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William Tecumseh Sherman

War is the complete failure of human society and the negation of higher civilisation. It is always about land claims, power expansion, control, whether for religious or political reasons, and in the end it benefits no one but sets civilisation back decades!

In the end, we are just technologically advanced, aggressive apes with outdated territorial behaviour.

To understand why Donald Trump views the U.S. Constitution, international treaties, and federal judges not as sacred pillars of democracy, but as minor speedbumps, you have to stop looking at modern political science. You must look at his biography.

The strategy deployed from the Oval Office is the literal, hyper-scaled continuation of a ruthless boardroom playbook designed fifty years ago in the smoke-filled restaurants of Manhattan. Its architect was Roy Cohn—the notorious, brilliant, and deeply unprincipled attorney who served as chief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy during the 1950s Red Scare, defended New York’s most powerful Mafia bosses (like Fat Tony Salerno and John Gotti), and became young Donald Trump’s ultimate ideological programmer in 1973 [🔍].

From 1973 until today, Trump’s entire public and political existence has been a flawless execution of the Roy Cohn Playbook. It is a lifelong methodology of calculated chaos, aggressive lawlessness, and systemic gaslighting.

🧱 1. The Core Doctrines of the Cohn Playbook

Roy Cohn taught Trump that the legal system is not an instrument of justice; it is an arena of pure combat. The script consists of four immutable laws that Trump has deployed relentlessly across five decades:

Rule 1: Never Settle, Never Apologize 🚫: Admissions of error are viewed as fatal weaknesses. If you are caught red-handed, double down.

Rule 2: Counter-Attack Instantly ⚔️: If someone sues or investigates you, immediately sue them back, attack their character, and destroy their credibility in the press before the case ever reaches a courtroom.

Rule 3: Delay and Overload the System ⏳: Flood the courts with endless motions, appeals, and procedural technicalities. Overload the judicial machinery until the opponent runs out of money or the judge surrenders to exhaustion.

Rule 4: Shape Your Own Reality 🔮: Truth is not an objective fact; it is a transactional variable. If you repeat a fabrication with absolute confidence and aggressive frequency, it becomes reality for your followers.

📅 The Chronological Execution: 1970s to Today

To see the terrifying consistency of this DNA, we only need to map how Trump applied Cohn’s lessons across his entire public life, transforming a local real estate tactic into a tool for national transformation:

🏢 The 1970s: The Birth of Defiance (The DOJ Housing Case)

In 1973, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the Trump Management Corporation for systematically discriminating against Black apartment applicants. Most business owners would have quietly settled to protect their brand.

The Cohn Move: Trump hired Roy Cohn. Instead of settling, Cohn launched a massive $100 million counter-suit against the federal government, accusing the DOJ of "Gestapo tactics." While the counter-suit was swiftly dismissed, the aggressive delay allowed Trump to eventually sign a consent decree two years later with zero admission of guilt. Trump learned that bullying the federal government works.

🎰 The 1980s: Stiffing Subcontractors & Casino Chaos

Throughout his rise as a Manhattan real estate mogul and Atlantic City casino owner, Trump perfected the art of contractual attrition. He routinely hired local carpenters, plumbers, and architects to build projects like the Taj Mahal, waited for the work to be completed, and then refused to pay them, or offered 30 cents on the dollar.

The Cohn Move: When the ruined small businesses sued, Trump utilized Cohn’s exhaustion strategy. His legal teams dragged out the litigation for years. Independent contractors went bankrupt waiting for their day in court, forcing them to accept predatory settlements. Lawlessness became highly profitable.

📺 The 1990s & 2000s: The Weaponization of the Tabloids & Reality TV

When his Atlantic City empire collapsed into massive corporate bankruptcies in the early 1990s, Trump should have been financially ruined.

The Cohn Move: Applying the doctrine of shaping your own reality, Trump flooded the New York tabloids (and later, reality television with The Apprentice) with an aggressive narrative of supreme billionaire success. By weaponizing the press, he decoupled his public image from his actual financial failures, proving that controlled media narratives are more powerful than economic facts.

🏛️ The 2010s & 2020s: Scaling the Playbook to the Presidency

When Trump entered politics, the world watched in shock as he shattered every norm of American governance. In reality, he was simply applying the 1970s Manhattan real estate blueprint to the leader of the free world.

The Mueller Investigation & Impeachments: When investigated for foreign election interference or constitutional overreach, Trump didn't cooperate. He counter-attacked the investigators as "corrupt deep-state actors," delayed procedures via endless executive privilege claims, and repeated the phrase "Witch Hunt" until the public suffered from outrage fatigue.

The 2020 Election Denial: When he lost the election, he ran the ultimate Roy Cohn script: deny the reality, launch dozens of chaotic lawsuits to stress-test the system, and manufacture an alternative truth that culminated in the January 6th Capitol riot.

🚨 Today: Total Executive Immunity and Institutional Capture

The culmination of this lifelong methodology has reached its peak. The administration treats judicial constraints as optional suggestions [🔍].

The Modern Execution: When lower federal courts strike down unlawful executive decrees, the administration simply bypasses them via the Supreme Court's unreasoned Shadow Docket or instructs agencies like ICE to ignore richterliche injunctions completely [🔍, 🔍]. By implementing Schedule F to purge independent experts from federal watchdog agencies, the executive has scaled Cohn's tactic of destroying the referee to its absolute, terrifying conclusion [🔍].

🏁 The Final Verdict

Donald Trump is not a traditional politician who can be contained by fact-checkers, legal precedents, or constitutional definitions of truth. His entire 50-year biography is a continuous, highly successful triumph over the written law.

He does not respect the rules of democracy because Roy Cohn taught him that the rules are the greatest vulnerability of those who try to enforce them. The structural chaos, the endless stream of fabrications, and the systemic defiance of the courts on the nightly news are not signs of a system malfunction; it is the algorithm of a corporate hostile takeover operating exactly as designed by an old Mafia lawyer half a century ago.

👁️ A Crucial Lesson in Mentorship:"History reminds us that learning from the absolute best in a field does not mean they ever intended to teach you how to do good—sometimes, the most brilliant teachers are simply masters of the dark, training their disciples not to build a better world, but to dismantle it with flawless efficiency." 🎭♟️

We enjoyed every one of his films, and by the way, hats off to him for reaching 95 years of age... very few people manage that. Thank you for the entertaining break from our everyday lives into a world of excellent cinema. mod

🎬 Career highlights

Duvall was active in film and television for over seven decades and was considered a master of naturalistic acting.

Breakthrough: He made his film debut in 1962 as Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Cult roles:

Tom Hagen in The Godfather I & II (Mafia lawyer/consigliere).

Lt. Col. Kilgore in Apocalypse Now (‘I love the smell of napalm in the morning’).

Gus McCrae in the western series Lonesome Dove (his personal favourite role).

Directing & screenwriting: Among other things, he directed Apostle! (1997), for which he received an Oscar nomination.

🏆 Awards

Duvall was nominated for an Oscar seven times and won once:

Oscar (Best Actor): 1984 for Tender Mercies as an alcoholic country singer.

Other awards: He won two Emmy Awards and four Golden Globes.

👤 Personal

Background: Born in San Diego as the son of an admiral, he served in the US Army during the Korean War.

Personal life: He has been married four times, most recently since 2005 to Argentine actress Luciana Pedraza, who is 41 years his junior.

Style: He was known for his extreme versatility and ability to disappear completely into his roles without using ‘method acting’ – he simply followed the script.

🏛️ From May 8th to the Chisel: Why We Must Tell a Better Story of Democracy 🔨

It all began with May 8, 1945. 🕊️

A day that changed the world forever. The guns fell silent, the concentration camps were liberated, and the nightmare of the Nazi regime finally came to an end. It was the Day of Liberation—a moment of profound relief, but also the start of a massive responsibility. The ruins were still smoking, and the question hung in the air: What comes next?

Fast forward to September 14, 1945. Hamburg, Germany. 🇩🇪

A man named Paul Bebert stands on a scaffold in front of the trade union building at Besenbinderhof. He is a survivor of a concentration camp and a founder of the construction union. In his hand, he holds a hammer and a chisel. With every strike, he chips away at the stone swastika—the emblem of the Nazi "German Labour Front."

May 8th gave us the chance for a new beginning; Paul Bebert showed us the work required to actually build it. It wasn't just manual labor. It was an act of reclaiming the narrative.

🌍 The Warning: Sliding into the Abyss

If we want to avoid sliding into another global catastrophe, we cannot afford the luxury of silence. History isn’t just something that happened; it’s something that can repeat if we lose the plot. 📉

Today, we see the signs again:

Polarization that turns neighbors into enemies. 🗣️↔️👤

Apathy that makes us believe our voices don't matter. 🔇

Misinformation that blurs the line between truth and power. 🌫️

We are at a tipping point. To prevent a drift into disaster, responsible citizens must do more than just exist—they must participate.

📖 Telling a "Better Story" ✍️

Democracy is often sold as a set of dry rules and slow bureaucracy. That is a terrible story.

The better story of democracy is one of:

Defiance: Like Bebert, it’s about having the courage to tear down symbols of hate that the victory of May 8th finally allowed us to touch. ✊

Belonging: It’s the only system where everyone gets a seat at the table. 🤝Hope: It’s a work-in-progress, a "living building" that we are constantly repairing. 🏗️

📢 Your Hammer and Chisel

You don't need a scaffold at Besenbinderhof to make a difference. Your "hammer and chisel" are your words, your votes, and your actions. 🛠️

Raise your voice: Speak up when you hear hate speech. Silence is often mistaken for consent. 🗣️

✨Remember May 8th: Never forget that peace and freedom were fought for at a high price.

📚Active Citizenship: Democracy isn't a spectator sport. It requires "responsible citizens" who care about the collective future.

🗳️The catastrophe is not inevitable. It only happens if we stop telling the story of why freedom is worth the work.

Let’s pick up the tools Paul Bebert left behind and keep building. 🗽🌅

1. Israel (as of March/April 2026)

With the passage of the new terrorism law in March 2026, Israel has created a legal framework that operates de facto in a selective manner.

Selection mechanism: The law prescribes the death penalty for murders intended to weaken the State of Israel or prevent Jewish resettlement. Since Israeli citizens are largely exempt from mandatory application and the definition of politically motivated acts targets almost exclusively Palestinian resistance or terrorism, it is internationally classified as a discriminatory law against Palestinians [1, 2].

2. South Africa during apartheid (1948–1994)

Although the law sounded formally neutral, the judiciary was a tool of white supremacy.

Selection mechanism: Black defendants were systematically sentenced to death, especially when the victims were white. Between 1910 and 1989, hundreds of Black people were executed, while during the same period not a single white person received the death penalty for the murder of a Black person [3].

3. Nazi Germany (1933–1945)

The Nazi regime created explicit special rights for “foreign peoples.”

Selection mechanism: The “Polish Criminal Law Ordinance” (1941) established a separate criminal code for Poles and Jews in the occupied territories. This system prescribed the death penalty for offenses (e.g., “anti-German statements”) that were not punishable at all or only minimally punishable for Germans [4].

4. USA (Systemic Bias / Jim Crow Era)

Until the 1960s, the death penalty was effectively used as an instrument of racial control in the southern states of the USA.

Selection mechanism: Between 1930 and 1967, almost exclusively Black men were executed for the crime of rape (405 out of 455 executions), while in the overwhelming majority of cases the victims were white [5].

Conclusion: With the 2026 legislation, Israel joins the list of countries where the death penalty is no longer legally enshrined or applied as a general means of punishment, but rather as a selective instrument against a specific national or ethnic group (in this case, Palestinians in the occupied territories).

Here are the key sources for analyzing current legislation in Israel and making historical comparisons:

Current Sources on Israel (March/April 2026)

The Knesset (Official Records): Minutes of the passage of the “Death Penalty for Terrorists Law” (March 2026), which specifically targets acts against the Jewish state and resettlement. [1]

Amnesty International: Report dated March 30, 2026: “Israel: Newly adopted discriminatory death penalty law is a blatant violation of international law.” [2]

Human Rights Watch (HRW): Press release dated March 31, 2026: “Israel’s new death penalty law codifies a dual legal system based on ethnicity.” [3]

UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): Statement by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressing concern over the selective application of the death penalty in the occupied territories (April 2026). [4]

Historical Sources

South Africa (Apartheid): South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR): “Capital Punishment in South Africa” – Statistical analysis of executions by skin color (1910–1989). [5]

Nazi Germany: Reich Law Gazette (RGBI) 1941, Part I, p. 759: Ordinance on Criminal Justice against Poles and Jews in the Annexed Eastern Territories (“Polish Criminal Justice Ordinance”). [6]

USA (Racial Discrimination): Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC): “Race and the Death Penalty” – Analysis of execution figures for rape (1930–1967) and the “White Victim Bias.” [7]

Summary of the basis in international law

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR): Articles 6 and 14, which explicitly prohibit discrimination in the imposition of the death penalty.

She was not admired for her psychological realism or technical skill, but for her extraordinary presence, her magnetic aura, and her radical performances.

Her acting was inextricably linked to her life: she understood womanhood and glamour as an art form that she lived 24 hours a day.

Here are the key facets of her acting talent and career:

The embodiment of Hollywood glamour

Candy Darling’s style was a deliberate, hyper-feminine homage to the film divas of the 1930s and 40s, particularly Kim Novak, Joan Bennett, and Lana Turner. Her strength lay in the fact that she did not simply parody these role models, but filled them with deep sincerity and elegance. On screen, she often appeared ethereal, vulnerable, and at the same time unapproachable.

Her Roles in Andy Warhol’s Films

At Andy Warhol’s Factory, she became one of the most famous “Superstars.” Warhol and his directors (especially Paul Morrissey) often shot without a fixed script, which demanded an enormous capacity for improvisation from the actors.

Flesh (1968): Here she demonstrated her talent for humorous, almost satirical dialogue. Critics often highlighted her performance as the highlight of the otherwise raw underground film.

Women in Revolt (1971): In this satire on the women’s rights movement, she played a wealthy, elitist society woman. The film demonstrated her comedic talent and her ability to carry complex, contradictory characters.

The Leap into the Mainstream and the Theater

Unlike many other Warhol superstars, Candy Darling possessed genuine acting potential that was recognized even outside the avant-garde scene:

Klute (1971): She landed a small role in this Oscar-winning Hollywood thriller alongside Jane Fonda.

Theater Successes: She starred in Tennessee Williams’ play Small Craft Warnings (1972). Williams was so fascinated by her that he personally cast her in the role. She received very positive reviews for her performance from the discerning New York theater press, which cemented her status as a serious actress.

The Verdict of Critics and Colleagues

Critics often described her acting as a blend of camp, tragedy, and absolute authenticity. The famous theater critic of The New York Times praised her stage presence. For directors, she was the ideal choice because she perfectly embodied the concept of “illusion and reality”—a man playing a woman playing a Hollywood diva.

Candy Darling may not have been a traditionally trained character actress, but she was a brilliant performer. She possessed the rare talent of completely commanding the screen or stage and deeply moving the audience.

✨ WE DID IT! ✨

Thank you so much to everyone who helped me reach 5,000 likes! 😭💖

Every single note, reblog, and like means the absolute world to me. I started this blog just to share what I love, and seeing this community grow and connect has been the most rewarding experience. 🎉🥳

A special shoutout to:

✨ The mutuals who always hype up my posts 🫶

✨ The silent scrollers who drop a like on their feed 🤫❤️

✨ Every new follower who just joined the family 👋✨

I couldn't have hit this milestone without your incredible support. You all inspire me to keep creating and posting every day. Let’s keep this vibe going! 🚀💫

If you grew up in Europe during the late 20th or early 21st century, America wasn’t just a country on a map—it was an idea, a hyper-vibrant aesthetic, and a beacon of endless possibility. We watched the movies, listened to the music, and looked across the Atlantic with a sense of pure fascination. America was the "City upon a Hill," the ultimate engine of freedom and cultural cool.

But today, for many of us who once loved that idea, that fascination has turned into a profound sense of disappointment, alienation, and outright horror.

What went wrong? Why did the European infatuation with America collapse so dramatically?

🏛️ From "The Land of the Free" to Systemic Gridlock

The fascination died because the political reality of America today feels less like a functional democracy and more like a dystopian reality show.

The Weaponization of Everything ⚔️: European political systems have their flaws, but the absolute polarization in the US today feels terrifyingly alien. Politics is no longer about debating ideas; it has mutated into a tribal, binary warfare where compromising with the other side is seen as high treason.

The Erosion of Basic Rights 📜: Watching a nation that branded itself as the global pioneer of liberty actively dismantle established constitutional rights, target voting access, and weaponize the judicial system has sent shockwaves through the European consciousness.

The Oligarchy of Capital 💰: To European eyes, American politics today looks entirely bought out by corporate lobbying and dark money. When unlimited campaign donations dictate laws rather than the actual will of the public, the democratic illusion shatters.

💔 The Mirror Has Cracked: A Cultural Disconnect

It’s not just the policies; it’s the fundamental societal values. The things that once looked "bold and individualistic" now look dangerously individualistic to the point of cruelty.

Gun Culture over Human Life 🔫: The refusal to protect children in schools from gun violence due to an archaic, absolutist interpretation of a 250-year-old amendment is perhaps the single greatest source of European horror. It is a point where cultural fascination turns into total incomprehension.

The Absence of a Social Safety Net 🏥: Seeing citizens driven into bankruptcy by basic medical bills or college debt in the richest country on Earth doesn’t look like "freedom" anymore. It looks like a systemic failure to care for human dignity.

🥀 Nostalgia for a Country That Never Was?

Maybe the truth is that we were in love with a myth. We fell in love with Hollywood’s version of America, the Obama-era optimism, and the glossy pop-culture export.

It hurts to watch a superpower—one that Europe historically relied on as a foundational ally and ideological big brother—collapse into a state of permanent internal cold war. We aren't looking down on America; we are mourning it. We are terrified because we know that when the American democratic experiment destabilizes, the fallout shakes the entire Western world.

The fascination is gone. What remains is a deep, worried skepticism.

mod

🎞️ Postscript: A Personal Elegy to the America I Knew

To understand why this heartbreak runs so deep, I have to take you back to my youth.

Back then, I worked for the U.S. military in Europe. I was a driver and translator for the Air Force, and to be honest, it was the coolest job in the world. This was back in the 1990s, during the era of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" [🔍]. Officially, nobody was supposed to be anything other than heterosexual in the armed forces. But the reality on the ground? Nobody cared.

I drove gay officers, straight officers, people of every skin color and background imaginable. Skin color and sexual orientation didn't matter; competence and character did. Everyone I met was incredibly open, warm, and genuinely cool 😎. Politics wasn’t a taboo subject. We had fierce, heated debates, we tore arguments apart—but afterward, we grabbed a beer, laughed, and remained close friends. The mutual respect was unbreakable.

Shortly after that time, we embarked on a road trip across the United States. It was an America that feels like a myth today. We literally entered the country with nothing but our ID cards [🔍], drove through the vast landscape, and met a nation that felt unified in its diversity.

Fast forward to today, and the irony is absolute: with the current paranoid border controls and strict ideological screening, I can probably guarantee you that I wouldn't even be allowed to enter the country anymore—honestly, probably just for writing this exact post. You know, welcome to the famous "Land of the Free" (as long as you don't use your freedom of speech to criticize the system). 🛂🙄❌

That is what makes today’s reality so utterly unbearable.

Watching the country of those open-minded Air Force guys—a nation where you could disagree without hating each other—mutate into a paranoid, hyper-fragmented fortress is tragic. A road trip like that today wouldn't feel the same. The carefree openness has been replaced by suspicion, borders have hardened, and the toxic political tribalism has poisoned the very well of American hospitality.

I don’t hate America. I just deeply, profoundly miss the one that actually existed.