United States Archives - Migrant tales

Standing ovation to imperialism – did Elina Valtonen and Alexander Stubb give Marco Rubio a standing ovation?

Posted on March 8, 2026March 8, 2026 by Migrant Tales

When US Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave his speech at the Munich Security Conference on 14 February, if anything, Rubio’s speech resembled MAGA, white supremacist, foreign policy, where the US and Europe would look on proudly on their colonial past.

Rubio´s speech takes on an even more sinister aspect if we consider that the US planned to start a war with Israel against Iran a week and a half later, on 28 February.

In light of the latter, this part of Rubio´s speech is chilling: Rubio called for a strengthened partnership with Europe, urging leaders to reject cultural shame and take pride in their shared Western heritage.

In light of the latter, this part of Rubio´s speech is chilling: Rubio called for a strengthened partnership with Europe, urging leaders to reject cultural shame and take pride in their shared Western heritage.

The statement by Rubio explains the reasoning for attacking countries like Iran and why it’s ok to pillage other countries and exploit their resources.

Anyone who has read European colonial history knows there are many holes in Rubio’s assertion. It reveals why we can close our eyes to the genocide that is going on in Gaza and justify it with our silence.

It is incredible how the Trump administration can get away with anything with the help of semantics. It’s not called war anymore, but “a special military operation,” a drug bust, kinetic action, or regime change is called law enforcement.

All of these semantic tricks are used in the US to bypass Congress.

Our leaders in Europe are a sad joke. France’s Emanuel Macron’s approval rating is around 16%, Keir Starmer with 18%, who is below Feerich Merz of Germany’s 26%. Trump has about a 38% approval rating in the US.

As you can see, we are being led by leaders who not only lack spine but are highly unpopular.

While I do not know, Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen and President Alexander Stubb probably gave Rubio a standing ovation in Munich.

Shame on them, except for Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who defied Trump’s and Israel’s illegal war in three words: No to war.

What is the plan in Venezuela? Who is next? Greenland? Mexico? Cuba?

Posted on January 5, 2026January 6, 2026 by Migrant Tales

One of the big questions about the US invasion of Venezuela is what is the next step. Does th Trump régime have a plan? Or is it the first step in the Western Hemisphere to control Greenland, Mexico, and Cuba? Is it a message to China to takeover Taiwan an Russia to overtake Ukraine and parts of Europe, like the Baltic States?

Facebook

There’s not much that could be done in the US since Trump’s Republicans control Congress and the Senate. Mid-term elections are in November.

Apart from the wreckless foreign policy, and to add insult to injury, Trump is wishing for some Noble Peace Prize for his reckless policies that will lead to no good.

The Monroe and Donroe Doctrines. Sources: Expansion and rouming.cz

If anything, Trump’s about-turn in domestic and foreign policy reveals that his administration, led by the likes of Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio and other far-right politicians, shows how low we have fallen by giving big business, and wealth power. These will eventually receive their comeuppance in the end, if we don’t destroy before ourselves through catastrophes like war and disregard for the environment.

Apart from scaring the wits out of the US’ allies, it is clear that if the goal is money and wealth, nothing lasting can come out of it. The tiptoeing around Trump of the EU and Finland’s President Alexander Stubb is nothing short of disgraceful.

Stubb, like the European Commission, has given his blessing to the inhumane treatment of asylum seekers at our borders. He has blessed the pushback law, which give the Finnish border guards the right to turn back without due process any asylum seeker.

I wonder when Stubb will play golf with Trump again?

What the Trump administration is doing is awakening the fighting spirits of Malcolm X, Eldridge Cleaver, Angela Davis, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Tamara “Tania” Bunke, Nelson Mandela, Rosa Luxemburg, Eva Perón, Mahatma Gandhi, Frederick Duglass, Martin Luther King Jr., Toussaint L’Ouverture, Karl Marx, Emiliano Zapata, Frantz Fanon and many, many others.

We have wonderful examples of the wisdom and learnings on how such people pushbed back oppression and injustice.

The latter list of social fighters gives me hope in 2026.

The Perussuomalaiset and Republicans: Two political clown shows in one

Posted on January 5, 2023 by Migrant Tales

The Republicans exposed the clown show in choosing, after six failed attempts, the speaker of the house. It is a mirror image of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* parliamentary group. All there is personal political greed, simplistic 1+1=2 (non)solutions, and utter incompetence.

Today, Yle published its latest monthly opinion poll, which showed the PS overtaking the Social Democrats to become the second-most popular party after the National Coalition Party (Kokoomus).

Two political clown shows on both sides of the Atlantic: the PS and Republican Party. **Sources: *Yle* and *Washington Post*.**

Finnish voters take stock: The US midterms were a referendum against “the crazies”

Posted on November 15, 2022 by Migrant Tales

There was no red wave, never mind a red tsunami, in the midterm elections in the United States. Defying the precedent of past elections, the Democrats gave the Republicans a beating they will not easily forget. What lessons can Finland learn from the US midterm elections?

For one, voters shunned extremist positions on issues like election denial, immigration, abortion, and civil rights.

If there are losers in Finland resulting from the US elections, it is, without a doubt, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party. We could compare it to the early 2010s when populist anti-immigration parties like the PS entered the major leagues of Finnish politics.

Everything was riding high for the PS until an Islamophobe mass murderer, Anders Breivik, killed 77 innocent people in Norway.

**Finland’s very own MAGA Perussuomalaiset, Vilhelm Junnila, and Veikko Valliin. Source: Facebook**

Watch Thursday’s parliamentary question-and-answer sessions if you want to watch “the crazies” lashing out whenever the PS candidates awoke by the magic term maahanmuutto (immigration). They go off the wall throwing their extremist spaghetti wherever it may stick.

Apart from the rejection of extremist Republican candidates, leadership was needed from other politicians to call out these crazies.

In September, President Joe Biden called the MAGA Republicans “semi-fascists.”

It is high time we do the same in Finland and call out these extremist politicians for what they are: fascists and a threat to democracy.

Trump, Putin and the Perussuomalaiset

Posted on October 9, 2022 by Migrant Tales

Former President Donald Trump is a threat to USAmerican democracy, and Russian President Vladimir Putin a threat to world peace. While these leaders spread their toxicity and hatred on other people and nations for political gain, our Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party has nothing more than praise for them.

Well, that was before Trump and Putin became major embarrassments.

A word of advice: Don’t trust the PS with a 10-mile pole in Finland. They are a threat to our democracy. They are the ones who pose proudly with autocrats like Viktor Orbán of Hungary and pro-Putinists like Matteo Salvini.

It would be unfair, to blame only the PS for all the Islamophobia and hatred in Finland. The National Coalition Party (Kokoomus) is trying to use and flirt with the PS in the hope that they will gain more voters.

It is a dumb and perilous choice. In Sweden, their sister party, the Moderates, opened the door to the far-right Sweden Democrats, leaving them in second place in last month’s election after the far-right party.

A poll published in 2016 showed that only the Perussuomalaiset tested Trump and Putin the most. “Kyllä” means yes, ei no, and Eos, no opinion. Source: *Iltalehti*

Riikka Purra’s and Jussi Halla-aho’s party will first take away the civil rights of migrants and minorities and destroy our welfare state in the process.

From left to right: President Trump and Putin in a 2016 poster in Montenegro. Photo by Stevo Vasilijevic/Reuters. Upper center: PS MPs, Vilhelm Junnila and Veikko Vallin, ging the thumbs up with their MAGA caps. Source: Facebook and Migrant Tales. Lower center: Tweets Halla-aho in November: “Trump is the best thing that happened in a long time to the United States and the west. Tweets MP Mika Niikko: “Trump’s campaign is similar to what the PS does. Trump has spiritual superiority. And then Russian premier Vladimir Putin: “Trump is a very qualified leader. His vitality enables him to do away with viruses.” Source: Mannerheim-projekti. Right: MEP Laura Huhtasaari and Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán. Source Twitter

If Biden calls MAGA Republicans semi-fascists, why can’t we call the Perussuomalaiset the same?

Posted on September 2, 2022 by Migrant Tales

Like many analysts, US President Joe Biden’s “semi-fascism” remark did not go far enough. He should have just dropped the word semi and called them fascists. Taking into account how much the US democracy is in peril, shouldn’t it be time to call out the enemies by their real names?

The MAGA Republicans, who have Perussuomalaiset (PS)* followers like MPs Jussi Halla-aho, Veikko Vallin, Vilhelm Junnilla, and many others in Finland, are made from the same toxic brew.

There is nothing semi about MAGA Republican fascism. It’s the real thing, fair and square.

“MAGA Republicans want to take America backwards, backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love,” President Biden said.

In the same light, the PS is threatening and marginalizing minorities and migrants who should have limited civil rights. It’s clear that after the party passes now-unconstitutional laws to ensure that minorities and migrants are second-class members of society, they will go after other minorities like the Roma, Saami, gays, and others.

The PS and its enablers are the wrecking balls of Finland’s social welfare democracy

Posted on January 3, 2022 by Migrant Tales

I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.

James Baldwin

If some scholars sound the alarm bells that democracy in the United States could turn into a right-wing dictatorship that has the potential of sparking a civil war. How should Finland prepare for such an eventuality?

Writes Thomas Homer-Dixon, a Canadian political scientist, in an Op-Ed: “By 2025, American democracy could collapse, causing extreme domestic political instability, including widespread civil violence. By 2030, if not sooner, the country could be governed by a right-wing dictatorship.”

The European think tank, among others, label the United States as a “backsliding democracy” in a new report.

While former US President Donald Trump has spread the big lie about the 2020 election that has turned the Republican Party into a personality cult, it is a different story in Finland even if the threat is the same.

While it should be clear that a party like the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, which is eager to strip minorities of their human rights and relegate them to second- or third-class citizens, the party is the best example of Trumpism in Finland.

The PS has not made its admiration for Trump a secret. Former PS leader Jussi Halla-aho – like other PS politicians – do not hold back their admiration for Trump and his racist and autocratic political message.

**Jussi Halla-aho has backtracked on his 2019 claim that he digs Trump and is the best thing that has happened to the United States and to the West in a long time**. **Source: Twitter**

Like the United States, Finland has seen its society become ever-polarized thanks to the politics of the PS and its enablers, which undermine our Nordic political institutions. If Trump’s big lie is the “stolen” election, which Joe Biden won hands down, in Finland, it is immigration and other populist soundbites.

The overdose of hypocrisy and crocodile tears from the West on Afghanistan

Posted on August 23, 2021 by Migrant Tales

I don’t know if you feel the same way about helping Afghans after the Taliban took over the country. Listening to politicians and the media, two words reveal the present state of things: hypocrisy and crocodile tears.

Such deception is not only coming from Western leaders but from the Taliban as well.

Below are some examples of the hypocrisy and crocodile tears we are hearing and seeing now:

Hypocrisy 1: We went to Afghanistan to bomb the Taliban to the stone age for what al-Qaeda did on 9/11. During the past twenty years, however, the West spent two trillion dollars, killed tens of thousands of Afghans, and left the country in the hands of those that they were supposed to send back to the stone age. President Joe Biden said that he has no regrets about the messy US exit from the country.
Crocodile tears 1: Even if we don’t mean it, we are ready to take only small numbers of women and children in the West. Let the men be fed to the Taliban and let Afghan mothers raise their children in the West as single mothers and broken families.
Hypocrisy 2: Even if we claim that we are serious in the EU about helping women and children from the clutches of the Taliban, we are very serious about sending Afghan refugees to countries like Iran and Pakistan, which already house two million Afghan refugees. This is called subcontracting the human calamity you created.

Crocodile tears 2: We aimed to build a centralized democasy in Afghanistan but failed because it was a lie. The real profiteers of the war were the arms industry and disingenuous politicians who misled the public.
Hypocrisy 3: Taliban insists it will not shelter al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and respect the rights of women. Taliban insists it will not shelter al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and respect the rights of women. This promise is a lie, like when the Islamophobic Perussuomalaiset* of Finland state that they are not a racist party.
Crocodile tears 3: We are so sad about the “poor” people of Afghanistan. Our thoughts and prayers go out to them. The truth? Your lives mean little to us.

The west should stop the theatrics and get real.

The last thing that the people of Afghanistan need are your broken promises and indifference.

Who is Finland’s Marjorie Taylor Greene?

Posted on February 6, 2021 by Migrant Tales

TOPLINE

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is the far-right conspiracy monger who was voted out of her two committee assignments this week. In the age of misinformation, peddling conspiracy theories and racism are rewarded handsomely.

Voters are gullible and conspiracy lies are quickly consumed with the help of the eyes and ears.

KEY FACT AND BACKGROUND

Greene claimed a lot of weird and dangerous things like violence against fellow representatives, school shootings that killed children that she considered false flags, and even Jewish laser beams from outer space that set forest fires in California.

Here is the question: Who is Finland’s Marjorie Taylo Greene?

That is not a tricky question. In the Finnish context, it would be none other than MEP Laura Huhtasaari, the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* politician with the sinister kindergarten smile.

**Greene twitting impeachment proceedings against President Biden (left) and (right) Huhtasaari inviting her followers to a far-right userbase called Gab.**

CRITICAL QUOTE

Even if Huhtasaari has not written about Jewish laser beams from outer space, she is an avid supporter of former US President Donald Trump like Greene, hates Muslims like Greene, and even reposted and flirts with QAnon malarkey, like Greene.

Biden inauguration: Words of unity and inclusion that reverberate in Finland

Posted on January 20, 2021 by Migrant Tales

After four years of chaos and division, an illness that even inflicted the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* and politicians in other parties that sow division heard long-overdue healing words.

Without losing sight of the wars, CIA-inspired coups, and the human destruction brought on by the United States, it took a despot-inspired president like Donald Trump to give US’ exceptionalism a forceful blow.

President Joe Biden taking the oath of office and poet Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet. Source: *Washington Post*

The division and hatred sowed in the United States have long roots in the country’s history and are also present in Finland as our population becomes more diverse culturally and ethnically.

One party, the PS, has built its politics on sowing ethnic hatred, rage, violence, and bigotry on brown Finns and other people of color. Politicians in the National Coalition Party, Christian Democrats, and others have flirted with such toxic ideas.

President Joe Biden is correct in stating that we must not stand idle or be silent. “Uniting to fight the foes we face: anger, resentment, hatred, extremism, lawlessness, violence, disease, joblessness, and hopelessness. With unity, we can do great things, important things,” he said in his inaugural speech.

Are the same foes that Biden cites the same ones sowing discord in Finland?

I believe so.

A politician who spreads racism lives in constant conflict. How can he or she accept that some people have all the rights and others only on paper?

Twenty-two-year-old Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet ever, offered us today in Finland and the EU some sobering thoughts in her poem, The Hill We, Climb:”

“And yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect. We are striving to forge our union with purpose. To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters, and conditions of man. And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.”