And it is all happening while they say: ‘It could not happen here’ and ‘We have checks and balances’.

If you have not read ‘The Plot Against America‘ by Philip Roth try it. It rolls out the scenario which is happening in the U.S. right now, but 85 years ago at the beginning of the second world war, concentrating on the tolerance of, and spread of Nazism. But Lindbergh (the right wing president in the ‘Plot Against America‘) is, if I remember correctly, is not as narcissistic nor so compelled to make as much money as possible out of the U.S. Presidency as the present incumbent is.

Viewed from the Eastern shores of the Atlantic it seems as if America, or at least Washington, has lost its head. Where is all the LIBERTY when people are being picked up off the street with no charge and incarcerated? Where is HABEUS CORPUS in the minds of the average U.S. citizen? I wonder how many American citizens have READ THEIR CONSTITUTION. I have. Is it that they have lived in such a stable environment politically and socially for so long that they have forgotten their constitutional rights and the rights of their fellow citizens? Judging from my recent experiences there this may be the case.

I have just returned in mid October from a three week visit to family in the US. We slid in with no computer and a dead U.S. burnerphone in case the border people got interested. Those are not the kind of precautions you should have to make going into a free country. Not that we were actually any potential threat to the Constitution of the United States, only possibly in the tiny minds of its current executive apparatus. On entry to the U.S. there was a secondary security search before we could get out of the airport.

‘Security’ again !!! we had done that in Heathrow before we got on the plane. I wish I had had the bollock to ask the amateur goons at the airport what they were looking for. They took my guitar out of its case and faffed around pretending to inspect it. It was clear they did not know what they were doing. I could have had a ton of cocaine taped to the underside of the sound board and they would have missed it (of course I did not). It seemed like a gambit to show that the U.S. is under siege. Fundamentally it is no more under siege than any other democracy on earth. It must be noted that everyone we talked to and interacted with on entry into the U.S. was friendly (or seemed so), respectful and helpful. The same could be said of any member of the public I engaged with during my stay. They were a much better bet than the average grouchy double dealing arseholes who now populate the SE of the UK.

After a journey round Michigan to see family we stayed in the north of Michigan (not the U.P.) in a beautiful place with some very generous hosts. Our outlook was across the water of a small lake with the boat that I built with my brother-in-law a few years ago hogging the central space (see above). What is not to like? I sailed and we enjoyed the context. I did not see any particular political evidence on the ground that the constitution of the US was being dismantled. That said we kept things pretty quiet and did not look for trouble. But what does that mean? As I was a not American citizen, I felt I had to keep my head down. I never felt like that before when visiting my U.S. family. This is something that should not have to happen in a free society.

Globally politics definitely requires a reset. We are in an era of global warming and the required necessary global cooperation that entails. The old MEN who are running things globally think they are having their day. But they are old men who have no clue, or turn a blind eye to, where the world is heading and that this the only planet is all we have. Money and power will not save them, their children, or anyone else. The day for the earth will be the day we tramp the earth down on their demise.

When I studied American politics we were set an essay which was titled: “The office of President of the United States is an untenable position – discuss”. I cannot remember how the teenage me responded, but now 50 years later I am inclined to think that this is the case, and I cannot think of a U.S. president who has come off OK in the end. Every recent president, no matter how able and or democratic has fallen at some fence nationally or internationally. And part of the job description is that their hair goes grey during their presidency (if it is not already being dyed).

Rather than falling at some ‘fence’ the current president is playing a game of cat and mouse on the edge of a very big pit, and he does not have the whit or humility to engage with the enormity of that pit. I would not care if it was only him going into the pit, in fact I would be immensely happy if he did, but it is highly probable that the whole wonderful ‘American Democratic Experiment’ may follow him down into that pit. What a waste. All that to achieve the gold W.C and the Epstein Ballroom. As a friend of mine put it years ago: ‘All that way for this?‘

The current U.S administration is an assault on liberty. I don’t think the lady on the coin was ever up for this.