Opinion – How Trump Gave Up On His Border Wall – The New Yorker – John Gelmini

Donald Trump is scary as is “Mad Dog” Mattis and some of the other hawks from the Pentagon who want to use the standoff with North Korea as an excuse to press Russia and China harder in a process of encirclement.

Dr Alf is right to worry but I suggest that the reality is that Presidents are merely figureheads with the real power lying in the Council for Foreign Relations in New York and in the Washington Beltway where the arms manufacturers are headquartered.

Geography always meant that the wall was not a practical proposition as some parts of the border are raging torrents of water and others are massive, inhospitable ravines.

Lack of geographical knowledge makes Trump unprepared and unfit to be a Hadrian who understood wall building, military matters and the geopolitics of his day and was very ruthless.

Trump is not so much a man whose word means nothing but more someone who doesn’t think things through and someone who wants to do whatever comes into his head at the time with or without evidence of any kind. Luckily he is surrounded by wiser heads but I do find him being advised by his daughter and son in law very worrying as neither of them should be making foreign policy as if Donald Trump was a king.

John Gelmini

Opinion – American woman ready to row solo from Japan to U.S. | The Japan Times – John Gelmini

The Pacific is ringed by many volcanoes and oc...

The Pacific is ringed by many volcanoes and oceanic trenches (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are no limits to the indomitable nature of the human spirit and this woman is an embodiment of that sort of inspired adventurism.

Dr Alf brings us a true human interest story, which will hopefully have a happy ending, with this woman writing a best selling book, becoming famous, inspiring young people and bringing color to otherwise mundane existences.

The dangers posed by 100 foot waves, deadly currents, unexpected storms and the possibility of being devoured by sharks in a feeding frenzy either make this woman mad or if successful, a clever risk taker. Let’s hope and pray it is the latter.

John Gelmini