Elsewhere

I was looking for some No-Tr*mp news, which is hard to find these days.  Here's what I found:

Gambia
People who pay attention to such things were stunned last week when Yahya Jammeh, who has been president of Gambia for 22 years, not only lost an election but accepted the results!  This is the first time I can recall that a long-time African autocrat voluntarily ceded power.  Perhaps Mr. Jammeh decided he has looted enough cash for a comfortable retirement, but whatever his motivation, it is an extraordinary precedent.  Will 92-year-old Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe follow suit? Not likely.

Austria
In Austria's election, Alexander van der Bellen soundly defeated neo-Nazi Norbert Hofer, to become Europe's first Green Party president -- despite Austrian concerns about Muslim immigrants.  Okay, he ran as an independent, not as a Green, but he still trounced the populist rabble-rouser.  Maybe that's a good sign for Angela Merkel.  It's certainly a good sign for the EU.

Italy
Alleged "populists" of both the Left and the Right rejected constitutional changes that would have "streamlined" Italy's political system by shrinking and weakening the Senate, and Matteo Renzi has resigned.  Personally, I suspect this reflects an Italian belief in the principle of "that government governs best which governs least," and that similarities to the US presidential results and Britain's Brexit are strained, at best.  Immigration was not an issue, and the Five-Star Party is not poised to take power.

Black unlike me

I'm not black.  I don't have a clue how it feels to be a black person in this world, but I know enough to say that not being black is a distinct advantage.

I'm a lot less likely to be stopped, harassed, arrested, or killed by cops than I would be if I were a black man.  I'm a lot less likely to go to jail, but if I do, it will be after copping a much better plea than I could get if I were black.  From what I've read, heard, and seen, black cops and judges discriminate against blacks pretty much as egregiously as white cops and judges do, so just bringing more blacks into the legal apparatus won't do the trick.

What will do the trick?  Beats me.

In case you hadn't noticed, hardly anybody in the USofA gives much thought to anything that happens in Africa.  Most of the people drowning in the Mediterranean lately have been black, and the vast numbers of fatalities, while noted in the media, are not attracting a hell of a lot of hand wringing in the United States.  Most white Europeans support letting them die, to discourage more from making the attempt.  (Yes, there are plenty of Syrians and other non-blacks going down as well, but those people are, well, rather dusky, you know, and frequently Muslim.)

I try to put myself in the place of a Somali, a Nigerian, a Malian, or whatnot, but I'm afraid imagining their lives doesn't come easily.  It's a little easier imagining being a black man in the United States, but I still don't think I've "got" it.  If you're white too, you probably have the same difficulty.

I don't know what might be done, and I don't know what I, personally, can do beyond sending letters to politicians and money to relevant charities.  It's not much, but it seems to be the best I can manage, given my circumstances.  Still, there ought to be more.

Suggestions?

Bye Bye Benedict

I certainly was surprised to hear of the Pope's impending abdication, but shall reserve judgement until I find out who will be his replacement.  He certainly set a good example for other gerontocrats, and I hope many of them follow his example, beginning with Silvio Berlusconi and John McCain.  Both of them, of late, have been more trouble than they're worth.

I never cared for Ratzinger who, as leader of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under John Paul (whose primary theology seemed to consist of anti-Communism and anti-anything-else-vaguely-resembling-Communism), led the pogrom against the Liberation Theologists, especially in Latin America.  Read the history, and it looks incontrovertibly pro-fascist.

Benedict was better at persecuting Catholic socialist priests than at stopping pedophile priests from diddling altar boys.  Jesus, you might recall, was a socialist, not a pedophile.  Also, when Benedict retires to a monastery inside Vatican City, he'll be out of reach of those who want to know what he knows about kiddie diddling.  Well, he may not know a hell of a lot — top level executives seldom do — but he has to know something.

One might hope the College of Cardinals will select a new Pope just a little more liberal than John Paul or Benedict, but don't count on it.  John Paul and Benedict left the College of Cardinals pretty much the same way George W left the United States Supreme Court — weighed down with conservatives.  If they skip over the front-runners, and pick an African Pope — and a lot of developing world Catholics are holding their breaths hoping for that — you can bet that African Pope will be even more conservative than any of the Europeans in the running.  They execute homosexuals in much of Africa.

The Italians (who are a lot less religious than they are Catholic) really would hate that — or, at least, their calcio (soccer) fans would hate it, judging by all the recent racist rhetoric about Mario Balotelli and a couple of Muslim drafts.  I suspect the Süden Deutsch also will be less than thrilled.

Those of us in the civilized world (wherever the hell we are) should not expect much. After we're all dead, our progeny or our progeny's progeny's progeny may be able to look back on what happened — if they're allowed.