Betty MacDonald Fan Club. Join fans of the beloved writer Betty MacDonald (1907-58). The original Betty MacDonald Fan Club and literary Society. Welcome to Betty MacDonald Fan Club and Betty MacDonald Society - the official Betty MacDonald Fan Club Website with members in 40 countries.
Betty MacDonald, the author of The Egg and I and the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Series is beloved all over the world. Don't miss Wolfgang Hampel's Betty MacDonald biography and his very witty interviews on CD and DVD!
Thank you so much in advance for your support and interest.
Betty MacDonald's unique books have been published around the world.
That's a beautiful edition of Betty MacDonald's The plague and I. Do you know the language? Send us a mail, please and you might be our next Betty MacDonald fan club surprise winner.
Thank you so much in advance for your support and interest.
Dear Betty MacDonald fan club fans thank you so much for sharing very important letters, documents and audio interviews for our updated Betty MacDonald biography and documentary.
Hello 'Pussy' it's Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and Pippi Longstocking:
Political
messages are a tradition in German Carnival parades. This year, the
city of Düsseldorf has a special one for Donald Trump: On one float, the
President is seen raping the Statue of Liberty. On another one, Lady
Liberty is beheading Trump. The slogan painted on her chest: "America,
Resist!"
The Statue is smiling victoriously, holding up the
President's separated head, the constitution in her other hand. Both
floats followed one another in Düsseldorf's Carnival parade this Monday,
telling a story for the spectators: The constitution is under attack -
and retaliates. Crowds were cheering when both floats were displayed.
We enjoy it very much. And you?
Do you have any idea why we feel so ashamed? I do!
Should I remain in bed, leave my country or fight against the dragon?
( see also the story by Wolfgang Hampel, ' Betty MacDonald: Nothing more to say ' )
Betty and Don MacDonald in Hollywood
Betty MacDonald's mother Sydney with grandchild Alison Beck
Thank you so much in advance for your support and interest.
Can you remember Deargrandmother, ( Sydney Bard's mother) who addressed her monthly letters to Betty with ' Dear Child Bride'.
You can find it in Betty MacDonald's THE EGG AND I, Chapter XV, 'Fancy work versus the printed word'.
I have to laugh aloud every time when I'm reading this.
Betty began to write long letters to family and friends and this was the start of THE EGG AND I.
I really enjoy Betty MacDonald's, Mary Bard Jensen's, Sydney
Bard's letters but my favourites are letters by Gammy and son Darsie
Bard.
I met a wonderful lady in London 2016.
She told me she had several letters by Betty MacDonald addressed
to her gandmother.
Wolfgang Hampel and Betty MacDonald fan club research team are working on an updated Betty MacDonald biography.
This
very new Betty MacDonald biography includes all the results we got
during a very successful Betty MacDonald fan club research which started
in 1983.
You'll be able to find unique Betty MacDonald treasures in our Betty MacDonald biography.
Betty MacDonald biography includes for example interviews with Betty MacDonald, her family and friends.
We got many letters by Betty MacDonald and other family members even very important original ones.
Our
goal is to publish a Betty MacDonald biography that shows all the
details of Betty MacDonald's life and work but also to present her
fascinating siblings.
Dear Betty MacDonald fan club fans let us know please what you are interested most in a future Betty MacDonald biography.
Our next Betty MacDonald fan club project is a collection of these unique dedications.
If you
share your dedication from your Betty MacDonald - and Mary Bard Jensen
collection you might be the winner of our new Betty MacDonald fan club
items.
Thank you so much in advance for your support.
Thank you so much for sending us your favourite Betty MacDonald quote.
Thank you so much for sharing this witty memories with us.
Wolfgang Hampel's literary event Vita Magica
is very fascinating because he is going to include Betty MacDonald,
other members of the Bard family and Betty MacDonald fan club honor
members.
I agree with Betty in this very witty Betty MacDonald story Betty MacDonald: Nothing more to say by Wolfgang Hampel.
I
can't imagine to live in a country with him as so-called elected
President although there are very good reasons to remain there to fight
against these brainless politics.
February 27, 2017
Floats mock president
Donald Trump rapes Statue of Liberty at German Carnival
Trump raping Liberty - a political message on a Carnival float in Düsseldorf, Germany.FOTO: afp, PST
Düsseldorf.
Political
messages are a tradition in German Carnival parades. This year, the
city of Düsseldorf has a special one for Donald Trump: On one float, the
President is seen raping the Statue of Liberty. On another one, Lady
Liberty is beheading Trump. The slogan painted on her chest: "America,
Resist!"
The Statue is smiling victoriously, holding up the
President's separated head, the constitution in her other hand. Both
floats followed one another in Düsseldorf's Carnival parade this Monday,
telling a story for the spectators: The constitution is under attack -
and retaliates. Crowds were cheering when both floats were displayed.
Don't miss these very interesting articles below, please.
Lately,
it appears Trump has gone back into the field to drag in a whole new
bunch of State contenders.
My favorite is Representative Dana
Rohrabacher of California, a person you have probably never heard of
even though he’s been in Congress since the 1980s and is currently head
of the prestigious Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats.
I think the future dinosaur flatulence will be the behaviour of 'Pussy' and his very strange government.
Poor World! Poor America!
Don't miss these very interesting articles below, please.
The most difficult case in Mrs.Piggle-Wiggle's career
Hello 'Pussy', this is Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.
You
took calls from foreign leaders on unsecured phone lines, without
consultung the State Department. We have to change your silly behaviour
with a new Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle cure. I know you are the most difficult
case in my career - but we have to try everything.......................
Betty MacDonald was sitting on her egg-shaped cloud and listened to a rather strange guy.
He said to his friends: So sorry to keep you waiting. Very complicated business! Very complicated!
Betty said: Obviously much too complicated for you old toupee!
Besides him ( by the way the First Lady's place ) his 10 year old son was bored to death and listened to this 'exciting' victory speech.
The old man could be his great-grandfather.
The
boy was very tired and thought: I don't know what this old guy is
talking about. Come on and finish it, please. I'd like to go to bed. Dear 'great-grandfather' continued and praised the Democratic candidate.
He always called her the most corrupt person ever and repeated it over and over again in the fashion of a Tibetan prayer wheel.
She is so corrupt. She is so corrupt. Do you know how corrupt she is?
Betty MacDonald couldn't believe it when he said: She
has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time, and we
owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country.
Afterwards old toupee praised his parents, wife, children, siblings and friends.
He asked the same question like a parrot all the time: Where are you? Where are you? Where are you? I know you are here!
Betty MacDonald answered: No Pussy they are not! They left the country.
They immigrated to Canada
because they are very much afraid of the future in the U.S.A. with you
as their leader like the majority of all so-called more or less normal
citizens.
This
is incredible! I'll You get what you pay/vote for and Trump is the
epitome of this ideology. America I won't feel bad for you because you
don't need my sympathy for what's coming but I am genuinely scared for
you. 'Forgive them lord for they know not who they do' or maybe they do
but just don't care about their future generations who will suffer for
this long after the culprits have passed away.
Wise guy, North Pole, Svalbard And Jan Mayen, 9 minutes ago
Is the USA like North Korea where you can't trust other politicians?
That's it.
Put Ivanka in! Put Ivanka in! Put my whole family and friends in! ' What about Putin?
Or the leaders from China and North Korea?
Wouldn't it be a great idea to put them in too?
What about very intelligent and qualified Sarah Palin?
In 2006, Palin obtained a passport[88] and in 2007 traveled for the first time outside of North America on a trip to Kuwait. There she visited the Khabari Alawazem Crossing at the Kuwait–Iraq border and met with members of the Alaska National Guard at several bases.[89] On her return journey she visited injured soldiers in Germany.[90] That's the reason why very intelligent and brilliant Sarah Palin knows the World very well. Sarah and ' Pussygate ' will rule America and the World - what a couple.
Wolfgang
Hampel's Betty MacDonald and Ma and Pa Kettle biography and Betty
MacDonald interviews have fans in 40 countries. I'm one of their many devoted fans.
Many Betty MacDonald - and Wolfgang Hampel fans are very interested in a Wolfgang Hampel CD and DVD with his
very funny poems and stories.
We are going to publish new Betty MacDonald essays on Betty MacDonald's gardens and nature in Washington State. Tell us the names of this mysterious couple please and you can win a very new Betty MacDonald documentary.
The series premiered on September 3,
1951, the same day as "Search for Tomorrow," and ended on August 1,
1952.
Although it did well in the ratings, it had difficulty
attracting a steady sponsor. This episode features Betty Lynn (later
known for her work on "The Andy Griffith Show") as Betty MacDonald, John
Craven as Bob MacDonald, Doris Rich as Ma Kettle, and Frank Twedell as
Pa Kettle.
Betty MacDonald fan club exhibition will be fascinating with the international book editions and letters by Betty MacDonald. I can't wait to see the new Betty MacDonald documentary.
Donald Trump rapes Statue of Liberty at German Carnival
Trump raping Liberty - a political message on a Carnival float in Düsseldorf, Germany.FOTO: afp, PST
Düsseldorf.
Political
messages are a tradition in German Carnival parades. This year, the
city of Düsseldorf has a special one for Donald Trump: On one float, the
President is seen raping the Statue of Liberty. On another one, Lady
Liberty is beheading Trump. The slogan painted on her chest: "America,
Resist!"
The Statue is smiling victoriously, holding up the
President's separated head, the constitution in her other hand. Both
floats followed one another in Düsseldorf's Carnival parade this Monday,
telling a story for the spectators: The constitution is under attack -
and retaliates. Crowds were cheering when both floats were displayed.
On the following float, Lady Liberty is seen with the President's separated head. FOTO: ap, mm Carnival parades take place all over Germany from Sunday
till Tuesday. The ones in Düsseldorf and in Cologne are the biggest of
their kind, each broadcast live in German television, and each with
1-1,5 million spectators on the streets.
"Carnival has a big tradition in Germany, it is famed for
its exuberance and its exaggerated images", the US embassy's press
department in Berlin stated, wishing a good time to all revelers. Carnival floats designed as political caricatures are a
big tradition in Germany, their motives publicly discussed. Last year, a
Düsseldorf float showed Donald Trump screaming at the Statue of
Liberty; "Make fascism great again" was the slogan painted on his hair.
Pictures of the float went viral in social media; international media like the "Washington Post" covered it.
Fotos: Die Mottowagen von Tilly beim Rosenmontagszug 2017FOTO: dpa, tba More pictures of this year's parade floats are available here - captions are in German. Responsible for the floats at the Düsseldorf Carnival
parade is Jacques Tilly, artist and cartoonist. This year, populist
movements around the world (including Germany) are the main topic of his
work. "We're experiencing a right-wing populist revolt, and it's
attacking the values of democracy", Tilly said about his creations. More about the Düsseldorf Carnival parade (in German) Hier geht es zur Bilderstrecke: Die Mottowagen von Tilly beim Rosenmontagszug 2017
Donald Trump will not attend White House correspondents' dinner
Donald Trump
on Saturday capped a week of tumultuous relations with the press by
saying he will not attend this year’s White House correspondents’
dinner, which is scheduled for 29 April.
“I will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner this year,” the president wrote on Twitter. “Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!”The news came as relations between the Trump administration and the news media, which he has called “the enemy of the American people”, have sunk to new lows. On Friday, leading outlets including the New York Times, CNN and the Guardian were excluded from a briefing by press secretary Sean Spicer while friendlier conservative organisations were admitted. Editors of excluded organisations expressed anger, although White
House Correspondents Association (WHCA) president Jeff Mason, of
Reuters, attempted to calm troubled waters. In a statement on Saturday, Mason said the WHCA “looks forward to
having its annual dinner” and added: “The WHCA takes note of President
Donald Trump’s announcement on Twitter that he does not plan to attend
the dinner, which has been and will continue to be a celebration of the
first amendment and the important role played by an independent news
media in a healthy republic. “We look forward to shining a spotlight at the dinner on some of the
best political journalism of the past year and recognizing the promising
students who represent the next generation of our profession.” Trump has recently reacted angrily to a series of reports citing anonymous sources
in the White House, law enforcement and intelligence agencies about
chaos in his administration, alleged contacts between campaign staff and
Russian agents, and White House attempts to rebut such reports.
This week Bloomberg
followed Vanity Fair and the New Yorker in saying it would not host a
party tied to the dinner. The New York Times has not attended the event
since 2008; the Guardian will not attend this year. This week, Buzzfeed reported that another favourite target of Trump’s, CNN, was considering pulling out as well. Trump followed a familiar path on Friday night, when he wrote on
Twitter: “FAKE NEWS media knowingly doesn’t tell the truth. A great
danger to our country. The failing @nytimes has become a joke. Likewise @CNN. Sad!” Many observers have linked Trump’s run for the presidency with events at the 2011 correspondents’ dinner, in which Barack Obama ridiculed the businessman, who was in attendance, over his championing of the so-called “birther” movement.
The dinner is a traditionally lighthearted affair, celebrities mixing
with journalists at tables and comedians “roasting” the president of
the day, as Stephen Colbert did to George W Bush in an infamous speech from 2006. The president traditionally speaks as well.The first dinner was held in 1921
and Calvin Coolidge was the first president to attend, in 1924. Since
then every president has attended the dinner at least once.
Ronald Reagan did not attend in 1981
– after being shot – and Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon did not always
sit down for dinner. Obama attended all eight events while he was in
office.According to the History Channel
the dinner has been cancelled three times: following the death of
former president William Howard Taft, in 1930, after the US entry into
the second world war in 1942, and in 1951, during the Korean war. In January, Trump skipped the Alfalfa Club dinner, another key event
in the social calendar of a city in which the president is happy to pose
as an outsider. Rob Mahoney, deputy executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists,
told the Guardian on Saturday Trump should “act as a champion of press
freedom” around the world, rather than attacking the media in a way that
could “send a signal to other countries that it is OK to verbally abuse
journalists and undermine their credibility”. In a statement, Guardian US editor Lee Glendinning said the exclusion
of news outlets from Friday’s briefing was “deeply troubling and
divisive” and added: “Holding power to account is an essential part of
the democratic process, and that’s exactly what the Guardian will
continue to do.”
Since you’re here …
…
we’ve got a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian
than ever, but far fewer are paying for it. Advertising revenues across
the media are falling fast. And unlike some other news organisations, we
haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism open to all.
So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardian’s
independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and
hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective
matters – because it might well be your perspective, too.
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps to support it, our future would be much more secure.
Trump’s Blistering Speech at CPAC Follows Bannon’s Blueprint
Trump Tears Into the Media at CPAC
President Trump spoke at length about
news coverage of his administration on Friday, just hours before some
news outlets, including The New York Times, were turned away from a
press briefing at the White House.
OXON HILL, Md. — Stephen K. Bannon brought the battle plan. President Trump brought the fight.
A
day after his secretive chief strategist laid out a hard-edged new
definition of conservatism animated by attacks on “the administrative
state,” globalism and the “corporatist media,” Mr. Trump delivered a
visceral gut punch of a speech that executed almost all of the tactics
that define the forever-war philosophy of the Trump-Bannon West Wing.
Speaking to the Conservative Political Action Conference
on Friday, Mr. Trump launched what was easily the most blistering
attack on the media and corporate elites of his already bellicose and
eventful presidency. His speech also included a promise to throw
undocumented immigrants “the hell out of the country” and a recitation
of his law-and-order campaign promises. It represented a not-entirely
friendly takeover of CPAC, an establishment Republican group whose
leadership once viewed the party’s surprise standard-bearer as a noisy
interloper.
Mr.
Bannon, the former Breitbart chief executive who has a hand in nearly
every scripted public Trump utterance, had expressed a similar sentiment
at the conference the day before. “If you think they’re going to give
you your country back without a fight, you are sadly mistaken,” he said
during an appearance with Reince Priebus, the White House chief of
staff. “Every day, it is going to be a fight.”
His
onstage discussion, it turned out, was a philosophy-infused preview of
Mr. Trump’s populist broadsides, with an admonition to anyone who
continues to underestimate the determination of the Trump White House to
disrupt the Washington establishment.
Mr.
Trump’s less restrained approach energized CPAC attendees who had once
viewed the developer-turned-reality-star as a self-promotional celebrity
curiosity — they serenaded him with chants of “Trump” and “U.S.A.” And
his message is resonating with Republican voters, over 80 percent of
whom approve of his job performance, despite historically low levels of
support among all voters.
But
Mr. Trump is intensifying his assault on his enemies on the eve of his
first national address before a joint session of Congress, a time when
most new presidents are moving in the opposite direction, pivoting from
martial campaign rhetoric to the more positive, inclusive language of
governance needed to build the coalition necessary to pass major
legislation.
On
an operational level, Mr. Trump’s inexperienced but confident White
House staff members — dominated by Mr. Bannon — are leaning on Hill
Republicans to draft tax overhaul measures and a replacement bill for
the Affordable Care Act. In the meantime, they have focused on enacting a
series of quick-splash executive orders, an approach often adopted by
presidents at the end of their terms when their legislative leverage has
been exhausted.
As
they did during the campaign, Mr. Trump and Mr. Bannon believe they are
tapping into an American public less interested in the standard
optimistic tropes of presidential politics and more interested in
someone who speaks truth to their anxieties. Moreover, aides to Mr.
Trump say he fares best when he’s able to target — and nickname — an
opponent, whether it is “Little Marco” Rubio, “Crooked Hillary” Clinton
or the “Fake News” media.
Mr.
Bannon, bookish and prone to surrounding himself with like-minded young
acolytes, previewed Mr. Trump’s media-bashing during the Thursday
session. “They’re corporatist, globalist media that are adamantly
opposed — adamantly opposed to an economic nationalist agenda like Donald Trump
has,” he said. “I think if you look at the opposition party and how
they portray the campaign, how they portrayed the transition and now
they’re portraying the administration, it’s always wrong.”
The
attacks on the news media come at a time when the press has been
reporting on the Trump campaign’s apparent connections to Russia, the
botched rollout of Mr. Trump’s executive order on immigration and the
forced resignation of Michael T. Flynn, the national security adviser,
after less than a month on the job.
“They’re very smart, they’re very cunning and they’re very dishonest,” Mr. Trump said on a day when his press secretary scrapped his daily briefing
for an invitation-only off-camera gaggle for selected reporters. The
move, people familiar with the situation said, was enthusiastically
backed by Mr. Bannon.
The
symbiotic political and personal relationship between the two men — the
rumpled near-recluse and the compulsively public and image-conscious
president — is driving much of the momentum and dysfunction of the White
House, aides say.
For
all his talk of creating a blueprint for a Trumpian conservatism that
outlasts the president’s career, Mr. Bannon is not regarded as a
detail-oriented manager, and he let slip during his CPAC appearance that
things in the White House have gone well — but only “to the degree we
were planning” them.
There
is not a lot of daylight between Mr. Trump and Mr. Bannon on the
issues, although the president often jokes that Mr. Bannon’s economic
populist agenda makes it hard to tell if the former Naval officer and
Goldman Sachs executive is “alt-right or alt-left,” according to a Trump
associate friendly with both.
The
biggest difference between the president and his chief strategist is
that Mr. Trump is far less constrained by the dictates of any single
philosophy — even Mr. Bannon’s vision of Trumpism — than Mr. Bannon, who
sees history as a succession of movements and power struggles.
And
while Mr. Bannon described the president as “maniacally focused” on
fulfilling his campaign promises, Mr. Trump often loses focus, as he did
during numerous digressions from his scripted remarks on Friday.
He
unleashed the latest in a succession of surprise rhetorical attacks on
longstanding American allies, extemporizing about a friend named Jim who
had told him to avoid the “City of Lights” because after several
terrorist attacks, “Paris is no longer Paris.”
Clearly
reveling in the adulation of a room that had once been hard to win, the
president alternated between a theme of dark days — once again singling
out violence on the streets of Chicago — and light comedy. Speaking of a
meeting with business leaders this week that included food producers,
he quipped, “I like Campbell’s soup.”
He also joked about his first appearance at this annual conservative conclave.
“If
you remember, it was my first major speech. They said he didn’t get a
standing ovation — because everybody stood,” Mr. Trump said of the
speech, in 2011.
“I
had very little notes and even less preparation,” he said. “And then
you leave, and everybody is thrilled, and I say, ‘I like this
business.’”
Beijing has hit back at Donald Trump after the US president risked reigniting a simmering feud with China by accusing it of being the “grand champion” of currency manipulation. After months of turbulence and uncertainty between the world’s two
biggest economies, relations appeared to settle two weeks ago after the
US president and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, held their first phone conversation since the billionaire’s inauguration. However, in an interview with Reuters
on Thursday that also saw Trump reiterate his desire for American
nuclear supremacy, the US president, who has attacked China over trade,
Taiwan, North Korea and the South China Sea, threatened to undermine the
tentative rapprochement with a fresh verbal assault.
“I think they’re grand champions at manipulation of currency. So I haven’t held back. We’ll see what happens,” Trump said.The president’s comments were reported just hours after the incoming
treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, made apparently contradictory
remarks signalling that the White House had no immediate plans to label China a currency manipulator – something Trump had pledged to do on his first day in office.Beijing rejected Trump’s claims on Friday, with the foreign ministry
spokesperson Geng Shuang claiming his country had “no intention of
deliberately devaluing its currency to gain a trade advantage”. Asked by the Guardian about Trump’s claims of currency manipulation,
Geng said: “If you must pin the label of ‘grand champion’ ... on China,
then we are a grand champion of economic development. We’ve made great
achievements since the start of economic reform and opening-up, making
us the undisputed grand champion.”
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Chinese
scholars expressed frustration at the president’s allegation. “He has
such a big mouth. What can we do about it? Let him talk,” said Zhu Feng,
a professor of international relations at Nanjing University. Economists both within and outside China reject Trump’s claim –
repeatedly aired during his campaign – that China is guilty of
purposefully forcing down the value of its currency, the renminbi or
yuan, in order to boost its own exporters and hamstring US
manufacturers. “The logic of Trump’s claim is that he believes other countries keep
their currencies artificially cheap to increase their exports to the US.
[But] as a matter of fact, the Chinese yuan has seen a 13% devaluation
since last year,” Zhu said, pointing out that Trump had previously also
accused South Korea and Japan of manipulating their currencies. Christopher Balding, a Peking University finance professor, said:
“China is clearly manipulating its currency, there’s no two ways about
it. But at this point they are essentially propping up the value of
their currency rather than manipulating it lower to gain an unfair trade
advantage. “To some degree Trump is correct, that of any major economy they
probably are the grand champions of currency manipulation,” he added. “But we need to very clearly distinguish between manipulating a
currency to gain an unfair trade advantage – which they were pretty
clearly doing maybe a decade to five years ago but they are clearly not
doing that these days – and propping up the currency.” Over the past year, China’s central bank has spent billions of
dollars in foreign exchange reserves shoring up the yuan to counter
capital outflows, Reuters reported.
Trump told Reuters that he wants the US to expand its nuclear arsenal, in his first comments on the issue since taking office.
He
said: “We’re never going to fall behind any country even if it’s a
friendly country. We’re never going to fall behind on nuclear power.It
would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes,
but if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top
of the pack.” In statement,
the Arms Control Association said Trump’s position was misguided: “Mr
Trump’s comments suggest, once again, that he is ill-informed about
nuclear weapons and has a poor understanding of the unique dangers of
nuclear weapons. “The history of the cold war shows us that no one comes out on ‘top of the pack’ of an arms race and nuclear brinksmanship.” Additional reporting by Wang Zhen
Since you’re here …
…
we’ve got a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian
than ever, but far fewer are paying for it. Advertising revenues across
the media are falling fast. And unlike some other news organisations, we
haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism open to all.
So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardian’s
independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and
hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective
matters – because it might well be your perspective, too.
If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps to support it, our future would be much more secure.
From an Anchor’s Lips to Trump’s Ears to Sweden’s Disbelief
A group of refugees walking
on a highway in Denmark toward Sweden in 2015. Statistics in Sweden
found no appreciable increase in crimes from 2015, when the country
processed a record 163,000 asylum applications, to 2016.Credit
Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
PALM
BEACH, Fla. — On Friday night, Fox News aired an alarming six-minute
segment in which the host, Tucker Carlson, interviewed a documentary
filmmaker about a crisis of violence in Sweden ignited by the recent wave of Muslim migration.
“The government has gone out of its way to try to cover up some of these problems,” declared Ami Horowitz, the filmmaker.
“That is grotesque,” Mr. Carlson responded.
One
of his viewers agreed, and in that moment was born a diplomatic
incident that illustrates the unusual approach that President Trump
takes to foreign policy, as well as the influence that television can
have on his thinking. After watching the program, Mr. Trump threw a line
into a speech the next day suggesting that a terrorist attack had
occurred in Sweden the night before.
Just
like that, without white papers, intelligence reports, an interagency
meeting or, presumably, the advice of his secretary of state, the
president started a dispute with a longtime American friend that
resented his characterization and called it false. The president’s only
discernible goal was to make the case domestically for his plans to
restrict entry to the United States.
The Swedes were flabbergasted.
“We
are used to seeing the president of the U.S. as one of the most
well-informed persons in the world, also well aware of the importance of
what he says,” Carl Bildt, a former prime minister of Sweden, said by
email on Monday. “And then, suddenly, we see him engaging in
misinformation and slander against a truly friendly country, obviously
relying on sources of a quality that at best could be described as
dubious.”
While
aides sought to clarify that Mr. Trump’s remarks were about a rising
tide of crime in general, rather than any particular event or attack,
the president chose to escalate. In a Twitter post on Monday, he accused
American journalists of glossing over a dark and dangerous situation in
Sweden. “Give the public a break,” he wrote. “The FAKE NEWS media is trying to say that large scale immigration in Sweden is working out just beautifully. NOT!”
Sweden’s
prime minister, Stefan Lofven, responded hours later at a news
conference, noting that Sweden ranks highly on international comparisons
of economic competitiveness and human development.
“We
have challenges, no doubt about that,” he allowed. But he added
pointedly, “We must all take responsibility for using facts correctly
and for verifying anything we spread.”
Sweden
is hardly the first American friend to find itself uncomfortably at
odds with the new president. Mexico’s president canceled a meeting with
Mr. Trump over his plans to build a border wall and bill the United
States’ southern neighbor for it. Mr. Trump reportedly lit into
Australia’s prime minister over refugees in a telephone call that was
said to have ended abruptly.
But
the episode underscored that Mr. Trump obtains, processes and uses
information differently from any modern president. He watches television
at night and tends to incorporate what he sees into his Twitter feed,
speeches and interviews.
“It
begs the question of where the president gets his information as he
articulates his administration’s global approach,” said Mark Brzezinski,
the ambassador to Sweden under President Barack Obama. “To do so in an
improvisational way, based on snippets picked up from cable news, is a
major mistake.”
Immigration
is a hotly debated issue in Sweden, Germany and many other European
countries. Sweden, which prides itself as a humanitarian leader,
processed a record 163,000 asylum applications in 2015. But statistics
in Sweden do not back up the suggestion that immigrants have created a
major crime wave.
Preliminary
data released last month by Sweden’s crime prevention council found no
significant increase in crimes from 2015 to 2016, even with the influx
of migrants. The council did note an increase in assaults and rapes last
year, but it also recorded a drop in thefts and drug offenses. Still, a
Pew Research Center survey last year found that 46 percent of Swedes
said refugees were more to blame for crime than other groups.
Manne
Gerell, a doctoral student in criminology at Malmo University in
Sweden, said in an interview that immigrants were disproportionately
represented among crime suspects, particularly in more serious and
violent offenses. But he noted that many of the victims were other
immigrants, whether members of criminal networks or simply residents of
poor neighborhoods.
“Immigration
will come with some cost, and we will likely have a bit more crime —
but that’s in a society with low crime rates and in a society that works
really well, so in my opinion, it’s something we can live with,” he
said. “I know everybody won’t agree with that. But immigration will not
double the crime rate, make everybody go broke or turn Sweden into a
living hell.”
Although terrorism is a concern for Sweden — an Iraqi-born Swede blew himself up in central Stockholm in 2010 — the authorities say they are equally worried about racist hate crimes, including attacks on migrants.
The
Fox News segment featured an interview with Mr. Horowitz, whose short
film, “Stockholm Syndrome,” depicted Sweden as a place where rape and
violence have been on the rise since it began accepting more refugees
from Muslim countries.
In
the Fox interview, Mr. Horowitz acknowledged that most Swedes do not
see the situation as he does. “They’ll make excuses for it,” he said.
“The majority of the population in Sweden still wants to have an
open-door policy. It’s confounding.”
Mr. Trump was clearly struck by the interview, and he cited Sweden at a rally in Melbourne, Fla.,
on Saturday as he argued for stronger borders. “You look at what’s
happening last night in Sweden,” he said. “Sweden! Who would believe
this? Sweden. They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like
they never thought possible.”
Aides later said “last night” referred to the Fox program, not to an episode the night before. Mr. Carlson argued on Monday that although “the president ought to be precise in what he says, there should be no confusion about what he means.”
Mr.
Carlson said that assimilation had failed and that immigration was “in
the process of totally changing these ancient cultures into something
different and much more volatile and much more threatening.”
Critics
of Sweden’s migration policies have pointed to a Facebook post on Feb. 3
by a police officer, Peter Springare, who said that migrants were
taxing Sweden’s pension, education and health systems and that they were
the principal culprits in assaults. “Half of the suspects we cannot
even be sure of because they don’t have any valid papers,” he wrote.
“Most often this means they are lying about their country of origin and
identity.”
But the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter on Monday quoted
two police officers interviewed by Mr. Horowitz, Anders Goranzon and
Jacob Ekstrom, as saying that the filmmaker had selectively edited and
distorted their comments to prove his thesis. They said that Mr.
Horowitz had asked them about high-crime neighborhoods and that they did
not agree with his argument about links between migration and crime.
“We don’t stand behind what he says,” Mr. Goranzon said. “He is a
madman.”
Mr.
Horowitz did not respond to a request for comment, but he went back on
Mr. Carlson’s show on Monday night to defend his work, citing crime
statistics and asserting that the police officers had recanted because
they were under pressure. “My record stands for itself,” he said, “and
what you saw on that video clear as day stands for itself.”
Peter Baker reported from
Palm Beach, and Sewell Chan from London. Reporting was contributed by
Christina Anderson from Stockholm, Erin McCann from New York, Eric
Schmitt from Washington, and Martin Selsoe Sorensen from Malmo, Sweden.
A version of this article appears in print on February 21, 2017, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: TV Blares, Trump Repeats and Sweden Gasps. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe
Donald Trump Will Leave You Numb
Credit
Ben Wiseman
Almost
any five minutes of Donald Trump’s mesmerizing, terrifying news
conference on Thursday would have been enough to do another politician
in.
Almost
every day of his administration so far contains sufficient grandiosity
and delusion to be the end of a normal president’s productive
relationship with Congress and support from all but the most stubbornly
blind voters.
And
if you rewind to his campaign, you see the same pattern, with each
rally, interview and debate packing in more petulance and vulgarity than
an adult in a civilized society is supposed to get away with.
But
that’s actually his secret. That’s his means of survival: the warp
speed and whirl of it all. He forces you to process and react to so many
different outrages at such a dizzying velocity that no one of them has
the staying power that it ought to or gets the scrutiny it deserves.
They blend together under the numbing banner of what a freak show he can be, of Trump being Trump. And so the show screams on.
Part
of this excess is his nature. Part of it is design. Not by accident did
he put on that 77-minute performance for the media — hurling insults, flinging lies,
marinating in self-pity, luxuriating in self-love — just three days
after the resignation of his national security adviser, Michael Flynn,
and amid intensifying questions about collusion between Team Trump and
the Russians.
He
was cluttering the landscape. Overwhelming the senses. Betting that a
surfeit of clangorous music would obscure any particularly galling note.
That wager got him all the way to the White House, though he has no
place being there, and so he sticks with it. The news conference was a
case study in such orchestrated chaos.
It
was, in both senses of the phrase, too much. If you became too
transfixed by his laughable boast that his administration was operating
like “a fine-tuned machine” — an assertion he made twice, for emphasis —
you paid inadequate attention to his utterly fictitious claim that he’d
done better in the Electoral College than any president since Ronald
Reagan.
He
wasn’t just a little off. He was spectacularly wrong. He got 304
Electoral College votes. Back in 1988, the first President Bush got 426.
Four years later, Bill Clinton got 370. Clinton got 379 when he was
re-elected, and Barack Obama, in his two victories, got 365 and then
332.
In fact, only one president since Reagan did worse in the Electoral College than Trump, and that was George W. Bush, twice.
A reporter at the news conference, Peter Alexander of NBC News, corrected Trump, telling him that he was in error.
Trump
shrugged. “I was given that information,” he said, as if it’s fair game
and above reproach to repeat any old tidbit you’re told. “I don’t
know.” More to the point, he doesn’t care. He’s wowed by his win and
expects everybody else to be equally impressed. Precise numbers don’t
matter. Facts are just spoilers. They get in the way of the proper
adoration of Trump.
Such a self-serving hallucination about the Electoral College would have been the takeaway
from any other president’s news conference — good for a solid week of
media mastication. But from Trump’s news conference, there was an
overflow of jaw-dropping wonder.
Like
the nonsense that Delta Air Lines, not his own administration’s
incompetence, was to blame for the cruel mess of the travel ban’s
implementation.
Or
like his incessant insistence that Hillary Clinton had been given
debate questions in advance. He said this with an air of grievance
entirely disproportionate to what happened, which concerned all of two questions across two events during the Democratic primary.
Or
like his statement that a “nuclear holocaust would be like no other,”
as if this were some profound epiphany and he needed to share it with
the many unsuspecting Americans who thought that there were all sorts of
holocausts and the nuclear variety wasn’t really so bad.
Or
like his narcissistic meltdown when a Jewish journalist raised the
subject of rising anti-Semitic incidents. Trump whined that he had been
promised a nicer, simpler question, then said, with customary
self-congratulation and hyperbole, “I am the least anti-Semitic person
that you’ve ever seen in your entire life.”
“I
hate the charge,” he added. “I find it repulsive.” In fact he hadn’t
been charged with anything. He had been given the opportunity, for the
second day in a row, to make clear that he deplored any hate crimes and
that he denounced anyone committing them.
And for the second day
in a row, he reverted to me, me, me, me, me. This is why he’ll never be
an effective leader or one worthy of our respect. The world he
genuinely cares about ends at the tip of his nose.
Early
last week someone I was talking with flashed back to Trump’s campaign
and asked me: “How is it that he wasn’t ruined when he mocked John
McCain’s experience as a prisoner of war?”
“How
is it that he wasn’t ruined when he suggested that gun-loving Hillary
haters might think about putting a bullet in her?” I said.
My
question was my answer. Each fresh Trump astonishment overrides an old
one, as if it were a new file on a hard drive that has reached storage
capacity. And the accumulation of astonishments lowers the bar for
what’s expected of him and turns all the astonishments into a blur.
How
long can it continue to work? I stopped trusting my Trump-related
intuition on election night, but I do think that his fine-tuned machine
is in palpable trouble, and not just because a Gallup poll released on
Friday put his disapproval rating all the way up at 56 percent and his
approval rating down at 38 percent.
His
administration’s fate rests largely with Republicans in Congress and
how much they’ll turn a blind eye to, and I have to believe that they
watched Trump’s news conference in horror and slept fitfully that night.
John
McCain traveled to Munich afterward, and in remarks there about the
state of the world and of the West he rued “the hardening resentment we
see toward immigrants and refugees and minority groups, especially
Muslims.” He expressed alarm about “the growing inability, and even
unwillingness, to separate truth from lies.”
I
think he was talking about America, and about Trump, who has succeeded
at nothing so much as devising an analogue to the shock-and-awe military
campaign: It’s the appall-and-anesthetize political strategy.
Thanks a Million, dear Letizia Mancino. You are an outstanding writer and artist.
We are so proud and happy to have you with us.
Letizia writes: One should not underestimate Wolfgang Hampel’s talent in speedily mobilizing Betty MacDonald’s friends.
We agree. Thank you so much dear Wolfgang Hampel for doing this. You founded Betty MacDonald Fan Club with four members.
Now we have members in 40 countries around the world. A dream came true.
Mary Holmes did an excellent job in translating this great story. Thank you so much dear Mary Holmes. We are really very grateful.
All the best to Letizia, Wolfgang and Mary and to all Betty MacDonald Fan Club fans from all over the world!
Lenard
Following in Betty’s footsteps in Seattle:
or some small talk with Betty
Copyright 2011/2016 by Letizia Mancino All rights reserved translated by Mary Holmes
We
were going to Canada in the summer. “When we are in Edmonton”, I said
to Christoph Cremer, “let’s make a quick trip to Seattle”. And that’s
how it happened. At Edmonton Airport we climbed into a plane and two
hours later we landed in the city where Betty had lived. I was so happy
to be in Seattle at last and to be able to trace Betty’s tracks!
Wolfgang Hampel had told Betty’s friends about our arrival. They
were happy to plan a small marathon through the town and it’s
surroundings with us. We only had a few days free. One should not
underestimate Wolfgang’s talent in speedily mobilizing Betty’s friends,
even though it was holiday time. E-mails flew backwards and forwards
between Heidelberg and Seattle, and soon a well prepared itinerary was
ready for us. Shortly before my departure Wolfgang handed me several
parcels, presents for Betty MacDonald's friends. I rushed to pack the
heavy gifts in my luggage but because of the extra weight had to throw
out a pair of pajamas!
After we had landed we took a taxi to the
Hotel in downtown Seattle. I was so curious to see everything. I
turned my head in all directions like one of the hungry hens from
Betty’s farm searching for food! Fortunately it was quite a short
journey otherwise I would have lost my head like a loose screw! Our
hotel room was on the 22nd floor and looked directly out onto the
16-lane highway. There might have been even more than 16 but it made me
too giddy to count! It was like a glimpse of hell! “And is this
Seattle?” I asked myself. I was horrified! The cars racing by were
enough to drive one mad. The traffic roared by day and night. We
immediately contacted Betty MacDonald's friends and let them know we had
arrived and they confirmed the times when we should see them.
On
the next morning I planned my first excursion tracing Betty’s tracks. I
spread out the map of Seattle. “Oh dear” I realized “the Olympic
Peninsula is much too far away for me to get there.” Betty nodded to me! “Very difficult, Letizia, without a car.”
“But I so much wanted to see your chicken farm”
“My chickens are no longer there and you can admire the mountains from a distance”
But
I wanted to go there. I left the hotel and walked to the waterfront
where the State Ferry terminal is. Mamma mia, the streets in Seattle are
so steep! I couldn’t prevent my feet from running down the hill. Why
hadn’t I asked for brakes to be fixed on my shoes? I looked at the
drivers. How incredibly good they must be to accelerate away from the
red traffic lights. The people were walking uphill towards me as briskly
as agile salmon. Good heavens, these Americans! I tried to keep my
balance. The force of gravity is relentless. I grasped hold of objects
where I could and staggered down. In Canada a friend had warned me that in Seattle I would see a lot of people with crutches.
Betty laughed. “ It’s not surprising, Letizia, walking salmon don’t fall directly into the soft mouth of a bear!” “ Betty, stop making these gruesome remarks. We are not in Firlands!”
I
went further. Like a small deranged ant at the foot of a palace monster
I came to a tunnel. The noise was unbearable. On the motorway, “The
Alaskan Way Viaduct”, cars, busses and trucks were driving at the speed
of light right over my head. They puffed out their poisonous gas into
the open balconies and cultivated terraces of the luxurious sky-
scrapers without a thought in the world. America! You are crazy! “Betty,
are all people in Seattle deaf? Or is it perhaps a privilege for
wealthy people to be able to enjoy having cars so near to their eyes and
noses to save them from boredom?”
“When the fog democratically allows everything to disappear into nothing, it makes a bit of a change, Letizia”
“ Your irony is incorrigible, Betty, but tell me, Seattle is meant to be a beautiful city, But where?” I had at last reached the State Ferry terminal.
“No
Madam, the ferry for Vashon Island doesn’t start from here,” one of the
men in the ticket office tells me. ”Take a buss and go to the ferry
terminal in West Seattle.” Betty explained to me “The island lies in
Puget Sound and not in Elliott Bay! It is opposite the airport. You must
have seen it when you were landing!” “Betty, when I am landing I shut my eyes and pray!”
It’s time for lunch. The weather is beautiful and warm. Who said to me that it always rains here? “Sure
to be some envious man who wanted to frighten you away from coming to
Seattle. The city is really beautiful, you’ll see. Stay by the
waterfront, choose the best restaurant with a view of Elliott Bay and
enjoy it.” “Thank you Betty!” I find a table on the
terrace of “Elliott’s Oyster House”. The view of the island is
wonderful. It lies quietly in the sun like a green fleecy cushion on the
blue water. Betty plays with my words: “Vashon Island is a big
cushion, even bigger than Bainbridge which you see in front of your
eyes, Letizia. The islands look similar. They have well kept houses and
beautiful gardens”.
I relax during this introduction, “Bainbridge” you are Vashon Island, and order a mineral water.
“At one time the hotel belonging to the parents of Monica Sone stood on the waterfront.” “Oh, of your friend Kimi!” Unfortunately I forget to ask Betty exactly where it was.
My mind wanders and I think of my mountain hike back to the hotel! “Why is there no donkey for tourists?” Betty laughs:
“I’m sure you can walk back to the hotel. “Letizia can do everything.””
“Yes, Betty, I am my own donkey!” But
I don’t remember that San Francisco is so steep. It doesn’t matter, I
sit and wait. The waiter comes and brings me the menu. I almost fall off
my chair! “ What, you have geoduck on the menu! I have to try it” (I
confess I hate the look of geoduck meat. Betty’s recipe with the pieces
made me feel quite sick – I must try Betty’s favourite dish!) “Proof that you love me!” said Betty enthusiastically “ Isn’t the way to the heart through the stomach?”
I order the geoduck. The waiter looks at me. He would have liked to recommend oysters. “Geoduck no good for you!” Had he perhaps read my deepest thoughts? Fate! Then no geoduck. “No good for me.” “Neither geoduck nor tuberculosis in Seattle” whispered Betty in my ear! “Oh Betty, my best friend, you take such good care of me!”
I order salmon with salad.
“Which salmon? Those that swim in water or those that run through Seattle?”
“Betty, I believe you want me to have a taste of your black humour.”
“Enjoy it then, Letizia.” During lunch we talked about tuberculosis, and that quite spoilt our appetite. “Have you read my book “The Plague and I”?”
“Oh Betty, I’ve started to read it twice but both times I felt so sad I had to stop again!”
“But
why?” asked Betty “Nearly everybody has tuberculosis! I recovered very
quickly and put on 20 pounds! There was no talk of me wasting away! What
did you think of my jokes in the book?”
“Those would have been a
good reason for choosing another sanitorium. I would have been afraid
of becoming a victim of your humour! You would have certainly given me a
nickname! You always thought up such amusing names!” Betty laughed.
“You’re
right. I would have called you “Roman nose”. I would have said to Urbi
and Orbi “ Early this morning “Roman nose” was brought here. She speaks
broken English, doesn’t eat geoduck but she does love cats.”
“Oh
Betty, I would have felt so ashamed to cough. To cough in your presence,
how embarrassing! You would have talked about how I coughed, how many
coughs!”
“It depends on that “how”, Letizia!”
“Please,
leave Goethe quotations out of it. You have certainly learnt from the
Indians how to differentiate between noises. It’s incredible how you
can distinguish between so many sorts of cough! At least 10!”
“So few?”
”And
also your descriptions of the patients and the nurses were pitiless. An
artistic revenge! The smallest pimple on their face didn’t escape your
notice! Amazing.”
“ I was also pitiless to myself. Don’t forget my irony against myself!”
Betty
was silent. She was thinking about Kimi, the “Princess” from Japan! No,
she had only written good things about her best friend, Monica Sone, in
her book “The Plague and I”. A deep friendship had started in the
hospital. The pearl that developed from the illness. “Isn’t it
wonderful, Betty, that an unknown seed can make its way into a mollusk
in the sea and develop into a beautiful jewel?” Betty is paying
attention.
“Betty, the friendship between you and Monica reminds
me of Goethe’s poem “Gingo-Biloba”. You must know it?” Betty nods and I
begin to recite it:
The leaf of this Eastern tree Which has been entrusted to my garden Offers a feast of secret significance, For the edification of the initiate.
Is it one living thing. That has become divided within itself? Are these two who have chosen each other, So that we know them as one?
The
friendship with Monica is like the wonderful gingo-biloba leaf, the
tree from the east. Betty was touched. There was a deep feeling of trust
between us. “Our friendship never broke up, partly because she was
in distress, endangered by the deadly illness. We understood and
supplemented each other. We were like one lung with two lobes, one from
the east and one from the west!” “A beautiful picture, Betty. You were like two red gingo-biloba leaves!”
Betty
was sad and said ” Monica, although Japanese, before she really knew me
felt she was also an American. But she was interned in America,
Letizia, during the second world war. Isn’t that terrible?”
“Betty,
I never knew her personally. I have only seen her on a video, but what
dignity in her face, and she speaks and moves so gracefully!”
“Fate could not change her”
“Yes, Betty, like the gingo-biloba tree in Hiroshima. It was the only tree that blossomed again after the atom bomb!”
The
bill came and I paid at once. In America one is urged away from the
table when one has finished eating. If one wants to go on chatting one
has to order something else. “That’s why all those people gossiping
at the tables are so fat!” Betty remarks. “Haven’t you seen how many
massively obese people walk around in the streets of America. Like
dustbins that have never been emptied!” With this typically
unsentimental remark Betty ended our conversation.
Ciao! I so
enjoyed the talk; the humour, the irony and the empathy. I waved to her
and now I too felt like moving! I take a lovely walk along the
waterfront.
Now I am back in Heidelberg and when I think about
how Betty’s “Princessin” left this world on September 5th and that in
August I was speaking about her with Betty in Seattle I feel very sad.
The readers who knew her well (we feel that every author and hero of a
book is nearer to us than our fleeting neighbours next door) yes we, who
thought of her as immortal, cannot believe that even she would die
after 92 years. How unforeseen and unexpected that her death should come
four days after her birthday on September 1th. On September 5th I was
on my way to Turkey, once again in seventh heaven, looking back on the
unforgettable days in Seattle. I was flying from west to east towards
the rising sun.
Betty MacDonald Fan Club, founded by Wolfgang Hampel, has members in 40 countries.
Wolfgang Hampel, author of Betty MacDonald biography interviewed Betty MacDonald's family and friends. His Interviews have been published on CD and DVD by Betty MacDonald Fan Club. If you are interested in the Betty MacDonald Biography or the Betty MacDonald Interviews send us a mail, please.
Several original Interviews with Betty MacDonald are available.
We are also organizing international Betty MacDonald Fan Club Events for example, Betty MacDonald Fan Club Eurovision Song Contest Meetings in Oslo and Düsseldorf, Royal Wedding Betty MacDonald Fan Club Event in Stockholm and Betty MacDonald Fan Club Fifa Worldcup Conferences in South Africa and Germany.
Betty MacDonald Fan Club Honour Members are Monica Sone, author of Nisei Daughter and described as Kimi in Betty MacDonald's The Plague and I, Betty MacDonald's nephew, artist and writer Darsie Beck, Betty MacDonald fans and beloved authors and artists Gwen Grant, Letizia Mancino, Perry Woodfin, Traci Tyne Hilton, Tatjana Geßler, music producer Bernd Kunze, musician Thomas Bödigheimer, translater Mary Holmes and Mr. Tigerli.
