Thatcherism Sells – But Who’s Buying?

Given that the former UK PM Margaret Thatcher is up for auction next month, will it sell better than 1980s era Thatcherism? 

By: Ringo Bones

By December 2015, the late former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s wardrobe – about 150 lots in all – will all be up for auction at Christie’s. And given that Thatcherism was an easy sell – both politically and economically – back in the 1980s when the capitalist West was still toe-to-toe with the Warsaw-Pac countries at that stage of the Cold War, will “Thatcherism Memorabilia” in the form of his iconic wardrobes worn at the time, be an easy sell? 

Proceeds of the auction next moth will primarily benefit the former UK PM’s immediate family after the Victoria and Albert Museum declined to display the items for public viewing but inexplicably, it managed to generate overwhelming interest to everyone old enough to both remember and actually lived through Thatcherism. One of the items to be auctioned off was Baroness Thatcher’s iconic handbag which during her stint as the UK’s Prime Minister got her detractors accusing her of “hand-bagging” her political opponents. Another iconic item on the block was Thatcher’s pale beige raincoat by Aquascutum which was made famous as the “tank dress” that she wore when at the helm of a British Challenger tank during a NATO training maneuvers in the then West Germany as part of her campaign to gain global support for the Falklands War back in 1982 is estimated to go as high as 20,000 UK£. Given that the auction is a perfect example of Thatcherism par excellence – is there any change that it would be as “popular” as Katharine Hamnett’s “58 % DON’T WANT PERSHING” T-shirts of 1983? 

Since she passed away two and a half years ago, Margaret Thatcher did manage to generate interest to both of her critics and fans alike. Even the UK’s Official Secrets Act had to bare Thatcher’s “hair secrets” back in 2014 in order to allay the public’s “unanswered questions” with regards to Britain’s “Iron Lady”. 

US Republican Party Congressman John Boehner Resigning: Good For The US Government?

As the mastermind of the US government shutdown of few years ago, is the resignation of US Republican Party Congressman John Boehner a good thing? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Given that it happened after he met Pope Francis many are wondering if Pope Francis had finally managed to exorcise the Republican Jesus / GOP Jesus out of House Majority Leader US Republican Party Congressman John Boehner. After all, he was the mastermind of the US government shutdown that paralyzed Washington DC a few years ago. After deciding to resign effective October 30, will the troubles plaguing Capitol Hill will soon be coming to an end? 

Unfortunately, Congressman Boehner, who became the Majority leader of the 435-seat chamber, is slated to be replaced by someone more evil according to Capitol Hill insiders and there might be some truth to this given that TEA Party poster-child US Republican Party Senator Ted Cruz had been gloating over Boehner’s resignation announcement last week. Boehner could be replaced by Majority leader Kevin McCarthy – although Rep. McCarthy is not known for being “more evil” than Rep. Boehner or being “as evil” as Senator Ted Cruz. 

John Boehner will be remembered as the Ohio Republican who steered his party to an overwhelming House majority in Capitol Hill. His recent resignation announcement managed to launch an unexpected leadership battle among house Republicans. If Boehner is replaced by someone “more evil”, could the days of government shutdown by the GOP soon return to Washington DC? 

Ahmed Mohamad And America’s Post 9/11 Education Scene

Is America’s post 9/11 education scene way different than what has come before when a 14-year-old Arab-American high school freshman gets arrested for being an electronics enthusiast?

By: Ringo Bones 

During a typical Monday morning back in September 14, 2014, a 14-year-old Arab American high school freshman of MacArthur High in Irving, Texas named Ahmed Mohamad was arrested by the local police after his teacher mistakes the homemade electronic clock that he had worked over the weekend and bought to his class’ show-and-tell for a bomb. Later investigation showed that the uproar over the young electronic enthusiast was primarily racially motivated via the post 9/11 paranoia that is still gripping white Anglo Saxon conservative America, Ahmed Mohamad was later invited by President Barack Obama to the White House and given a commendation. Given the “politics” surrounding the incident, is the post-9/11 paranoia harbored by white Anglo Saxon Protestant America hurting, rather than helping, science education in America?   

The political blowback of the incident made Ahmed Mohamad to decide that he won’t be going back to MacArthur High anymore after being singled-out due to his ethnicity. After all, there are white Anglo Saxon Protestant high school students his age that were carrying loaded assault rifles publicly in the name of the “Open Carry Law” elsewhere in Texas and nobody dared to call them as “Christian Terrorists”?  Which make one also ask if “White Supremacist Jesus” is already the governor of Texas? 

Is post the white Anglo Saxon Protestant Post 9/11 Paranoia destroying the social fabric of diversity in America? Ahmed Mohamad could be a case-in-point of this and it is also ruining the inclusiveness of science education in America where kids of high school freshmen are seeing science education as “uncool” thanks ot former US President George “Dubya” Bush. Ahmed Mohamad’s exceptional abilities in digital electronics should have been nurtured given that when I was his age back in the 1980s, was still learning the rudiments of digital electronics –i.e. still learning about logic gates and J-K flip-flops. 

An Effective Solution To Syria’s and Iraq’s War Refugee Crisis?

Can an Egyptian telecommunication billionaire’s proposal provide an effective solution to Syria’s and Iraq’s war refugee crisis? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Ever since the Arab Spring in Syria got heavily suppressed by strongman Bashar Al Assad in 2011 and the sectarian conflict in Iraq which eventually gave rise to the so-called Islamic State or Daesh that resulted in the 21^st Century’s largest refugee crisis that overwhelmed neighboring countries like Turkey and Lebanon, the affluent Western countries are at odds in finding an effective long-term solution. Apart from starting yet another bloody war to initiate a “regime change” in Syria and a ground war against Islamic State / Daesh that would result in casualties of American and NATO coalition troops that could number in the thousands, it seems that this refugee crisis does not yet have a viable long-term solution that the international community can easily live with. But could a proposal offered by an Egyptian telecommunications billionaire be that solution? 

Egyptian telecommunications billionaire Naguib Sawiris - which according to Forbes magazine is Egypt’s third richest man - already has plans to buy a Greek or an Italian island for the purposes of settling in 100,000 or more war refugees fleeing from the ongoing conflict in Iraq and Syria. As far back as 2014, Sawiris has been in contact with Greece’s and Italy’s prime ministers to purchase an island  - a "refugee island" if you will - to house the refugees fleeing the conflict from Syria and Iraq. Greece already has a long-list of islands being offered for sale for those fortunate enough to afford to buy one given they are usually priced in the millions of dollars, but Sawiris wants to make his refugee housing scheme legally binding with the pertinent territories after he purchases the island. If the Greek and Italian governments agree with Sawiris’ refugee housing scheme, he will do the rest given that he already has millions already set aside to fund his humanitarian scheme. Sawiris is an Egyptian Coptic Christian and plans to establish his refugee island before the winter of 2015 sets in. And “conservatives” (The U.S. Republican Party?) the world over will love Sawiris’ refugee housing scheme because any refugees of working age will be gainfully employed by him as opposed to just getting a free ride.  

Kim Davis’ Same-Sex Marriage License Denial: Jesus Made Me Do It?

Despite being made legal across the United States in a US Supreme Court decision back in June 26, 2015, should a clerk be imprisoned for using the “Jesus Excuse”?

By: Ringo Bones 

If using the “Jesus Excuse” allow one to be exempt from serving jail time when committing a serous felony in the United States, Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bomber Timothy McVeigh would have been walking free somewhere in the United States by now and every white supremacist group on American soil will be free to harass and murder every non-white-Anglo-Saxon-American citizen in the name of white-Anglo-Saxon-Jesus. Thankfully, the United States is still a nation where the rule of law sill reign supreme and the last time I checked – a democracy as opposed to a white-supremacist-based theocracy. Unfortunately, some government workers still don’t get the memo. 

Last week, an elected Rowan County, Kentucky clerk named Kim Davis was sentenced to jail by a federal judge after Davis refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Despite of her “political stance”, Kim Davis is apparently a registered Democrat and was elected last fall as a Rowan County clerk while gaining 53-percent of the votes. Davis’ rather extreme stance against the LGBT residents of her county was primarily borne out of her conversion to Apostolic Christianity 4 and a half years ago and this particular Christian sect was notorious for harboring a strict moral code – especially when it comes to sexuality, thus the reason for Davis to become embroiled in this very recent and high-profile same-sex marriage row that is currently heard around the world.  

Despite the American right-wing conservative Evangelicals adopting such extremist stance of morality – especially in the US Republican Party – not all of the Christian clergy in America subscribe to such NAZI Party like interpretation of the Holy Bible. The Reverend Broderick Greer even said “Kim Davis’s denial of same-sex marriage licenses is not what Jesus would do.” While the biblical Jesus opened himself to be changed by people who were different, the embattled Rowan County clerk is using religion as a social bludgeon akin to what the so-called Islamic State / ISIS is currently doing in Syria and Iraq.