked the ‘blue one’ in the head, leaving an injury that looked quite dangerous, when the vile bird tried to take her eye out, apparently – in the past and the present when he fucks my brains out with his screaming, that can be heard like in the Amazonian jungle, for tens of miles, I run away after him with the broom and knock him down…

Anyway, when I referred to the superstitions that some people believe in, including the spouse who keeps exposing my rotten heritage – my mother had warned her that I am no good, philandering, useless, baseless and what not – and then quotes from the zodiac, which again proves what a rotten, devilish, idiotic, grumpy, low life, selfish, cheap bastard  I am and have always been, never done anything in my whole life, only got some money with the business partner who has provided the cash for ever and so there is nothing favorable to say about the ultimate loser.

If I generally avoid a full blown face off, with war on all levels, today I have been rather outraged of the series of insults and replied in kind, saying that she has never placed $ 1,000, 000 on the table to prove how fucking glorious she is and multiple times better than I am and she really jumps over the line when all she basically does is throw all the dirt in my face and if I am indeed the old fart in her story, perhaps she should stop and show some pity and give the guy a break and not step on him and spit in his face every goddamn day there is…

Trudeau, Macron, Boris Johnson laugh at Trump

Trudeau, Macron, Boris Johnson laugh at Trump

If you look on the internet, you would find a very short video –volées, as Macron said, when refusing to talk about recordings that have been stolen – in which Justin Trudeau, Emmanuel Macron, Boris Johnson and perhaps Princess Anne laugh at the intempestive, ludicrous, indefatigable American leader, who has made everyone late – this seems to be the starting point of the jocular moment: ‘you were late? Yes, because the man has forty-five minutes off the chart news conferences (when he was supposed to talk for three minutes) and you should see how his staff had their jaws drop.

The rude, oppressive Orange Fatso keeps doing it and then he is offended when others call his bluff and eventually respond in kind, for to keep others waiting, endless, fatiguing hours, while you ramble about how perfect your bribery calls are, how you are better than Lincoln and anybody else for that matter, how you love dictators – the latest love affair involves the ‘strongman’, who is actually just another nut case, Erdogan – is just reprehensive, more than impolite, against the rules and norms in society…but hey, this is an orangutan for all practical purposes, interested in ‘grabbing pussy’ and getting everything for himself, acting like a mindless animal, always ready to get in front of the pack.

This video is relevant and extremely interesting because we already knew how unpopular this idiot is outside the American Bible Belt, Deep South, Red neck states, but we could not be sure how defiant, abhorred, amused the other world leaders are, until we saw them sharing their opinions of the fool, for while Trudeau is heard explaining the length of the rambling, unscheduled conferences and the reaction of the clown’s own staff, Boris Johnson – an alleged ally of the buffoon – is bending over with laughter…

Granted, Boris Johnson, guilty as he is for his contemptible stand on Brexit, his lies and ridiculous positions, is still one hundred times smarter than his American buddy – although the question is, who is not? – and one of the proofs of his superiority over the soon to be impeached SOB was this very recording and the natural reaction to what Trudeau was saying in front of the small group that clearly had the same contempt for the bizarre, foolish man, who does so much on daily basis to offend, stun, amaze the world – expect for his fans, who had been hit by a disease long before their cult leader has been Chosen…they say he is the Chosen One – that we forget that he talked about raking the forests, just like they do in Finland – where hilarious postings emerged with people vacuuming the wild, ridiculing the vicious, pathological liar.

He used to call in at radio programs, before getting to the White house, pretending to be John Baron, claiming he knows about Donald, the close bond he has with his father, revealing for psychologists a sad story of a man who has not had enough affection and is needy, complaining all the time – although before becoming the leader, he accuse the others of something he does all the time, showing a paranoia only equaled by his Narcissistic Personality Disorder…

What a shame this is!

Happy birthday Madi!

Happy birthday Madi!

Very often I think that we could not be any different, my sister and I, given that she has been so resilient, serious, helping people get better as a doctor of medicine, while her brother wastes his time – as his spouse keeps highlighting – with bogus activities such as scribbling for no good purpose, on a daily basis, without any impact whatsoever – granted, instead of arguing with the spouse, it is probably better to vent frustrations, envy and whatever here…

Speaking of envy…this might have been a feeling directed at the sister that has done so much better, as a resident of Chicago, mother of a boy that loves and agrees with her – mostly, I guess – in a marriage that cannot be as conflictual as the one we have –still? – here, in a job that by definition offers meaning, a sense of fulfilment and achievement, even when surely there are patients that make one lose temper, patience and so much more…probably…no, surely.

This has been the case until recently, envy being a strong word and not appropriate for apart from the aforementioned, we can and do envisage how difficult it is to answer calls in the middle of the night, be on duty on holidays, nights when the undersigned is sleeping with the phone shut down.

Indeed, the history of Coming to America is the story of such a difficult quest and journey as to make it seem like Dante’s Purgatory, with that goddamn scoundrel who had stolen money from her and Johnny – together with a few other doctors – when he made them work for months – was it a whole year? – And at the end just said that he would not pay anything!

If we look at that saga and the years of learning, hardship, the envy that one could feel – ‘I want to live in America! Everything’s fine in America’ just like in the West Side Story – turns into empathy, because it was so damn hard, that I am thinking I would have never been able to come anywhere close to that effort…

In fact, I have tried to get my own ticket to the Land of the Free (and the Orange Idiot today), through the company I have worked with in 1996, at the time of the Olympics and some years before that, AT&T, but I just asked a few people and when the answer was no, I said fine…

True, now that the bible belt, Deep South, many tens of millions of cretins have voted with a clown and a crook, the United States do not seem all that attractive anymore, although Madi lives in a blue state, Alhamdulillah, and she is not a supporter, on the contrary, she is also upset by the leader they have…

On that level, this country here is many times better, although considerably poorer and decades behind America in so many ways, we have a president, Johannis that is worth more than 100 trumps…

This was not exactly the gratitude letter intended in the opening, but that is how this brain tends to work – or to quote the spouse, the way it malfunctions permanently – and digressing from one to the other, trump has to be touched in passing at least, because he seems to be the most abhorrent mystery of the age – how is it possible for the Modern World to have such a creature in charge…

Happy birthday Madi and I hope you survive another four years, if the fans of the buffoon reelect him next year…

National Day

National Day

We are celebrating our National Day today- hooray! – and people do seem to enjoy it, although we have had a rather gloomy, unfriendly weather, with some snowflakes, few and without effect on the ground, and I was quite pleased with my decision to take the bike and brave it out anyway, against the indications that suggested this is a day to use the subway – last night, as I switched channels, they were postponing a soccer game because the field was so bad, covered with water from the rain, that the ball would not travel in the grass…or water.

The ten kilometers from home to the health club have been enjoyable nevertheless, and the flakes, rare as they were, added to the atmosphere and the pleasure of cycling with very little traffic, albeit, even when there are just a few drivers, they can be obnoxious or outright dangerous, when they come within millimeters from the cyclist, just because this is their idea of fun, they do not care, sometimes they are just incompetent and in some cases, as the other day, they do not see the bikes, claim not to anyway and it could well be, because they feel mighty powerful in their steel shells and look out for dangers to themselves and ignore whatever is not threatening, like a man or rarely a woman on top of two wheels…

Some are even ferocious in their approach, such as the one who was using the horn a couple of hours ago, because he felt like the road belongs to him and cars in general – this is a feeling which is widely shared among motorists – what the fuck do these bikers want on our streets, how dare they? – which is not accompanied by some humility, modesty or sense of inappropriateness when they park their goddamn vehicles on the sidewalks and leave no room for pedestrians or us, cyclists to pass…I mean, if we can’t use the alternative, we must then chance it on the roads, right?

I was arguing with an old lady at the health club, when she was all upset and against cyclists – and she is right in saying that many act like madmen and I often see them coming on the wrong side, when using the few (maybe fifteen in all) kilometers of lanes for bikes –and telling her that we cannot use many areas that rightfully belong to the rest of the population, because drivers just abandon their cars anywhere, with the argument that there are so few legal places for their vehicles, which would lose traction with time, for the tendency is to eliminate many of them anyway and let people walk, use public transport, electric scooters and other means for the centers of towns initially and then for the whole cities in the future…

Dictators

The Russians are coming – they came yesterday…at the pool downtown, as a part of a ballet ensemble and even in this form, they can send some shivers down the spine of those around, given that their predecessors, perhaps their ancestors have done a lot to change things in these parts of the world, the latest calamity being the communism they have imposed in a land where members of that dreadful, awful outfit were scares and that ideology had no appeal here and it became official policy only after the infamous divide of the Iron Curtain – Greece had many more times communist partisans than we did, but luckily for them, it fell in the Western sphere of influence, when judged on tendency and leftist supporters, they should have been in the Warsaw Pact (well, if anyone deserved that terrible fate) and we should have been left out…

If these dancers show up in the Jacuzzi at the club tomorrow, to take thousands of selfies like today, perhaps I should try and see what they think of Putin, albeit on past experience, I have asked a rather intelligent, adroit, well-travelled, distinguished woman and she was, if not very fond of their horse riding, bare chested, judo specialist president, anyway she was quite satisfied with what he has done and I do not remember if Crimea had been already in the bag at the time of the discussion, but surely, a vast majority there feel that and other large territories belong to Mother Russia and they presumably see the good in the adventures the dictator embarks on in the Ukraine, Syria, some years ago in Georgia, playing games with Ossetia and the other small place that they encourage to detach from their enemy, just to create division, confusion, conflict and benefit from the famous ‘divide et impera’.

If Russia has the divine writers, creators, scientists and even now, the opposition surely has outstanding intellectuals, there is still a feeling of something close to hatred, for after they changed the political system here, everything was lost and in decades of tyranny, the economy, mentality, civilization, culture and everything else have all suffered such a blow that it would take other decades, maybe a century, to recover completely from the disaster and move in line with the west, bringing democratic principles, voting literacy to the countryside – we have had elections only three days ago and although the emeritus Klaus Johannis has won with over 66%, it is still outrageous that about 3,000,000 have still opted for the Red Plague party, a group of Mafiosi, bandits that have stolen huge amounts from the state, in organized crime groups, exhausting the resources of the country, with illegal land grabs, embezzlement, onerous, corrupt contracts assigned to their accomplices, in exchange for a share of the spoils…

This was such a massive, huge scale operation that it has become clear that a supporter of this party could be nothing but either stupid or perverse and so immoral, abject as to be ready to steal and keep so many in poverty, only because he wants to spend money and acquire property in the still poor country and in places like Brazil, where it seems that the former leader of this local Mafia (now Alhamdulillah in jail and there for a long time, Insha’Allah!) has parked a lot of his extreme wealth, unjustified in terms of his official income and considering he has always been an official, a politician on a public sector income, generous, seeing as parliamentarians have gifted themselves with very large paychecks and pensions, but still not enough for mansions and properties that have access on three streets and defy the very voters that keep them in power (well, they did, but hopefully they have stopped).

Voting – five more years – we are better than America on this score and we should be buoyant

Voting – five more years – we are better than America on this score and we should be buoyant

Today, we may as well get rid of the Red Plague, the party of crooks, scoundrels, bandits and idiots, maybe for good, Insha’Allah, and send their ludicrous, half educated leader into retirement, to rest in her huge pink villa, with her 20,000 euros watch and all the benefits that being a partisan of the local mafia brings, or is it has brought, for we hopefully enter a new age, now that the president Werner would be able to cooperate with a government that sees things the same way, unlike the goodfellas that have been evicted recently, led until spring by the ultimate gangster, the mustachio thief that is now jailed at Rahova, wherefrom he tries to have the party extinguished legally.

Before and from today, we have and will be led by a man that is infinitely better than what America has and this is reason enough to rejoice, for if we place Trump against our own Johannis, we become the superpower and if we were to fight in the manner of those legends wherein the two commanders faced each other – think the Iliad and the fight between Achilles and Hector – we would be winning, in spite of that vain, preposterous – one among so many – promise made by the Orange Fool that his voters would be tired of winning, indeed, ‘so much winning their head would spin’.

We have a serious, calm, restrained, dignified, polite, smart if not boisterous, charming, often amusing leader that is the very opposite of the criminal from the White House, with his 14,000 lies, bankrupt businesses – even when he opened casinos, where ‘the House always wins’, this impostor managed to lose so much money that this is where he does have a real record and not the false ones he keeps boasting about, for he is the one who has lost one billion dollars over about ten years, becoming thus the one who had lost most money.

In at least one documentary, his favorite daughter, Ivanka, the one who seems to be associated with some perverse ideas by this old lunatic, who said on camera that ‘he would date her if she was not his child’ and then he had promoted her to a key position in the administration, against the fact that she is only qualified as a ‘purse designer ‘as comics label it, has mentioned that her daddy told her once, as they passed a beggar on the street that the poor man was richer than they were and when asked, the one who keeps pretending he is a billionaire – although it is almost certain he is worth only some hundreds of millions and ergo he does not show his taxes and he has been analyzed and banks have estimated his real, much lower worth and he has sued for the record sum of four billion dollars (!), the writer of a book where the Orange Joke was estimated at less than four hundred million dollar –said

-          ‘this beggar has more, because we owe a few billion dollars’

The suggestion that those testifying before Congress make it on the cover of TIME Magazine as Men and Women of the Year is therefore more than appropriate and they show that America is indeed great, only it is evident when we see them talking, taking the stand and not when the Loudest, Best Known Buffoon in the world makes a fool of democracy, values, national security and well, everything else, although not for his fans…

‘It was a perfect call’

‘It was a perfect call’

This short sentence, repeated as nauseam by the ‘stable genius’ sitting at the top of the hierarchy of the free world is in itself sufficient to demonstrate for those able to cogitate that ‘Something is rotten, but not in the state of Denmark – from which the ‘greatest president ever’ has demanded to buy Greenland, and when they refused, he cancelled a visit and entered what he always does, tantrums, insults and rudeness – remember that?  It was one of the hundreds of embarrassing, obnoxious, and intolerable for a child, never mind the choice of tens of millions of Americans to be commander in chief episodes in the Saga of the Cretin – in the United States of America…

How can you keep talking about a ‘perfect call’ and repeat the mantra ‘read the transcript’ – which is now moving on to the t-shirts of the Trump fans, like so many other stupid paraphernalia, such as ‘we would rather be Russians aka enemies of the state than Democrats(!)’- unless you have escaped from a mental institution or, which seems to be the case here you are completely corrupt, an idiot or both – it is clear for the genuine, innocent man or woman that in the call itself, Donald J. was asking the new president of a country attacked by Putin’s Russia to provide him with personal benefits, in exchange for tax payers money and another ‘official act’, a White House visit, which is bribery, something a vicious bandit as our former de facto leader here, Dragnea, would do and what the US officials used to press Eastern Europeans to avoid.

More than twenty years ago, I used to work with American Embassy, USAID, American travelers, business people and this is how I have made the capital invested in the firm which provides today the income of the family and therefore I have always been an admirer of (most) things American, the democratic system, many opportunities – even after a professional connection with AT&T proved disappointing in that they would not pay a lot of money they owed for a very long time, because they have closed offices in Europe, once long distance calling became unprofitable and in the process they lost track of many things, including the many thousands they owed me and I in turn had to pay service providers and local marketing partners, etc.

It is thus a monumental shock to see that people in the most advanced country in the history of the world put at their top not just a man with mental disabilities – we could perhaps see that as an effort to promote in high office those who are less blessed, in an attempt to level the playing field, eliminate discrimination, help those in need and other such noble initiatives – but also an individual who is ‘bad to the bone’, only looking for his own interest, to the exclusion of anything else, not able to read intel info – unless they insert his name in it – supporting the Putin narrative over the material from the American intelligences in what is a horrible hit against his country’s national security and that of countries like my own, where we depend so much on the Russians knowing that if they move to attack, be that on the battle field or in cyber sphere, allies would help.

As Macron said last week, it is no longer sure that America, with its idiot commander in chief – albeit the French president evidently made no reference to him – would honor the provision of the treaty – under  number five, I think – and come to the defense of a small country – months ago, maybe last year, the Narcissistic in Chief talked about Montenegro and the fact that they may provoke Russia and why would America intervene – he did, when he just physically pushed at a meeting, the Prime Minister of that country aside.

As for the Kurds, Trump has just abandoned them, after more than ten thousand of them had died in the war against the IS, preventing Americans from losing their lives there and leaving the field open for the Russians, demonstrating again the veracity of what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said frequently and justly ‘all the roads lead to Russia in the case of Trump’, just like in the most recent case of the scandal wherein he asks a foreign state to help him win the elections, for if they do not, he would not meet in his official capacity with the president and the aid that helps them fight the same Russians would be stopped, after it had been already withheld…

The Orange Disaster Artist

The Orange Disaster Artist

In the motion picture The Disaster Artist, James Franco portrays one of the most outrageous, calamitous film makers ever known – well, in the company of Ed Wood, who is in turn fabulously interpreted by Johnny Depp – who has been so bad at his trade that, paradoxically, he has become a cult figure and there you are, he has made history in one of the best films of 2017, in a way, just like Donald J. now has a cult following and as Bill Maher and others have argued, he has transformed the Republican party into a machine wherein they all kiss the ass of the Big Shark, prostrate in front of the idol, the one who is the best, has ‘perfect calls’ even when he talks bribery and extortion, the One who can abandon Kurds and anyone else, give everything to Russia – indeed, his supporters have taken to wearing shirts which state that ‘they would rather be Russians than Democrats’ – so much for the old stance against adversaries, support for a strong defense…

The latest role model to emerge at and from the Impeachment Hearings is Doctor Fiona Hill, a sage, formidable, calm, brave woman who has talked about the stupidity of the Trump supporters – not directly though, but everything she has said indicates a ghastly IQ and abysmal lack of virtue and morals on that side of the aisle – that perpetrate, diffuse and spread Russian lies and conspiracy theories that serve them in dividing allies, creating a wedge between the US and its (former?) friends that would be so hard to fix- in an article in The Economist (the latest issue out at stands today) they describe the decades that would take for America to re-establish a damaged reputation in the Eastern part of Europe and everywhere, after this administration – the idiot at the very top and his henchmen – has been engaged in exactly the kinds of activities they used to advise others to stay away from – investigating political opponents, bribery and corruption…there was a ‘quid pro quo’!

Even my own country is affected by all this, for according to the same article in the Europe section, under the Dirty Mop heading, they mention that prosecutors investigating corruption – under the auspices of the acclaimed honored DNA, whose boss has been recently anointed as the Head of the European Prosecutor’s Agency or whatever the official name of the outfit would be – would have problems in cooperating with American agencies, given that from 2017, the policy of the US has moved away from targeting corruption…officials here have learned it seems to stay clear from statements about ‘the rule of law’ and instead insist on the new Transactional approach that is the new mark of the Trump administration, and they say that they need information and support from the US institutions to help American businesses enjoy a good business climate…

Doctor Fiona Hill was so tough even as a young girl that when a boy set her pigtails on fire, she used her hands to extinguish the fire and then continued with the test she had to take and she came across yesterday as fantastically more qualified, talented, impressive, articulate, concerned about the security of the US, wise and sensible than any of the donkeys asking her questions, from the republican side, who promote Putin’s version – first launched as he met with Orban, another weirdo, but not our own PM, who happens to have the same name and they are not related, it would be hard to be across the borders, especially when those two lands are not too fond of each other.

After all this tragic comedy, we can only look forward to the contemporary version of All the President’s Men, which for the movie version of the Travails of Rudy, Gordon, The three Amigos and the Ship of Fools they would have material for hundreds and hundreds and hours, ergo, a series with multiple episodes is more indicated…

Quid pro quo

Quid pro quo

The fascinating saga of the impeachment continues in the American Congress and yesterday Sondland testified, specifically stating that yes, there was a quid pro quo, blowing the republican defense and terrifying them. At least until they caught on and came with their same silly cliché that the commander in chief has not said specifically ‘you get on to the Ukraine, force that damn comedian down to the floor and extract from him the promise that he would announce an investigation into the Bidens’, even if everything else, witnesses, documents, even the republican ambassador to the EU have all indicated that this bribery was in the works, although they were caught trying this extortion and eventually released the military aid.

Chairman Adam Schiff was splendid in leading the inquiry and summarized wondrously some of the facts, including the one about the bribery, which does not need to be completed in order to have the guilty party accused and eventually convicted if all the evidence is gathered and in the case of the Lying Narcissist, is making a clear case for the intention to press the new leader of the country which is fighting Russia – also an enemy of the US, albeit Putin is a role model of Trump, who looks like he has won the election with crucial meddling from the admired dictator – and force him to investigate Biden, an idea that came only once the latter has become the front runner in the Democratic race and thus the potential rival for the 2020 elections.

Trump is only interested in himself, as has been made clear by this process, but also by all his vicious history of bankruptcies, phony deals, scams that include a failed university, stealing from the charity which he used to buy huge portraits of himself, and in the case of the Ukraine scandal, the phone call demonstrates that he wanted to attack his political opponent – he had not raised corruption with any other country and even in calls with the Ukraine, he never says the word once(!), indeed, as comedians – was it Bill Maher? – have said, Trump is only upset by corruption only when he is not in on it.

This is not just about this incredibly incompetent, absurd, pathetic, sick individual, but it is about much more, for the office he now holds and incredibly looks like he may occupy for another five years(!) represents an immense authority and power – usually, for in this case it is to be analyzed what happened to the image, how much influence can still be associated with it – and the effect that a deranged lunatic could have on the geopolitics, the future of the world can be calamitous and we can already see Russia advance in Syria – where American allies have been betrayed by the idiot – Erdogan Act like a tyrant with impunity – no, that is wrong, he in reality encouraged and helped by the American leader who talks about the strongman with what looks like envy, for he would also like to be a monarch and an absolute one at that…

The story that unfolds in Washington is a battle between good and evil and Trump is the ultimate demon – for one who does not believe in angels, God or supernatural beings of any kind – a paradigm of selfishness, corruption, incompetence, stupidity, pathological lying – he debased himself to the point of saying his father was born in Germany, when the truth is different, modifying an official weather map and the list is surreal in its length and the outrageous, frequent acts of vileness he kept committing.

That such a creature exists is no extraordinary thing, but to find it raised to this level is mind blowing and raises questions about democracy – if one of the most advanced, if not the most glorified indeed, democracy in the world produces something like this, what can we expect elsewhere? – given that there are tens of millions of people that identify with this fool and furthermore, they are ready to accept anything he does, distorting values, merits, the meaning of good in the process…

‘Zelensky loves your ass’

‘Zelensky loves your ass’

In just a couple of hours, I would be glued to the television set, where CNN and BBC would broadcast one of the most addictive, intriguing, absurd, comical and outrageous courtroom dramas – although it is taking place in Congress and it is political, not a legalistic debate and elected officials, first the representatives would decide if they impeach Trump, then the senators would probably let the despicable clown go away free and flaunting, ready to engage in bribery, quid pro quo, extortion and more, given that the republicans have the majority and have clearly forgotten their usual stance against Russia, concern for national security and they are now solely concerned with the fat ass of the man with the Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Thankfully, this unfolding drama has many humorous, if offensive aspects, such as the ‘outlandish’ phone call – not the infamous one with the ‘do us a favor’- between Sondland, ambassador to the EU, because he had donated $ 1,000,000 to the trump inauguration party, and involved against the rules into Ukraine policy – ambassador Taylor was also extremely humorous when he was pressed by the rather bizarre council for the minority on the ‘parallel channel and the fact that it was not so outlandish as it could be’, in the words of Seth Meyers, he looked like someone on the subway, asked to touch a lizard – and the Absurd leader of the free world.

Sondland says to Trump that ‘Zelensky loves your ass’ and then when questioned by the political man at the Kiev embassy, the contributor to the inauguration states that he ‘only cares about the big stuff, the investigations into the Bidens and does not give a shit about Ukraine’ – this is at the same time scandalous, catastrophic, but it is also salacious, funny – I mean, we used to feel inferior and so far behind the gracious, sublime, superior Americans and now look at them and what they praise and admire – granted, this is the Bible belt, rednecks and men and women with mental challenges – my sister, now in Chicago is ashamed of all this.

CNN had some reporting in Florida, and in some swing states, where apparently normal women would insist that they would vote for this crazy crook no matter what and when the now infamous issue of him shooting someone in daylight came up, one of these fans went on to ask why did he shoot that victim and emphasize that the president has great powers and has the right to…well, do almost anything, as the lunatic himself repeats to nausea, that he has the second amendment on his side, he can pardon himself, ask China, not just Ukraine to look at his rivals…

Recently, a court of law established that the Trump foundation has been misappropriating funds, for the money donated by individuals to this Mafioso outfit were used to…buy huge portraits of Trump and it seems the children of the Godfather have to attend to charity lessons, where they would eventually, hopefully learn that it is not nice or legal to steal from others  -even worse when it is from an organization that is supposed to help those who need it and not be used to make some rich – but not as s=rich as they claim – fatcats with such an extraordinarily low IQ and especially EQ.

This is an American affair, but given that what they do affects everyone, it is also one of the most pressing issues elsewhere, perhaps especially for those of us who live at the Russian frontier – by the way, here’s a joke on the matter: at the border, a customs officer is asking a traveler who walks in –

-          Name?

-          Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin

-          Occupation?

-          Not now, this time just visiting…

The scandal of the extortion and bribery of the rather lame, somewhat ridiculous and ready to do an investigation – too eager and somewhat corrupt for one who had promised change, pretending to bring in a fresh start and face – Zelensky has repercussions all over the world and the Russians, Putin would register the signals and push with heir already aggressive policy in their neighborhood and far away – look at their implication, admittedly small, in Venezuela, where they want to prop up the local tyrant, Maduro – occupying for now the Crimea – which candidate Donald saw as part of Russia and the now president does not give a shit about – and later on, maybe Moldova, the Baltic states and then why stop there, if the ‘greatest president in history, the stable genius’ has recently abandoned other allies, the Kurds that have fought the Islamic State, only to find that in this new age, loyalty is nothing, unless it is for the Great Supreme Leader.

Trump is envious of tyrants like Xi – he wrote about the fact that Xi is president for life and they should try that in the US, although now that he has had to go to the hospital, perhaps – Insha’Allah! – that would not be a long domination – Kim of north Korea, one of the most abhorrent, perhaps the most regimes in the world and nevertheless, the cretin – there is no other word to describe him – declares that they have met and ‘they fell in love’, the same tune with Erdogan and others, while allies are always scolded, even insulted and dismissed, because they are not dictators after all…

The decline of America is imminent, if this does not prove a catastrophic, one time accident and they return to normal, be that Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden or even Elizabeth Warren, the latter being rather extreme and for the moment rather dangerous in her extreme left views, which she shares with the other radical, Sanders…

One

One

‘I am Miss Moldova…

Right…and I am the Maharajah of Baluchistan”

This might well have been the dialogue that would change my life, for if she was not the winner of a beauty pageant, as she would turn out to be, for the initial reply was meant to be funny, in reply to what must have been a joke – for she could not be the most beautiful woman – or do they have to be girls? In order to be allowed to compete? – but she was serious, she was not engaging in that Game People Play (a psychology classic by Eric Berne) when they dress up for Halloween, or pretend they are somebody famous…one example that keeps popping up these days is that of the most infamous charlatan in the world (acclaimed as the ultimate Superman, glorious Angel of Vengeance and some other scary things in the Blue states of America), who keeps claiming he is ‘the best president ever’, whereas he should brag about being the most crooked, absurd and many other labels in the negative domain.

If this ‘girl’ was the most accomplished – they have to pass many tests, might have crossed my mind, albeit there is a reputation for simplicity and a naiveté taken to extremes, when a lack of creativity makes them give cliché answers to questions like what is your goal – to save the world, obviously – what do you like doing – helping old women get across the street evidently – whereas the more sincere replies might be marry the American president, though the actual first lady might have been unsure if the fool she took for his (vastly exaggerated, look at his taxes… oh, that is right, he never published them and on the contrary, he will fight the battle all the way to the Supreme Court, which is a clear indication of the bad image they would project, if ever published, for this is the kind of Narcissistic Disordered individual that would present to the cameras, a few times a day, the money he has to bay on his billions, if he ever came close to having them – then she would be the most desirable.

With hindsight, it could be argued that both Nicky and Nicole were more beautiful than Danielle, but she was the ‘star witness’ of the narrative, somewhat like the Ambassador to the Ukraine, Yovanovitch, and introspect would be in order – which is what this effort of writing down some memories, mea culpa, penitence perhaps for past blunders, scandals – were there horrific acts? Stay tune to find out – and in a positive psychology vein, the savoring of blissful moments, recalling moments of serenity and joy – in trying to assess what was so special in this girl – if we leave aside the fact that she has won such a prestigious trophy (admittedly dismissed in many circles and in the ‘Woke Age’, the very idea of putting women on  stage, to have them ‘examined, questioned’ by men, parading in bathing suits in front of them is disgusting, medieval and wrong)

It is difficult to look from this distance in time, invoking the legendary ‘Madeleine de Proust’, and know what was in my mind, especially in my heart when I discovered that the ‘official beauty of the land’ was sitting in my car, next to me, and how the subconscious urges, the desire to get to the top, The Will to Power or something along those lines took over, if it was an honest infatuation or just a combined aspiration for an ideal, as identified by others, even if there is no doubt that this girl was attractive, fascinating even and there is the other issue that needs to be addressed – well, it does not ‘need’, but might just well be brought into question – that of how far down was I on her list of dreams, coveted knights in shining armor and how low in the diary of memories do I sit, if of course, there is a vague recollection of the early 1990s episode, labeled perhaps as a mistake of young age, an engagement with a low caste, maybe a pariah, who had no right to get inside the House of Narnia, but this flirt with the houseboy would be later corrected – surely with intervention form the Queen Mother  - with the marriage with the very wealthy blockhead, who would serve time in jail, but that is irrelevant to the higher (?) purpose that the family had

So the question if the Beauty Queen had an intrinsic value is simple and the answer is yes, but the one about how virtuous, smart, emotionally intelligent, subordinate to her mother and rather communist, derelict values is more complicated and maybe we find out together in this enterprise, which is supposed to use the merit of writing – we are using different parts of the brain when writing, which has various benefits for the brain, that we do when we talk and in psychological terms, when we engage in this activity of putting down thoughts, or just words, we tend to detach from the painful and often still raw remembrance of something wrong in the past.

For a good few years, I think, the main element of the past that was sore, even tragic for some time, was the idea that this woman would not marry me and waiting for her to accept matrimony, while I was travelling through Belgium for a few weeks, where consequent to meetings with cable company owners I could have started a firm back home, which considering the financial fortune they would make for the first to launch would have made

me and other partners very rich, and in other circumstances I wailed and moaned over the loss of purpose, without a meaning left in life and then had to see an analyst to try and recover from the mess…

to use the words of the amusing Representative in the American Congress, Peter Welch, who replied to the mad dog Jim Jordan, who kept calling, like other members of the Cult of the Orange Idiot Son of the Orangutan, to have the ‘one who has started it all, the Whistleblower’ testify in front of the elected representatives, by saying he too would like the one who has started it all come and have a seat at hearings…

Donald Trump is welcome ….

Was it me, or was the idea of the beauty of the land responsible for all that happened and then didn’t?

Plan of the story

Was it William Boyd or some other sublime author who mentioned the need to have an ending for the story, work you are about to write?

The ending in this case should be somewhat or very vague, with the hero walking into the horizon, without the woman of his dreams – my wife does not read what I write or listen to what I say, but if there is an absurd exception here, this is all about artistic license and it is not about me…after all, everything that has to do with my ‘real ending ‘is absolutely clear, not at all obscure and I will be evicted, I hear, loser that I am there is not possibility to redeem or make the million dollars a month needed to satisfy her endless need for a myriad pets – she now has ocean fish, that digest banknotes it seems, she has made me keep five borzoi (giant breed dogs in case you are wondering) and a mutt, we have two vivacious macaws, three turtles, an aging cat that belongs here, plus maybe twenty or thirty that just pass through the garden, to eat from the bowl and shit in the lawn…I forgot the two doves that keep coming for the food that was given on the terrace table…

Perhaps this present might be more fun, assuming the incidents and crazy shit that is going on can be rendered with a tiny fraction of the humor of the hilarious Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel or the rather sarcastic and gloomy Bill Maher, which I try and see on a regular basis, given that it is a means to see what is going on and bypass somewhat the regular news – which psychology studies, on top of common sense, have proved that help people get depressed, concentrated as they are on what is negative, the explosions, shootings, earthquakes, wild fires, protesters killed on that day…

As it, just now, while writing this, Jimmy Kimmel is in the background with the splendid take on the recent impeachment hearings, in which they have added a comical, stupendous cowboy hat to one of the Trump surrogates, silly Nunez and then extracted the segment where the inadequate, outré, bizarre counsel for the minority – Castor was it? – asks the serious, valiant, noble ambassador Taylor about the backchannels used by the Mafiosi that are now ruling the world to promote their ‘drug deal’ – as their own man, Bolton, referred to it – and trying to ask and at the same time suggest that these alien channels are not ‘as outlandish as they could be’, to which the ambassador relied laughing that they are not ‘as outlandish as they could be’ and Kimmel goes on to say that the president could have send someone else…they do have so many deranged supporters out there…

Seth Meyers had another parody, just as amusing, when he used the segment from the Impeachment Hearings – perhaps they would materialize into convictions, Insha’Allah! – where the continuation of this absurd, surreal dialogue has the same extraordinarily decent, reserved, Ambassador Taylor - one who would make a president that would be one million times better than the catastrophe they have in office right now – manifest a very comical attitude when the same counselor for the republicans tries to make other ‘outlandish’ statements and Meyers compares this reaction to that of a passenger in the subway who is approached by a man with a lizard on the shoulder…

Would you touch my lizard?

On the bright side, we look at this and appreciate, are grateful for what we have and is so many times better that what the Americans have chosen to represent them, our own Klaus Johannis in a different league from the corrupt, man with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Dementia, scoundrel, gangster that tries to bribe and blackmail the president of the Ukraine – otherwise an individual who proves to be weak, shallow and lying in the promises he made, for, although it is next to impossible to stand up to the most powerful man on earth – at least in theory and considering the position of that office, for the man temporarily holding it is as feeble as one can be – Zelensky was too eager and ready to say that he has his own man in place and he would do what he asks and therefore we can see that corruption is still there and the new leader of our neighbor is just as willing to order investigations as the old guard.

On the John Oliver – not one of my favorites though – show they have presented one segment from the previous activity of Zelensky, where he plays the piano with another man, using his…penis; after all, this comedian seems to be controlled, if not completely, to a large extent, by one of the oligarchs, the billionaire who is the owner of the television channel on which the comedian used to portray…the president of the country, and the billionaire has had many disputes with the law, being accused of embezzlement – was it? – and some other crimes, resulting in his defection and flight to Israel.

The other absurd and jocular aspect -well, one of the many – has to do with the phone call made by the ambassador to the EU –by the way, they dealt with that other piece of stupid shit, sending the representative to one group of countries (28 of them) to another and take responsibilities which are not his, just because he is eager to engage in anything, corruption, bribery, extortion, you name, he has no qualms and regrets over that – to the American president, in a public restaurant(!), where other could and did hear it, prompting the same phenomenal Seth Meyers to state that this is such a stupid criminal that he does not follow the rule of the gild…a ‘good criminal ‘would ask on the call if ‘you are alone’, only Trump, with his disorders and low IQ, asks if you are alone and then asks you to bring others, if you are alone, to listen to what you plan to do…

Then there is the issue of the check and the explanation of Sondland – ‘Trump is a businessman and never signs a check before he gets what is owed to him’, only the joke on the late night shows –and the grim reality – was that this crook ‘never paid for anything in his life’, he was always a swindler and not the ‘celebrated businessman’ that his foolish mob see in the founder of the scam Trump University, the foundation for which he has had to pay recently $ 2,000,000 in fines, because he used money others donated to it (?!) to buy huge portraits of himself and other shameful schemes – the former president Obama, on whose birth place the then private citizen Trump kept mumbling, addressed this problem at one time…

This is such a comedy, but with such horrendous overtones alas…

Looking at Trump from Straulesti

Looking at Trump from Straulesti

America used to be the dream the goal, the country where we would like to live and the undersigned even thought of trying to get work with AT&T, which had been my employer, but for Bulgaria and Romania, in the US, where my sister lives and works as a doctor in Chicago, with Johnny, her husband and Felix, their son, and where they have not just elected a fool and a crook, but they may just well give him another term, after he has proved he only cares for his own terrific persona, suffers from Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Dementia and surely a few other ailments and vices…

We have been watching over the past few days how decent Americans, the ones we used to admire so much have testified in Congress, where Adam Schiff has chaired formidably, while the Republicans defend shamefully an idiot and a criminal, and have shown how ‘crazy’ the leader of the free world can act, in withdrawing military aid for a country, Ukraine, that is fighting a war against a common enemy – although that is a good friend and enabler for Trump – Russia, in which people die, but that does not move the scoundrel who is only keen on personal gain and thus he extorted a ‘favor’, an investigation into the political rival he expects to face next year, in exchange for money that Congress had approved and a visit to the White House.

The list of incredible aggressions, insults, vivacious attacks, lies, offences and crimes that this monster has committed is immense, but not long enough for his mentally, or morally, if not both challenged supporters to disentangle and vote for someone normal, human and not this alien individual, who speaks of himself as ‘the greatest president in history, a stable genius, with unmatched wisdom and so much more’, just as he abandons allies in Syria and then talks about the fact – false as is the rule with this Pinocchio – that the Kurds have not helped in World War II – which they did – or humiliates honorable, outstanding people like Meryl Streep, general Jim Mattis – who was so funny in claiming the role of the Meryl Streep of the generals – and so many other patriots, legends…such as the late John McCain, a war hero that the orange cretin does not like because ‘he only goes for those who are not caught’.

Yesterday, this unbelievable creature has attacked the formidable Ambassador to the Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, a heroine that has been stationed in Moscow, during the attacks on the parliament and was caught in the crossfire, worked in Azerbaijan, when the embassy was sprayed with bullets, in Somalia – which is a post that looks like Hades, only the idiot blamed the public servant for the mess that that country had been in for decades and would be for many more to come alas – and finally in the Ukraine, from where she was dismissed by the Narcissistic nut case, who only had to call and say game over – as the noble woman underlined – and she would change jobs, but he had had to use another rascal, Giuliani, to throw dirt all over an honest employee, whose one hundred times smarter and more honorable that the Three amigos together or the whole Trump team.

The American leader decides to praise corruption in the Ukraine – and other places, for this demoniac creature loves Kim of north Korea, admires dictators everywhere, from Erdogan to Duterte and Bolsanaro- and attack the person who stood against the vile gangsters and thus needed to ‘go through some things’, be changed and make room for the likes of Parnas and Fruman, contributors to the Trump pack and mobsters – with that description, in the graces of the president who clearly loves rogues and criminals and not honest people – and then allow for the investigation into people that the republicans want out of the way…

America used to be the one to press for crooks, such as the ones in my country, next to the Ukraine, to get punished and face justice, but now, it looks like it is the vicious place – well, if we only count here the supporters of this orange Godfather – that elects crooks who then spread corruption and bribery where they used to work to try and eliminate or diminish it.

Like the other great witness, Ambassador Taylor, said – ‘it is crazy to withhold military aid for political purposes’, after which he went on to make the brilliant point that it is America’s own national security that is undermined in this terrible way, fro in Donbas it is a fight with the most dangerous player in the world now, which would take these signals seriously and when they see what happened there, they would increase the pressure in the Baltic states, at my country’s borders and elsewhere, knowing that what this calamity has done in the /Ukraine and Syria is good to go in other regions, for he has no respect for allies, he loves tyrants and is only interested in self-promotion and victory next year…whatever it takes.

Deranged men are easy to find anywhere, but to have one right at the top of the world is flabbergasting, excruciating and furthermore, to see so many fools ready to excuse and vote him in office again (!) is more than revolting…one such man was in the sauna earlier and danced in circles around all these disasters that this man created and talked in terms of taxes – as if having some money now and see that all the shit storm coming down is for  later is all that matters – and talking without much care for what happened and the calamities keep coming every single day….

When one of the outrageous, recent scandals has been mentioned, the one with the phony charity, from which trump stole, using money to buy his own portraits while claiming he is helping veterans, and abusing what was supposed to be an outfit for good work, resulting in a court sentence and the obligation to pay two million dollars – apparently with an admission of guilt, to avoid paying a bigger fine – and the necessity for the disabled – philologically challenged – offspring to take courses on charity – a joke had it that the first lesson would be ‘take a chair means sit on it, it does not mean steal it, take it with you’

We have a president that most likely would be elected again in eight days’ time that is like Superman to the Darth Vader of America and that is cause for gratitude and celebration, given that my land is so far ahead of the US on this issue, where our leader is honest, polite, serious, dedicated, reserved, smart and sane, to the opposite at the White House

Gratitude for Sophie

Gratitude for Sophie

Sophie has died this morning.

She seems to have had a cancer of the bone, although it was thought in the first place that it must be ulcers and then the diagnosis changed to a possible lime, if this is correct, disease.

She was over twelve and with that, she is the one to have lived longer than any of the other borzoi we have had, Chantal, Samoa and Noel, the latter being the father of the only boy and dog we have left, Cheyenne, son of Sophie.

This white, beautiful hound came all the way from Poland, where I have picked her out of her litter, through the internet, not in person and because she was so special, she was the only one more expensive than the rest…a ‘normal’ puppy was about $ 700 and the white princess was $ 1,000.

When I met her at the airport, the flight was just a little late, but to pick up animals, one had to go to a different venue and for some reason, she would not arrive there, but I had to travel back to the main terminal and there she was…

Scared and I tended to think for the rest of her life that maybe this early flight, when she was only – what, seven months? Old has had such an impact on her that she would be rather tense, ready to cry out and moan very quickly, whenever she felt a little pain or the approaching of a possible disturbance…sometimes in a rather hysterical manner….well, hysterical is not the right word, but she was quite neurotic at times…

Otherwise, this poor girl was a splendid, valiant, ready to pounce hunting dog, that did not have the opportunity to hunt, but still, she would chase at the fence of some of the vicious dogs that have been on our itinerary, barking like mad at her and our pack and when they had the opportunity, which they did a few times, they would escape and they have bitten her and Chantal, just as the girls were in a leach.

On account of these unfair encounters and bastardy, cowardly bites, I decided to let them free, without a leach, whenever we approached that ‘Russian ‘territory to allow them to be on an equal footing if and when the enemy would approach, because being attached with the leach impeded on their movement and they have been a few times sitting targets for those jaws that could roam free and run circles while we got entangled in our own devices and even tumbled once.

I remember this ludicrous moments, when the little Chihuahua like specimen came running down the street to attack my boys and girls, which are in the giant breed category and try to punch at them, in the manner of a lightweight boxer trying to take on the likes of Muhammad Ali…

This barking toy belongs to a family of a rather loathsome figures, who had had another animal before, a bigger dog who kept barking all the time, up to the point where some brutes – who could stand the scandal no longer – decided to finish it by poisoning the poor animal, a victim mostly of the killer, but in important part of the owner who just does not care if others suffer because of his stupidity.

Sophie was able to eat that Chihuahua like toy if she set her mind to it and she was not very tolerant when upset…indeed, her son has always been rather reluctant to enter the ‘bureau’, where they have the couches and they sleep with the macaws, because once in a while, Sophie would show she is the ‘boss’, higher up in the hierarchy and lately, when they were the only ones left of a pack of five, she was the ‘alpha animal’.

She will be missed and this is to express gratitude for the twelve great years she has offered her family, a brave, sweet –when nothing happened rot justify a change of attitude – proud dog – borzoi are not the type of pet that always comes to the feet of the owner to dance around, hoping for a scrap of food, they are independent and rather difficult to train to perform tricks – it was often hard for me to make her and the others for that matter to even come to me when I called them…especially if she knew that something was wrong and I was upset that she has a had some sheep bone out from the field…even if we live in the capital city, we have a field nearby where flocks of sheep come and so do some foxes and other animals…

Just as I finish this, the man who has the ‘funeral parlor for dogs ‘has arrived to take her, so this is goodbye and thank you dear girl…

I do not believe in after life but if there is one, I hope to see her there!

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts


That saying refers to the famous trick of the
Trojan Horse, when the gift was actually the means through which the clever Greeks destroyed their enemy.

In this short story, the Greek doesn't destroy anything, although he is just as smart as the heroes of Herodotus...well, maybe there is a compensation here, in that those were Demi gods, some of them, but did not have an iPhone, Internet and the other amenities that make modern day man or woman more knowledgeable than Achilles...maybe.

This present day Greek man is all kindness and affability.
When we meet at the health club, like earlier today, he greets you with

Hello my friend...how are you today.

He is also very amusing.
Complicated matters of state are explained with ease and jocularity...

'The Americans told the Greeks and the Macedonians:
Fuck you
And fuck your too
You have to solve this'

On the issue of Trump, when asked if he likes him, our friend says...

'I have enough brain cells not to...'

He is funny then, resilient, for he has survived the harsh conditions here, sometimes ironical, for he has to muse over shortcomings...saunas don't work, an aggressive fool kicks him out when he tries to compensate and use the outdoors jacuzzi...

Our friend has shocked me though, for I had thought he is near perfect as an interlocutor.
Alas, nobody is.

He told me yesterday, with emphasis and deep conviction...

'Hillary Clinton is a monster!
What?!
She has sent IS fighters to Syria...and other such foolish things...'

Changing the subject, I tried Greta Thunberg, but my former friend was adamant here as well...

'She is autistic...
I hear it is the syndrome...
It is one form of that...and she has abandoned school
Yes, but her campaign...
She should get back to school...thank you child, but go to school
Well, her voyage in a boat...
I call that bad parenthood...what the fuck!'

In conclusion we can't see eye to eye on everything, even with the most charming of people...and the most pleasant often have some fucked up opinions'

Although, I still strongly believe in Blink, The Thin Slicing Theory as explained by Malcolm Gladwell in his Magnus opus.