THE TIME IS OUT OF JOINT ( Hamlet 1.5.188)

It is almost ironic that Denmark is holding the presidency of the EU at a time when the Brussels corridors of power look even more confused than the rooms of Elsinore. 

Not that the EU has a Hamlet. The inertia is the same, but if Horatio were alive he would have too little to relate the happenings now that don't make for a good story.

Still, one might hope that Denmark will act in a creative and responsible fashion, as can be expected from a country that is famous for the rule of law and a remarkable sense of responsibility.

Not that illusions are flourishing. The repeated bilateral meeings between EU leaders illustrate more disarray than consensus.The big players are elsewhere and the dying pomp and circumstances in Europe don't compensate for the disarray that is hiding in between the layers in a jewell box.

China doesn't hide its cynical assessment. Russia became the absent malevolent player. Trump compensates his total unfamiliarity with diplomatic savoir faire through unpredictability and outburst not seen since World War II. The rest of the world keeps its distance or chooses short-term self- interest over commitment.

Taiwan and Ukraine live under a death sentence. They can only hope that today's parcimony doesn't become an ersatz for earlier solidarity. The BRICS, under attack by the US, will continue as if nothing really life-changing happens. America is stuck in the MAGA nightmare that is sending every trespasser to the Tower. Soon Broadway will end up performing Cats, after the Kennedy Centre hosted Trump's favourite Les Misérables, not that the president is familiar with Jean Valjean or Jabert...

Pessimism or resignation come easy. The "rare earths" saga is the perfect example of the perfect storm, the rise of greed at the cost of partnership. Other essential materials will become toys in the hands of the Yeti in the White House. AI becomes unstopabble and with every day that passes it is hijacked by the rogue players. 

The EU had better regroup if it does not want to become a refuge for the elderly. The official visit of President Macron to London starts already to appear Edwardian.  The French president looks overdressed and overshadowed in this charade out of the better days of the Entente Cordiale.

Trump ("Daddy" for Mark Rutte, NATO's Secretary General) is expected in London later this year. Netanjahu lobbies the Nobel Committee on behalf of his buddy in arms. With friends like these nothing is sacred anymore.

The EU better purges itself and return to its original goals with an added strategic dimension. The players are dying off and too few are left to make the difference. Better hurry before the rise of a third act, many see coming, but appear unable to halt.

LE MONDE EN MORCEAUX

Après l'horreur de l'incursion mortelle du Hamas le 7 Octobre 2023 il devenait clair que le monde courait le risque de se fragiliser davantage.

Le consensus occidental, construit autour d'un nombre de principes péniblement agréés s'effrite, moins à cause d'un accélérateur extérieur que de l'intérieur.

L'intervention américaine en Iran marque un nouveau pas dans le démantelement de l'ordre ancien. On eut pu l'éviter sans doute, mais il eut fallu pour celà que les parties qui en bénéficient s'entendent sur une retenue commune. Or il ne reste  rien de l'engagement partagé.

La théocratie Iranienne devient de plus en plus isolée. Israel entend détourner les regards de ce qui se passe à Gaza. Trump n'écoute que Trump et est entouré d'amateurs, comme le joueur de flûte de Hamelin l'était par les rats.

Il est aléatoire d'essayer de prévoir les conséquences plus larges de ce "putch" américain. Les Nations Unies ont perdu toute pertinece, sauf dans les organes spécialisés. Le conseil de sécurité ressemble à une visite chez le psychatre où l'un parle et l'aure prend note. L'Union Européenne est ignorée. La Chine et la Russie ont d'autres priorités et sont trop heureuses de voir Trump transformé en Docteur Strangelove.L'Ukraine doit à juste titre s'inquièter. Le prochain sommet de l'OTAN est devenu une course d'obstacles. Trump viendra-t-il ?

L'Europe qui a essayé en vain d'approcher les Iraniens à Genève  a été placée devant le fait accompli. Trump a rarement fait preuve d'une réelle sympathie pour un continent dont il se sait mal aimé.

Il devient impératif que l'UE se regroupe militairement (achat de matériel, autonomie stratégique, structure de commandement propre etc.) à côté des Etats-Unis, comme partenaire,  plus comme vassal. Les intérèts des uns et des autres ne sont plus identiques et il faut faire vite avant que les Magas américains trouvent des émules en Europe. Le président français reprend à son compte l'héritage de de Gaulle. Ce dernier avait été clairvoyant avant d'autres. Macron se réapproprie le flambeau.

Giuliano da Empoli dit que l'heure des prédateurs a sonné.Il semblerait que les faîts lui donnent raison.

COMME QUOI L'ACCESSOIRE CHASSE L' ESSENTIEL

On reparle à nouveau du  chat de Philippe Geluck ( génial créateur à qui on souhaite rétablissement).

Tout le monde aime son chat.

La question étant s'il faut construire une piramide pour enterrer une souris.

Les musées à Bruxelles crient misère. Les gardiens hallucinés qui y rodent sortent d'un roman de Dickens. Le public boude, les autorités (?) ignorent.

Bref l'insistance de Geluck, avec la complicité de certains, est embarassante et en dit long sur le règne de l'absurde qui , à Bruxelles, n'a que trop duré. 

L'idée de  ce panthéon est ridicule. Au demeurant elle crée un précédent.

HERE WE GO AGAIN

On October 7th, 2023 Hamas launched a totally atrocious raid on innocent Israeli revellers who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The world then supported Israel's retaliation. Now that Netanjahu's wrath is reducing Gaza to rubble and ten thousands of lives later, the civilized world is revulsed.

Israel has turned now against Iran. The Molas have few friends and zero trust. The question remains that containment is hard to achieve between a totally unreliable Iran and the current government in Israel, which represents the denial of all that enlightement was.

A certain propaganda coming out of the present Israeli government represents criticismg from Europe as anti- Jewish. Does disagreement with Trump makes one anti- American? 

In the current world situation opinions become the victims of medacious misrepresentation. The danger being that a certain form of isolationism takes over from previous commitments. Europe is, rightly so, upset finding itself in a hard place, in between an ally it mostly disagrees with and friends it grew apart from. Trump's Maga America is despised. Israel became a love story turned sour.

This unfortunate turn of events needs urgent management wherein Europeans play a major role. It is time to act and to engage with Arab states and willing partners worldwide who have some clairvoyance left. The Israelis have their moderate wing too, after all. 

Ambassador Huckabee said that the two-state solution is dead. He should be a veterinarian, specialist in euthanasia, besides being the bigot we know. America could easily return to the former days of its diplomatic acumen. The EU should try to give a shot in the arm to the forgotten quartet, of MENA. Israel too must be re-engaged rather than shunned.The hateful talk coming out of the Israeli colonists should be censured. The EU's current low profile only further abandons the political terrain to extremes on all sides.

The Palestinians have better than their current Authority, on life support. Trump's envoy is better with hotels than around ideas. Still it shouldn't look that hopeless. Maybe the Iranian theocracy should feel the pain. The Abraham Accords, one of the few diplomatic achievements of the first Trump administration,  should not get lost  . They deserve some form or other of EU engagement.

The longer repeated clichés last, the harder it will be to correct them. Sadat, Kissinger, Begin, Baker understood that time is not  in unlimited supply. Now it is high time to leave the comfort zone and to make hard choices..........otherwise the contagion will be unstoppable.

MUCH ADO ABOUT TRUMP

The Trump overdose is relentless.

Misinformation rules the waves. Probably his birthday military parade next Saturday will shatter the expectations. The MAGA Stormtruppe will guarantee du jamis vu. 

The events in Los Angeles are also creating a wave of misrepresentation. Everybody who is familiar with Los Angeles realizes that the unrest is largely confined to a couple of blocks downtown. The images seen in the media are totally misleading. This is mostly due to the lack of familiarity with a metropolitan area unlike no other. Hence, irrelevant comments by journalists who have never gone further than their own little forgotten neiboorhood next door.  The unrest in America is all too real but extrapolation without familiarity is just intolerable.

The media are feeding the monstruous change that is currently happening in America. As morally corrupt and intellectually bankrupt as Trump might be, he is no Machiavelli. He is just deranged.

There is only one way out for Europe and that is to regain its own cloud and a creative superiority which is tragically lacking now. The Oval Office ritual is still seen as a desirable political asset, but wake up, it is a trap wherein even the German minister president looked like a wet towel. Compare this with the strong man in El Salvador who acted like some actor on the red carpet in Cannes.

Let the noise die off for lack of takers, and control an anger that should be monitored rather than ending up like an other loose canon. One Trump is enough.

Enjoy this next Saturday parade. Too bad la Riefenstahl is no longer with us.

RTL EN CHINE

RTL (Ringard tout le temps) a finallement quitté les rivages familiers pour permettre à Cristophe Deborsu de découvrir la Chine en vacances.

Ce journaliste, au demeurant sympa, a montré des Chinois heureux, gatés, bien logés ...surveillés, dans un décor qui nous change des croquettes crevettes et de l'habitat dépressif.

Le progrès Chinois est extraordinaire, aussi aux yeux de ceux qui y résidaient il y a peu. Le miracle chinois est aujourd'hui le successeur de feu le rêve américain.

Celà accentue une nouvelle fois les avances souvent vertigineuses de l'Asie, comparées à l'Occident. En Belgique, les abonnés aux grèves qui bloquent régulièrement les grandes surfaces ou l'aéroport misérabiliste de Charleroi, devraient se demander si leur discours tient encore la route.

Pour qui a le courage de subir les invectives entre le MR et le PS,  ce reportage devrait apporter un éclairage, mais il se peut que le mal est devenu irréversible .

La Belgique, Wallonie en tête, n'a ni le look ni le tempérament du progrès. Les unilingues  enfermés dans leurs marchés, cafés et merceries font pitié. Au demeurant la Flandre ne fait plus rêver et Bruxelles n'est qu'un cauchemar provincial permanent.

Certes la Chine a ses défauts, mais à la longue elle reste fidèle à son"contrat social". Le Chinois, souvent chauvin et égocentrique  voit son niveau de vie et son habitat améliorer. L'esprit de Tienanmen appartient au passé. Le système peut activer immédiatement un chauvinisme latent, dans le dossier Taiwanais par exemple. En Chine le progrès du court terme n'efface jamais les rancoeurs sous-jacentes de l'histoire.

Le reportage RTL en dit plus qu'il n'en parle. Dommage que celà n'arrivera sans doute pas jusqu'au destinataire qui lui préfèrera l'habituel menu RTL de proximité.

FEUD

The infamous feud between Bette Davis and Joan Crawford was the ultimate fodder for gay slapstick.

Now the fracas surrounding the end (?) of the bromance between Elon and Donald fills the media with biting comments. Both individuals share the same contempt for decorum, self- control and their "followers" at large. The deluge of contempt was to be expected.

This unstable president likes to be surrounded by props and we see the dammage done, day after day. Elon Musk saw himself as the power behind the throne.  After all, he has the means to blackmail the establishement into surrender. His other high-tech colleagues don't fare any better in the growing revolt against the free ride they are receiving.

The comments verge on disbelief that the Oval Office, with its nouveau riche facelift, becomes a circus act for all to see. Musk played the game for a while but he underestimated the envy of the dumb sycophants who resented the intrusion of the richest man in the world.

Imagine how the Chinese and the Russians look at the unraveling of America's dignity. The White House got a shot in the arm, mostly during the Kennedy and Obama years. Now it becomes the set for a Marx Brothers remake. Trump's plans also to build a ballroom, to put a finishing touch on his Las Vegas style.

The antagonism is not that surprising. What is new is the absolute lack of restraint and taste that further undersores the descent of MAGA  America in the Stephen Miller/Janine Pirro & Co.'s orbit. 

The meeting between Trump and the new German Chancellor was the perfect example of the style of this American "regime" copied (poorly) on the Berchtesgraden model. One talks and the other is ignored, if he is not from El Salvador.

Today the National Guard is mobilized in California. Does that ring a bell?