Tag Archives: Politics

Sieg Heil to All That: Trump 2 Unhinged

22 Wed Jan 2025

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Afilonius Rex, Buenos Aires, 22nd January 2025.

Famous rock groups sometimes choose to do all acoustic sets, which they call unplugged sessions. In the political world, especially in the USA, we have another phenomenon, the unhinged sessions.

Trump and his entourage of oligarchs, grifters and chancers are an ugly lot of genetically cretinous and unbalanced freaks, aren’t they? I mean, if they were all from the same village, you’d suspect radiation poisoning and incest or some such thing, wouldn’t you?

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Spain’s Opposition Embraces Its Inner Franco

22 Wed Jan 2025

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Afilonius Rex, Bilbo, 22nd January 2025.

“They are so blind that they prefer to harm millions of Spaniards in order to erode the government. Feijóo is willing to go blind in order to make Sánchez one-eyed.” These were the recent words of Oscar Puente, Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility of the Government of Spain, referring to the extreme rightwing opposition in Spain, led by the Galician Nuñez Feijoo, and consisting of the Popular Party, the ultra-right Vox, and JUNTS, the extreme rightwing catalán nationalist party.

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The EU and Spain’s Politicised Judges

21 Tue Jan 2025

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Afilonius Rex, Washington DC 21st January 2025.

Like many places in Europe, Spain is a fascinating mix of modernity, liberty, equality, rights and obligations. Unfortunately, and as elsewhere, it also comes with a massive dose of rightwing revisionism. There is nostalgia for a bloody and long dictatorship. A degree of xenophobia and racism is present, defying the facts on the ground. As is usually the case.

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Absurd Britannia

20 Mon Jan 2025

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Heading For A Fall

Afilonius Rex, Caerdydd, Monday 20th January 2025

The Britain of my youth wasn’t quite the gaggle of internet-enabled basket cases that it has become today. Once, most people were generally more respectful, introspective and considerate. Now, any fool with an opinion as racist, prejudiced or stupid as it can be can shoot their mouth off on a scale never seen before. Of course, there are exceptions, and there were some thoroughly vile people in the past, just like there are many decent people in the present.

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From Russia With Dismay

19 Sun Jan 2025

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From Russia With Dismay

Afilonius Rex, Madrid, 18th January 2025.

Profound antagonism has existed between Russia and Western Europe since the times of the Czars. Leading roles in this perpetual drama have been racism, imperialism, arrogance, ignorance, personal ambitions and paranoia. The biggest problem in the room is that Russia understands the West too well and that the West is deliberately stubborn when it comes to putting itself in the shoes of Russia.

There are elements on all sides who are nostalgic about the Cold War and believe that it should be the natural state of things, not just some terrible and painful relic of how not to live in peace, harmony and cooperation.

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Dynamiting Spanish Politics

18 Sat Jan 2025

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Dynamiting Spanish Politics

Afilonius Rex, New York, 18th January 2025

The right in Spain offers no realistic alternatives in terms of coherent and cohesive policies, principles and initiatives. They offer no leadership, ideas or statesmanship. Their opposition is not based on respectable alternatives but on lies, defamation and smears.

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Not everyone likes a decent man

13 Fri Dec 2024

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Not everyone likes a decent man

There is an elephant in the room.

Why do seemingly good people embrace faulty and toxic logic and reason?

I find it really strange.

But there is also something that I have learned late in life. It is that the political and social extremes, informed or not, hate subtlety, universal applicability, and reason. So if your language includes expressions such as ‘it depends’, ‘on the other hand’ and ‘but from another perspective’, your arguments will be derided and your right to an opinion frequently denied.

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How to Spot Bullshit: A Guide to Critical Thinking

14 Mon Oct 2024

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Spotting bullshit

Martyn Jones, Cariño, 14th October 2024

Narrator:  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the fabulous Mel Brooks.

Dole Officer: “Occupation?”

Citizen: “Standup-Philosopher!”

Dole Officer: “What?”

Citizen: “Standup Philosopher. I coalesce the vapours of human experience into a viable and logical comprehension.”

Dole Officer: “Oh! A bullshit artist!”

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UK Government? Global Charlies!

31 Thu Aug 2017

Posted by in European Union, Good Strategy, Inform, educate and entertain., Martyn Jones, Politics, UK

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Picture6Martyn Richard Jones

Bonn 31st August 2017

It doesn’t matter where you are in the world, the view of the UK government doesn’t get any better.

Edinburgh, London, Brussels, Beijing or Washington. It’s increasingly obvious that Theresa May and her cabinet are a painfully embarrassing and unfunny joke.

They stand as an obdurate aberration where once there had been some semblance of cultured diplomacy, breadth and depth of intelligence and strategic thinking. They defy the laws of reason, good sense and decency. They are the Keystone Cops, the Chuckle Brothers and the Carry On Camping of governance. Continue reading →

UK: Better off with Brexit

25 Fri Aug 2017

Posted by in Brexit, Good Strat, Good Strategy, Inform, educate and entertain., Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, Polemic, Strategy

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Picture6Martyn Jones

Bornheim, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany – 25th August 2017

When you offer people all of the benefits of the single market and the customs union, but without any of the EU bureaucracy, constraints and costs, what happens?

We ran an experimental consultation last year in the UK just to demonstrate what happens when bat-shit-crazy mad-cow Britain has a chance to throw a spanner in the works. Some people will inevitably believe the boloney whilst others will use it as a mere tool in a simple-minded and obtuse attempt to rationalise their own irrationality and misanthropy. Nobody can throw a spanner in the works quite like the Brits.

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