<html><head></head><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:HelveticaNeue, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, Lucida Grande, sans-serif;font-size:16px"><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489051750910_11819">Dear Empyreans</div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489051750910_11887"><br></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489051750910_11888"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:HyphenationZone>21</w:HyphenationZone>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
</w:Compatibility>
<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object
classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id=ieooui></object>
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Tabla normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0cm;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
</style>
<![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026"/>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1"/>
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</div><div style="text-align:justify;line-height:17.0pt;mso-line-height-rule:exactly;tab-stops:270.0pt" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489051750910_11900"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489051750910_11901" lang="EN-GB">*The
global Trump effect* seems to me a well chosen phrase because it’s easy to
forget that governments are made up of groups of people, not just one person, even
in truly authoritarian regimes or dictatorships. So global obviously means both
around the world, *international*, as well as *overall* in the sense of the
whole administration around the figure of the presidency. I can’t sense fully
the day to day experiences in the US
of things like attacks on religious temples, on people because of their faiths,
on gender or sexual orientations, because I live in Barcelona. I mean, yes, things like that
happen here and all over the world, but I personally can’t feel them happening
as they’re happening anywhere else. But I keep up as I can through the
press—that same press Donald Trump rails against—and I’ve tried to act against
such attacks since my undergrad years in the 60s. Last month I posted a short
assessment of *global Trump* on my personal weblog, link below. Today I think
the press both onpaper and online is responding courageously to the dangers of
Trumpism. And people in public demonstrations as well—against arms sales, for
one thing. In the 70s I read a short press piece by Eduardo Galeano about a man
in a South American country who had been detained for political reasons.
Galeano says the man had been lined up against a chain link fence along with
the other people. The armed police had told them to stand there with their
hands on the fence. He found himself so frightened that his hands were trembling
and rattling the metal links. Ashamed to appear so cowardly he took his hands
off the fence, disobeying the orders of the soldiers. And the fence went right
on rattling. As to analysis of *the global Trump effect* (and democracy in
general—government in general) I think it is a question of common sense--maybe common e-sense. Thanks
to Empyre-l for the ongoing forum. Best regards, William (link to 21 February blogpost >>> <br></span></div><div style="text-align:justify;line-height:17.0pt;mso-line-height-rule:exactly" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489051750910_13761"><a href="http://tinyurl.com/pkemmhk" target="_blank" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489051750910_13762"><span style="mso-ansi-language:EN-GB" id="yui_3_16_0_ym19_1_1489051750910_13763" lang="EN-GB">http://tinyurl.com/pkemmhk</span></a></div>
</div></body></html>