by Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler and Ariel Gold We don’t know what dishes were served at the dinner Trump hosted last month for Ye (aka Kanye West) and Nick Fuentes, but the meal has given much of the country indigestion. Real or feigned, following Trump’s dining with Fuentes, who describes himself as being “just like Hitler” and diminishes Jim Crow,[Read More…]
American presidents have habitually kowtowed to Turkish demands. However, President Trump’s business investments in Turkey, Turkish-tainted associates, and baffling deference to President Erdogan spawned an exceptionally troubling record. That record could provide additional fodder for Trump’s Republican, Democratic, and Justice Department (DOJ) foes, especially as Turkey remains a rogue NATO member and supporter of international terrorism. Below is a mere[Read More…]
I actually come into contact with many of you folks all the time. When I get car repairs, need a plumber or handyman, or go to a store, most of those I run into are MAGA supporters. On a personal basis you folks are usually nice, decent people. Yet, you support a political group who really don’t have your best[Read More…]
Whatever your feelings about former President Trump, there are reasons to be skeptical when government officials say it was necessary to raid his Florida home to recover classified documents that threatened national security. Like the former president, I was once accused by the government of mishandling classified information connected to my representation of a detainee at Guantanamo Bay. There was[Read More…]
Some on the far right have been calling for civil war since an FBI raid on Trump’s Florida home. Some experts say the warning signs for civil war have been emerging in the US in recent years. They say that such a conflict would look very different from the Civil War of the 1860s. A Business Insider report (The far[Read More…]
The Trump-shelter-search incident is a new political occurrence in the US. Then, the interview came. Donald Trump, former US president, during an almost day-long interview with the New York attorney general, answered only a single question, and that was about his name. The interview was from about 9:30 a.m. to about 3 p.m., with a few breaks. That was an[Read More…]
Imagine that you were experiencing all of this (and by this, I mean our lives right now) as if it were a novel, à la Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year. The famed author of Robinson Crusoe — Defoe claimed it had been written by the fictional Crusoe himself — was five years old in 1665. That was when a year-long visitation of the[Read More…]
Donald Trump still struts on the American political scene. It seems probable that he will stand again for president in 2024. Here I consider one important aspect of his popular appeal – his ‘blue-collar’ image. In 2018 a book appeared entitled Trump, The Blue-Collar President. The author, financier Anthony Scaramucci, who served as the White House Director of Communications[Read More…]
The merits are hard to stomach for partisans long jaundiced by presumption and dislike, but the cheer at the deplatforming of Donald Trump by a range of social media platforms said as much about the nature of any sentiment about democracy as it did about those claiming to defend it. For one, it shut off a valve of fantastic, instant[Read More…]
According to official estimates, Donald J. Trump obtained a little more than 74 million votes in the November 2020 presidential election losing to Joseph Biden who secured a little more than 81 million votes. Biden won by a comfortable margin but Trump also performed remarkably well. What explains his performance? Analysis of his performance may reveal the growing influence of[Read More…]
In the U.S. the strident arguments put forward that “voter fraud” has taken place in the recent election continues to resonate with a segment of the population. What do the deniers really want? Is it a return to a status which kept Blacks and Indigenous in a secondary role? Is it that those who have, up to the present, been[Read More…]
I too am a working stiff like you all. Unlike you I had no aspirations in regard to Donald Trump. I must say that I ditto that towards Joe Biden, yet I voted for him… biting my tongue. I would never have voted for Biden if not for who he was running against, a megalomaniac preaching this Proto Fascist agenda.[Read More…]
After the US Capitol was attacked by his supporters, Donald Trump has become the first president of America to be impeached twice. Regardless of how he leaves the White House – the Senate won’t act on the impeachment before Joe Biden’s inauguration on January 20, 2021 – the neo-fascist seeds he has sown won’t stop germinating. Even after the brazen attempt to overturn[Read More…]
With the Inauguration of Joseph Biden as the 46th President of the United States, ex-President Donald Trump will already have skulked out of Washington D.C. to his Mar-a-Largo golf club in Florida, all but tarred and feathered and run-out-on-a-rail, after having become the only American President in history to be impeached twice. Yet the reality of this scenario need never[Read More…]
It is a fitting end to four years of Donald Trump in the White House. On one side, Trump’s endless stoking of political grievances – and claims that November’s presidential election was “stolen” from him – spilled over last week into a mob storming the US Capitol. They did so in the forlorn hope of disrupting the certification process of[Read More…]
Before I go on with my thoughts on the use of persuasion by demagogues like Donald Trump, we need to understand how powerful a system of obedience can be. There are two past studies that this writer recommends which get to the heart of the use of obedience to shape an individual’s behavior. The earliest one is the Milgram Experiment[Read More…]
2021 has indeed begun and god knows what it has in store for us. But unless, somehow, we’re surprised beyond imagining, The Donald is indeed going to leave the White House soon and, much as I hate to admit it, in some strange fashion we’re going to miss him. Of course, it will be beyond a great relief to see[Read More…]
The US Supreme Court´s rejection of Donald Trump and his associates´ plea to overturn the results of the presidential election has effectively come as the death knell for them in this regard. It might be seen as the last spike on the coffin of their last-ditch maneuvering for hanging on to power illegally based on lies and distortion of facts.[Read More…]
Go get Rick Perlstein’s great book Reaganland: America’s Right Turn, 1976-1980 and see how we got here from ‘ There’ , the turn to the right wing in the dawning of Reagan’s presidency. Even the slogan that Trump ‘ borrowed ‘ from the Reagan campaigns: Let’s Make America Great Again’ was bundled with all the other techniques that Ronnie’s handlers[Read More…]
“With hindsight, it is clear that the United States failed the difficult test set by history. In the three decades that followed their triumph [over the Soviet Union] and their coronation, they proved unable to establish a new world order, to build a role as a parental power or indeed sustain their moral credibility, which is probably lower today[Read More…]
On the eve of his defeat as President of the United States, Donald Trump chose not to utter so much as a word at the 2020’s 11th Hour of the 11th day of the 11th month Remembrance Day wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier monument in the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. To this writer, Trump’s odd[Read More…]
A sense of redundancy might encourage calm. The job is done, however well or poorly. The legacy charted. But in the case of President Donald Trump, there is still much to be done. Leaving aside his priority of fortifying himself in the White House against any bailiff onslaught by president-elect Joe Biden, he is busy making decisions. One of them[Read More…]
In 2016 as now, he was the candidate of chaos. Yes, he was a billionaire (or wanna-be billionaire or in-hock billionaire, not to mention a liar, a cheat, and a scoundrel), but from the beginning he appealed to the forces of order in America that were also, as it happened, the forces of chaos. Donald Trump entered the presidential sweepstakes, or to be completely accurate rode[Read More…]
It is happening here. The soul of America is like the character Two Face in the Batman movie series. One defeat of the Party of Trump and its 73 million apparatchiks is not enough. In Trump, the United States has bred its own dictator in waiting and he’s got an army of servile apostles willing to fight and die for[Read More…]
Co-Written by Atul Bhardwaj and Inderjeet Parmar (This article is of interest not only in the context of US Presidential election, but how pro-US hawks in India indulging in jingoism, are taking Indian people for a ride, drawing India into US strategy against china.) As Donald Trump faces the possibility of a catastrophic electoral defeat in November 2020, he has[Read More…]
Dante Alighieri Has Words for Donald J. Trump From the Other Side of Death For some time now, I’ve wanted to send Donald Trump to Hell. I mean this literally, not as a figure of speech. I want him to inhabit the palpable, sensory Hell that religions have long conjured up with scenes of sulfur, damnation, and screams of perpetual[Read More…]
News is “faked”; elections are “rigged”; a “deep state” plots a “coup”; Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died suspiciously in bed with a pillow over his face; aides of ex-president Barack Obama conspire to undermine foreign policy from a “war room”; Obama himself was a Muslim mole; the National Park Service lied about the size of the crowd at the president’s inauguration;[Read More…]
The late, great Rod Serling narrated that famous intro of his television show The Twilight Zone: ” You are travelling through another dimension- a dimension of not only sight and sound but of mind… “. Well, dear children, we are arriving into this 21st Century ‘ Twilight Zone’ as prisoners of what our empire is capable of allowing… or perhaps[Read More…]
The reality of Trump and all those who consider themselves Loyalists of Trumpism are no different than the same ideologically-compromised, fearful followers and sycophants, so in need of a saviour down through the ages of every civilization, culture and society, that they have been willing to follow the irrational, illogical rants of whatever ‘flavour of the month’ demagogue to have[Read More…]
Yes, when he was running for president, he did indeed say: “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK? It’s, like, incredible.” Then he won — and this November 3rd (or thereafter), whether he wins or loses, we’re likely to find out that, when it comes to his base, he was[Read More…]
How funny was the Seinfeld show’s episode on the Bizarro world? People who physically resembled the real Jerry and his three friends in a cartoonish way, with their character traits being the opposite, was fantastic. If you recall, the Bizarro folks were into sharing and not self absorbed at all. They not only cared about each other more than even[Read More…]
Well, the United States President becomes the third important leader to be caged. First, it was UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, then the Brazilian President Bolsonaro, and now President Trump. With more than 200,000 deaths, the United States is the worst hit Covid country in the world. With over 40,000 deaths, UK is the worst hit country in Europe. And[Read More…]
What pops into your head when you hear the number 1,000 in a political-military context? Having studied German military history, I immediately think of Adolf Hitler’s confident boast that his Third Reich would last a thousand years. In reality, of course, a devastating world war brought that Reich down in a mere 12 years. Only recently, however, such boasts popped[Read More…]
Well, to this writer, a student of the esoteric sciences, the great Indian Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda was correct: This must be a dream! So many friends and acquaintances over the years have discounted these beliefs as foolish for believing in fairies, demons and angels ( I do). Yet, to comprehend rationally that this current president and his crew are as[Read More…]
Someone who much likes Trump and who plans again to vote for him asked me to provide proof that he is corrupt in presidential dealings. So here is my reply: “The Supreme Court and lower courts ruled against his actions a number of times. The House ruled against him plenty of times and including in impeachment hearings. “He lets others[Read More…]
The year was 1991 and the United States was suddenly the globe’s lone superpower, its ultimate hyperpower, the last and greatest of its kind, the soon-to-be-indispensable nation. The only one left — alone, utterly alone and triumphant atop the world. Who could have asked for more? Or better? It had been a Cold War fantasy of the first order —[Read More…]
On Thursday night (August 27, 2020) President Donald Trump of the United States delivered his acceptance speech as the presidential candidate at the Republican National Convention (RNC) that was held in the White House. It was the first of its kind when the White House was used as a podium for campaign by a seating president. As noted by presidential[Read More…]
Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, has released a foreword to his new book in which he calls the president “a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man,” and accuses him of cheating in the 2016 presidential election. Cohen also makes reference to “golden showers in a sex club in Vegas,” without specifically stating[Read More…]
“I’m automatically attracted to beautiful [women]—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.” Channel surfing this AM I caught a meeting of ‘ Evangelicals for Trump’ on C-Span. White[Read More…]
48 years ago this American Ex-Pat fled to Canada in search of emotional, spiritual and political solace following the election of Richard Milhous Nixon as America’s 37th President. The shocking potentially-possible re-election of Donald Trump in 2020, eight Presidents later, has once more thrust into this ex-Pat’s conscious recall the many reasons why he chose Canada as the closest, most[Read More…]
It was June 20th and we antiwar vets had traveled all the way to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the midst of a pandemic to protest President Trump’s latest folly, an election 2020 rally where he was to parade his goods and pretend all was well with this country. We never planned to go inside the cavernous arena where that rally was[Read More…]
His niece Mary L. Trump has written in Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man “His egregious and arguably intentional mishandling of the current catastrophe has led to a level of pushback and scrutiny that he’s never experienced before, increasing his belligerence and need for petty revenge as he withholds vital funding, personal[Read More…]
Much has been written in academic and trade publications on leadership. This is a topic which is always current and relevant. Harvard Business Review has dedicated a Special Summer 2020 Issue on “How to LEAD in a Time of CRISIS.” This is indeed the biggest crisis facing America in recent memory. With death attributed to COVID-19 exceeding the 100,000 mark,[Read More…]
The “gate” suffix has been wearing thin since the break-in scandal that gave it its birth. Since Watergate, virtually anything dubious and suggestive, and much more besides, is suffixed. Which brings us to the issue of President Donald Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama. Finding himself in hot water (did he ever leave it?) Trump has been sowing the seeds of “Obamagate”,[Read More…]
Ok, let me be perfectly clear here. I know, from years of studying the real Amerikan history from writers like Parenti, Chomsky, Zinn, Chossuduvsky, even Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznik, that the fix has always been in. Meaning, that this Two Party/One Party political system has always done the bidding for the Uber Rich… Period! As a socialist I have[Read More…]
It turns out that walls can’t always be seen. Donald Trump may never build his “great, great wall,” but that doesn’t mean he isn’t working to wall Americans in. It’s a story that needs to be told. This past month, for instance, claims of ISIS’s near total defeat in Syria have continued to mount. As a result, numerous foreigners who had traveled[Read More…]
Not only are we in a sense defined by our DNA, but new research shows our behavior may also be affected by that of our ancestors. So observe the authors of a paper published in Science Advances recently. Thomas Talhelm from the University of Chicago has an interest in the cultural differences between northern and southern China. Northerners are considered[Read More…]
George Washington’s Farewell Address — one of the most important documents of America’s Founders — warned against any and all permanent alliances; he said, on 19 September 1796: The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of[Read More…]
Does Trump (and some of his advisors) Deserve Being Labeled Sociopathic, Narcissistic, Paranoiac, Egomaniacal, Megalomaniacal, Xenophobic, Demagogic and/or Neo-Fascistic? A sociopath is a person whose behavior is antisocial, often criminally greedy, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility, empathy or social conscience. Sociopaths never sincerely apologize nor are they capable of exhibiting remorse for wrongs that they have committed.[Read More…]
“If a president was dumb enough to pardon himself that would be such an arrogant statement of power that the House would probably impeach him in a week and the Senate would convict him.” Newt Gingrich, Jun 5, 2018 It is a view that Charles I would have been proud of: The means by which one can forgive and[Read More…]
Millions of Americans celebrated, or were surprised or outraged, and some even went into hysterics, and many powerful people felt great anxiety, when Donald J. Trump, ‘unexpectedly’ (to most media, ‘experts’ and pollsters), was elected president of the United States. This perplexing political ‘happening’ and its aftermath – some call it The Trump Phenomenon – comes after a generations long[Read More…]
Why does a President Trump lay himself open to mockery? Simply because his behavior is not only unlike a dignified president but his policy tweets are quite outrageous. From ‘my nuclear button is bigger than yours’ addressed to Kim Jong-un to arming teachers to defend schools against mass shooters — he is quite off the wall. Two weeks after the[Read More…]
It seemed so much busier, much more manic and crowded than the one year that had passed. Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump continues to excite the same headlines and explosions that began even before he made it to the White House. By the time he got there, there were protests galore at agendas yet to be implemented, decrees yet[Read More…]
Schoolyard name calling by an American president might be unusual, it might be undiplomatic, it might even be childish, yet it had the world riveted — if only for a short moment — on the antics of ‘rocket man’ and the Donald. The ‘nuclear button is on my desk says one’; ‘my button is bigger than yours and works[Read More…]
The attempt to tease, weave and develop a narrative against President Donald J. Trump over a Russian connection began almost immediately after his victory in November last year. This was meant to be institutional oversight and probing, but in another sense, it was also intended to be an establishment’s cry of hope to haul the untenable and inconceivable before some[Read More…]
Not much has been written about Donald Trump’s leadership-style, but his style of leadership is essential to understand, in order to be able to understand his values, his Presidency, the roots of his Presidency, and where his Presidency is taking America. His style of leadership has historically been exhibited by a certain type of national leader. Trump is no[Read More…]
US President Donald Trump retweeted three videos Wednesday morning that were posted by Jayda Fransen, the deputy leader of Britain First, a fascist outfit that has specialized in such activities as “mosque invasions” and “Christian patrols” in urban areas with large Muslim populations. Trump’s latest tweeting is an escalation of a political strategy aimed at inciting and encouraging far-right forces.[Read More…]
It is a year since Donald J. Trump’s election as president on November 8, 2016, and a couple of months less since his inauguration. In that time the bombast has not stopped, the achievements remain meager. The threats against North Korea continue — now on Trump’s Asian tour. President Moon of South Korea is from the rapprochement party, bemused at[Read More…]
For the past nine months, we have seen widespread attacks on the common good. The latest assault is the Republicans’ proposed tax reform, a huge transfer of wealth to the richest one-tenth of one percent. This legislation would also greatly increase the national debt, supposedly a major red line for Republicans. In addition, President Trump continues to: 1) slow[Read More…]
Tales of exaggeration and outright lies by this president are not new. In 1974, the New York Times did a profile on the young Trump. He claimed he was worth $200 million when his taxable income then was $2,200 a week; that he was of Swedish heritage; that he had graduated at the top of his class at Wharton! [Read More…]
The nature of the rhetoric in Donald Trump’s first speech at the United Nations General Assembly was largely predictable. Even his bizarre threat to “totally destroy North Korea” was consistent with his overall style and previous warnings. But how different was his speech, if compared with the first and last UN speeches of President Barack Obama? A 19th Century English author, John Ruskin, once wrote,[Read More…]
Donald Trump’s appearance before the General Assembly of the United Nations could have been a rare highlight of his chaotic young presidency. If Trump had just repeated his inauguration address, the audience would have burst out in gales of laughter. Instead, they countered his bluster not only against North Korea and Iran but also against the UN body as a[Read More…]
Trump’s speech at the UN this morning is one of the best speeches I have heard aimed at an ignorant uninformed audience, essentially his Make America Great Again (MAGA) followers, and his political state handlers. Staying on script from the teleprompters, it was obvious that while many of these ideas were his, most of the writing, indeed probably all of[Read More…]
It seems to have reached a point of near exhaustion. What will the President of the United States do next? The money was on some diplomatic mayhem, a series of insults, and a trashing of various aspects of the organisation some Americans regard as a world government. But Donald Trump surprised those at the United Nations with a modest tone,[Read More…]
For those living in the northern climes of our great country, the season is just beginning to change. Summer has lost its worst heat. The air smells and tastes different … like Spring except that unlike Spring, instead of freshness … there is an undertone of decay. At the end of the American century, her voice has become as[Read More…]
On Monday, August 21, President Donald Trump delivered a prime-time speech almost shocking in its ordinariness. It was such an address as either of his immediate predecessors, George W. Bush or Barack Obama, could easily have given over the previous decade and a half. While hinting at nebulous new strategies and ill-defined new metrics to measure success, President Trump[Read More…]
Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. is known for its regular polls. It asked voters what words came to mind when they thought of President Donald J. Trump. Different adjectives ascribed to him were subsequently ranked: “Smart” came in at number 28, but “idiot” was number one. In Mr. Trump’s home town, New York City, the public library reports fully[Read More…]
Barack Obama was the only U.S. President who at the United Nations defended nazism — racist fascism — and Holocaust-denial. It received almost no reporting by the press at the time (or subsequently). But his successor President Donald Trump could end up being removed from office because he said that racist fascists are just the same as are people who[Read More…]
Since almost all US presidents from Truman to Obama – with the exceptions of Ford, Carter and Clinton – had blood on their hands, one possibly can’t single out Donald Trump for not being the exception. One may possibly disagree with me for including Kennedy and Obama in my list of US Presidents as war criminals. I wish I[Read More…]
Since January when this administration entered office, has anything significant been accomplished? Not really. The only major bill slapping more sanctions on Russia was entirely the work of Congress. Whether it is a positive or a foreign policy disaster is debatable, but one thing is certain: we continue to antagonize, irritate, humble, press militarily, encircle and threaten the only[Read More…]
The US President Donald Trump has signed executive order to impose sanctions on Russia, though he did so reluctantly. He was not in a position to prevent the Congress decision. This is a bizarre situation in USA. Since the election of Trump the foreign policy front is highly volatile. Relations with Russia are the most complex front where Trump is[Read More…]
Political corruption often leads to a constitutional crisis. The Watergate scandal that took down Richard Nixon shook up American politics. Over four decades later, we are now seeing another scandal associated with campaign officials. Dubbed “Russiagate”, a liberal media frenzy began over the claim of possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia before and during the 2016 election. Now, new intelligence[Read More…]
It’s all well and good to huff at the current President of the United States, who has managed to get under more irritated skin than an army of dedicated leaches. The immersion of the White House into the reality television show of Trumpland has set people on edge, lighting volatile fires and driving some commentators, quite literally, around the bend.[Read More…]
At this critical moment in human history it is important to recognize that Trump is in charge of very little. Every President struggles to overcome the basic inertia of large systems, entrenched bureaucracies, and a media and media owners with their own ideas on policy. Even when a President is intelligent and engaged with the information there are severe limits[Read More…]
We need to begin this discussion with the unfinished Presidency of Barack Obama. Some said it was because of his race. Others said it was his deliberative slowness as he explored every possibility and probability to its end before making a decision. Some said it was because he just could not “get along” with Congress. Others said it was because[Read More…]
When Donald Trump began his presidential campaign no one believed he could possibly be elected. When David Cameron went to the country on EU membership, he could not imagine ‘Remain’ losing. So it was with Theresa May. Ahead in the polls by 21 points she sought an unassailable majority. Whatever the reasons — and there are many — she[Read More…]
This Thursday, June 1, the U.S. decided to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. Like Brexit, the process is not like instant coffee; if anything, it is much more of a slow brew to which one could add harvesting or even growing the coffee in the first place. To prevent disruption for other members, it calls for a period[Read More…]
As if he has, overnight, been transformed into a master politician, Donald Trump’s 27-hour trip to Israel has left many analysts mystified. Quoting former Israeli political adviser, Mitchell Barack, the New York Times referred to Trump as the ‘Liberace of world leaders”, in reference to flamboyant, piano player, Wladziu Valantino Liberace. The latter, known as “Mr. Showmanship”, was, at times, the[Read More…]
In the wake of President Donald Trump’s visit to West Asia, is there even a faint glimmer of hope for peace in the most conflict-ridden region of the world? Or, has his visit to Saudi Arabia and Israel from the 20th to the 23rd of May 2017 only strained the region’s undercurrentsof friction and tension? Some reflections on areas[Read More…]
From his big white bird did the President descend upon his dreading European hosts, looking much like natives waiting to be slaughtered or ravished. As Donald Trump pushed his way through NATO members (the Montenegrin prime minister, for one, felt his forceful shove), representatives shot glances of discomfort and bemusement. In a refreshing blast of brutishness, the Ugly American, made[Read More…]
The thirst for war is ancient. As old as disputatious neighbors or rival tribes, it is enticing — a siren call for the strong, presenting as it does a quick, easy and final solution. That it is often not, has hastened the end of royal dynasties (Hohenzollerns, Hapsburgs and Romanovs after WWI) and empires, including the British. There are[Read More…]
It was time to do the Zionist boogie within a mere period of 27 hours, and anyone wishing to see two muggers of history enjoying each other’s company found themselves peering at Donald Trump of the United States, and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, nearly arm in arm on the recent tilt in US policy. “We understand each other,” effused the Israeli[Read More…]
Riddled with hypocrisy, clichés and absurdities, President Donald Trump’s speech Sunday before an assembly of monarchs and despots in Saudi Arabia spelled out an agenda of escalating US militarism throughout the Middle East and a buildup in particular toward war with Iran. Hailed by a fawning American media as “presidential”–supposedly eclipsing for the moment the crises and factional struggles engulfing[Read More…]
It has the air of a hunting party, and the quarry, on this occasion, was a lumbering US President with a loose tongue. The individual aiming the rifle in this case was The Washington Post, assisted by the murmurings and breathless whispers of various concerned officials as to what Donald Trump did in his meeting with Russian foreign minister, Sergey[Read More…]
The Trump White House plunged deeper into political crisis Thursday, as President Trump and top aides gave conflicting accounts of how and why Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, and FBI and Justice Department officials flatly contradicted the White House version of events. As the Trump administration scrambled to defend the decision to fire Comey, Democrats have seized on the[Read More…]
While it’s hard to keep up with the shifting reports of how the decision to fire FBI Director James Comey came about, President Donald Trump on Thursday admitted to directly asking the former head of law enforcement if he was under investigation—a move many said presented a shocking conflict of interest. “A dinner was arranged, I think he asked for[Read More…]
The human capacity, notably in cultures where measurements are valued, places much stock in numbering deeds. In the case of the US presidency, power is supposedly meant to translate into something within the first hundred days, a ring fight between the president and other arms of government, a race to the policy making podium. The US political system, in its[Read More…]
Donald Trump’s crafty manipulation of Islamophobia, we are told, was one of the factors that propelled him to the presidency of the United States of America. He was very much aware of the prevalence of negative sentiments towards Islam and Muslims within segments of the American electorate. Because Islamophobia was part of the public imagination, he had no scruples[Read More…]
The Abrahamic concept of “evil” has to some extent left the Western vocabulary. The time has come for Americans to bring it back. They can do so by answering these questions: Is their country now under its control? Could Donald Trump and his followers bring down not just the country but human civilization? My essay provides answers. XXXXXXX As Donald[Read More…]
How many books have been authored by Donald Trump? The answer: a steady stream totaling a whopping 17 — more than enough to keep a full-time writer fully occupied without all of Mr. Trump’s other activities. The word ‘writer’ of course is key, for Mr. Trump has not actually written any of them. He hires a ghost writer and[Read More…]
“You could send Congress to space.” Senator Ted Cruz, Mar 21, 2017 The NASA authorisation bill was another Trump huff and puff show, brimming with the usual air of minted if misplaced confidence. “My fellow Americans, this week in the company of astronauts I was honoured to sign the NASA Transition Authorization Act right into law.” The bill was meant[Read More…]
President Trump, in announcing his immigration and travel ban stated “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on,” He added, “… it is[Read More…]
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the ObamaCare-replacing, Trump Republican American Health Care Act would mean 14 million more uninsured Americans in 2018 and 24 million by 2026. Lack of health insurance kills about 45,000 Americans each year (Harvard Medical School) and Trump’s removal of millions of Americans from Health Cover will kill 43,000 Americans over 2 Trump terms[Read More…]
Speaking before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump reaffirmed the core pillars of his presidency: vastly expanding military spending, slashing taxes on corporations, scapegoating immigrants for the crisis of American capitalism, and promoting economic nationalist trade policies. In contrast to his inaugural speech, Trump couched his extreme right-wing policies in the traditional conventions of American[Read More…]
On February 27th, Reuters headlined “Trump seeks ‘historic’ increase of 9 percent in U.S. military’s budget” and reported that “Trump will ask Congress to boost Pentagon spending in the next fiscal year by $54 billion in his first budget proposal and slash the same amount from non-defense spending.” The U.S. Department of Defense is one of the 15 U.S. Cabinet departments, the others[Read More…]
It is already clearly apparent, as many predicted, that Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States would signal the start of what might be the final monumental assault on much of what is good in our world. Whatever our collective gains to date to create a world in which peace, social justice and environmental sustainability ultimately prevail for[Read More…]
U.S. President Donald Trump came into office promising to “drain the swamp” of corruption, and to restore the American people’s control over their government, but what he has been doing since he started his Presidency on January 20th is exactly the opposite: handing control of the U.S. government over to international corporations, and, really, over to the billionaires who[Read More…]
The English Language gave birth to William Shakespeare, John Keats, and James Joyce, to name but a few of the many bright stars. It also spawned the likes of Donald J. Trump, a kind of genetically-modified product grown in a hothouse; a man who not only stumbles over every word he utters but coins new and bizarre phraseology to convey[Read More…]
Zerohedge’s “Tyler Durden” headlined on February 21st, “Bannon Breaks With Pence, Delivers Warning To Europe” and noted that before U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis reassured European leaders this past weekend that the U.S. is as anti-Russian now as it was under Barack Obama, U.S. President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon, had[Read More…]
The first few weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency has seen an amazing explosion of mobilizing to oppose him and his administration on oh-so-many levels. And that has been heartening. But it is not enough. The fact is, as things now stand, Trump and his minions can outlast us. And even if we get Trump out of there—which I think is[Read More…]
In his book, “The Deep State: The Fall of the Constitution and the Rise of a Shadow Government”, Mike Lofgren called attention to the fact that much of the real power in Washington is not controlled by the President and members of Congress, but is in the hands of multi-billion-dollar organizations that are not only huge, but also unelected and[Read More…]
Has the US corporate media become “adversarial”? With President Donald Trump’s claims of the “dishonest media” and “fake news” at his recent press conference, and liberals defending the corporate media as a “watchdog,” the reality of the situation is hard to determine. Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines adversarial as “of or characterized by opposition, disagreement, hostility” and watchdog as[Read More…]
History may not be as useless as art, but it certainly performs a function that is almost without utility. George Santayana may well have crowed about the warnings of repeating historical mistakes if not learnt – the errant pupil ill-read would simply re-invent the same wheel of folly – but the point was not entirely accurate. What tends to happen[Read More…]
The first month of Trump in office unleashed chaos and turmoil with a series of executive orders threatening women’s reproductive rights, immigrants and sacred water guarded by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Trump presidency was a transition from a regime of secrecy to that of naked power. The legacy of Obama’s covert oppression is now being carried out by an[Read More…]
On Aug. 8, 2016, 50 former top-level Republican officials who served under Republican presidents going back to Richard Nixon issued a warning letter. Many had held senior national security posts. They called out the threat to national security posed by President Trump’s lack of self-control and impetuously “erratic behavior” and concluded that he “would be the most reckless president in[Read More…]
I fear that many of us are hating Donald Trump for the wrong reasons. Multitudes are being swayed by mainstream media-inspired demonization of the new US president, based on selective assumptions and half-truths. US mainstream media, which rarely deviates from supporting the American government’s conduct, however reckless, is now presenting Trump as if an aberration of otherwise egalitarian, sensible, and[Read More…]
When the French psychologist and philosopher Michel Foucault wrote Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason in 1973, he did not have in mind President Donald J. Trump because his study sought to answer the question of insanity from 1500 to 1800 only. Still, the book, a milestone both by reason and skill, sheds some[Read More…]
In what appears to have been a calculated leak from the highest echelons of the White House, US President Donald Trump reportedly “blasted” Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during a phone call last weekend and then abruptly cut off the call. According to the details first published by the Washington Post yesterday, Trump fumed at Turnbull for asking him to[Read More…]
John Pilger may certainly be correct in arguing that “Trump is not the Issue” but the way the latter’s propaganda works certainly is. Trump undoubtedly values the propagandistic role in domination and oppression and the fact that it helps obscuring the narratives that explaindomination and oppression.[i] Trump is a master of domination and oppression and his recently acquired power demands[Read More…]
President Donald Trump you have placed restrictions on entry of immigrants from seven Muslim countries in your executive order dated 27th January, 2017. You have placed restrictions in the name of security of American citizens and protecting them from the threat of terrorism. The concern for security of American citizens is welcome. So also is the case of being concerned[Read More…]
Open any newspaper or peruse any website and you’ll find at least one celebrity, one politician, or one pundit demanding that the rest of us “embrace” President Trump and his gang. Some suggest that we “give him a chance” and others say basically that “you guys lost so stuff it and deal with the new guy.” Others, true to the[Read More…]
Trump seems like Don Quixote, who invents enemies and fight them and believe to be victorious. It is true that Trump has succeeded in the real estate business. But the administration’s policy is much bigger than estate companies and alcohol factories. However, this does not mean that the world had reached the stage morality has become embedded in politics, but[Read More…]
US President Donald Trump promises to be pro-Israel in every aspect. ‘I’m the best thing that could ever happen to Israel,’ he boasted at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s Presidential Forum in Washington DC, in December, 2015. For a brief moment, Trump appeared as if rethinking his unconditional support for Israel, when in February 2016, the Republican presidential nominee pledged[Read More…]
London: Trump Traumatic Disorder has been making its away across the Atlantic, numbing British officials, activists and commentators on one vital point: Should President Donald J. Trump be able to see the Queen on an official state visit? A good of deal of this was sparked by Trump’s executive order banning travel from seven Muslim majority states. On a daily basis,[Read More…]
Such a flurry of activity in the first week as executive orders poured out of the Oval Office at a fast and furious pace. To what end … Yes, a wall is going to be built … except it might be a fence and might not cover the whole stretch. The chief of the border patrol has resigned/fired over disagreement. [Read More…]
Presidents and Prime Ministers assuming office in mature democratic countries after an election start with a period of honeymoon with the public and the rest of the world. President Kennedy had a long honeymoon and President Hollande a briefer one. Trump has willfully chosen not to have any honeymoon by his pronouncements before the inaugural and the speech he made[Read More…]
During a visit to the Pentagon on Friday, President Donald Trump issued an executive action calling for stepped up violence in Syria and a vast expansion of the US military, including its nuclear arsenal, to prepare for war with “near-peer competitors”—a reference to nuclear-armed China and Russia—and “regional challengers,” such as Iran. “I’m signing an executive action to begin a[Read More…]
On Friday, Jan. 20, Donald Trump took the presidential oath of office before a crowd best described as puny compared to the estimated 1.8 million people who attended Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration. The following day, the world erupted as millions of people joined demonstrations in major cities across the United States and the world to express their commitment to opposing[Read More…]
Two hundred and thirty-five people were arrested by police last Friday morning during protests in Washington D.C. at the inauguration of Donald Trump. The protests were described by participants as both “anti-capitalist” and “anti- fascist.” Those arrested, composed largely of politically unaffiliated individuals, were first surrounded and indiscriminately detained at the intersection of 11th and K Street. There riot police[Read More…]
US President Donald Trump declared in an extended interview with ABC News broadcast Wednesday that he will sign an executive order directing authorities to implement US controlled “safe zones” in Syria. The order would also block the entry of refugees and immigrants from a number of majority Muslim countries, including Syria. During the presidential campaign, Trump called for a complete[Read More…]
On Wednesday Donald Trump announced the construction of a wall along the US’s southern border, provoking a diplomatic crisis without precedent in the modern history of US-Mexico relations. When Trump repeated his ultimatum that Mexico pay for the cost of construction, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto cancelled a visit to the White House that had been planned for January 31.[Read More…]
President Donald Trump has ordered US government agencies to expedite approval of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, running roughshod over opposition by environmentalists and Native American tribes. The Dakota Access Pipe Line (DAPL) has encountered impassioned opposition, with thousands gathering despite the deep freeze of the North Dakota winter to block completion of the 1,200-mile-long pipeline, which is[Read More…]
January 20th is unique … unique in that it has been inauguration day in the U.S. since 1937. Thus it is on this day the people have two presidents, one before noon and the incoming one after. This letter then is addressed to two presidents starting with President Barack H. Obama who ends his term of office. I Mr. President [Read More…]
In the first days of his presidency, Donald Trump has issued a series of executive orders and memoranda that outline his administration’s far-right agenda: economic nationalism and war abroad; attacks on living standards and democratic rights at home. On Friday, immediately following his inauguration, Trump issued an executive order weakening the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The order,[Read More…]
This is a transcript of a talk Chris Hedges gave at the Inaugurate the Resistance rally in Washington, D.C., on Saturday. The ruling elites, terrified by the mobilization of the left in the 1960s, or by what [political scientist] Samuel P. Huntington called America’s “excess of democracy,” built counter-institutions to delegitimize and marginalize critics of corporate capitalism and imperialism. They[Read More…]
The Women’s March of January 21, 2017, was too large for anyone to “cover” as a reporter or photographer. This is one participant’s report, view and experience from the streets of Chicago during the January 21, 2017 Women’s March. My report is presented mostly as a snapshot of the people, posters and chants encountered. I did not hear even one[Read More…]
Factionalism and fury are basic ingredients of the US Republic. Designed as a classic response to the lynch mob fantasy of direct democracy, and the weakness of unaccountable monarchy, those behind the US constitution contrived a select form of paternal snobbery: letting groups fight it out in the amphitheatre of politics. Such a battle would always adhere to certain demarcations[Read More…]
As there’re multiple causes and factors behind most events, so is Donald Trump’s election victory not attributable to any single factor. However, there is always the “most important factor” behind everything. Here, neo-fascist racism played the most important role in the election of Trump. One may attribute his victory to the so-called Obama Legacy or Factor. We know Trump is[Read More…]
A strange and disturbing sequence took place behind President Donald Trump as he delivered his inaugural address Friday, which has gone virtually without comment in the news media. Early in his address, ten military officers walked up and stood behind the president so they would prominently appear with Trump in the camera shots beamed across the US and the world.[Read More…]
US President Donald Trump’s Inaugural Address was a mish-mash of populist rhetoric, unachievable promises, lying by commission and egregious lying by omission, most notably over the 1.7 million Americans who die preventably each year in the neoliberal US Corporatocracy. Crucially, espousal of “America First” by an anti-Christ Donald Trump contradicts the “Love thy neighbour” imperative of that wonderful Palestinian humanitarian[Read More…]
The USA has Urinary Trump Infection. Protest sign, San Francisco Women’s Rally, Jan 21, 2017 San Francisco: The man, called Bruce, goes by the name of DJ Chocolate Starfish. He is energetically occupying himself in the corner of a room on the third floor of the often noisy San Francisco Public library, eyes moving with frenzied delight at the mixed[Read More…]
Donald Trump’s inaugural speech, like the candidate himself, was a chain of falsehoods, saber-rattling and scary Neofascist uber-nationalism. But it could be difficult to follow because so much of it seemed stolen from the mass politics of the 1930s in central and southern Europe. So here is a plain English translation of some key passages. Today’s ceremony, however, has very[Read More…]
San Francisco: With the country ridden by woe and revulsion; with the discontent so profound and vicious, the Trump presidency began. It did so by way of comparison – of the chalk-cheese variety. In 2008, when the shining armour of Knight Obama took centre stage, there were sighs, ecstatic releases, heavy exhalations of hope. The theme, then, to start this presidency:[Read More…]
Not since the Civil War has an American presidential Inauguration Day been so fraught with fear and dread (on February 23, 1861, Abraham Lincoln traveled to his inauguration under military guard, arriving in Washington, D.C., in disguise). The incoming president is the most unpopular of any to assume office since modern polling began. In a single news cycle this past[Read More…]
When a local organizer for a new adult education project in Austin, Texas, asked me to teach a course on politics in January, it was tempting to focus on the potentially disastrous short-term consequences of the election. Instead, I decided to frame the course around the disastrous long-term forces that shape the contemporary United States, no matter who is in[Read More…]
“Ain’t going to let no ego maniac turn me around, turn me around, keep on walking, keep on talking going to build ourselves a brand-new world.” Joan Baez, San Francisco, Jan 15, 2017 San Francisco.: The City Hall gleamed in the crisp air of an unusually wintry day in San Francisco, where gatherings ahead of the inauguration of the US[Read More…]
President Obama’s farewell address focusing on the state of our democracy offered a lofty perspective coupled with a homily on the responsibility of citizenship. Thrown in were elements of legacy seized upon by numerous commentators from the left and right. The trouble is an aloof president on a lofty perch is unlikely to get much of anything done in the[Read More…]
Politics and power create curious albeit predictable transpositions. Misogynist and Paleolithic conservatives transpose themselves into self-described beacons of hope for women as they simultaneously deride Islam for its differential treatment of women and launch an attack on women’s freedom and rights in the United States. As they deride Democrats for pandering to Wall Street, they promote the richest cabinet in[Read More…]
Saudi Arabia dominates above all other nations as a supplier of suicide bombers, and its royal family dominates as the world’s top financial backer of Al Qaeda and other jihadist groups, but incoming President Donald Trump has chosen to lead his national-security team, only people who blame Iran and not Saudi Arabia, as being the main source of international[Read More…]
On Saturday afternoon, January 7, 2017, I attended an indoor rally entitled United Against Trump at the Women’s Building in San Francisco. The room was packed to the rafters. The spirit of resistance was high. There were inspiring speeches on defending immigrants, on fighting the Dakota Access Pipeline, on fighting for health care, on taxing the rich. There were[Read More…]
London: Morning breakfast news on the BBC’s Radio Four on Friday was a delightful affair filled with discussions on Russia (when do we not talk about that busy, stirring Bear these days?), Donald Trump, dossiers and the intelligence fraternity. Did it even matter that various sources have been unverified, subject matter lumped together in cumbersome conversations on fake news, sexual frolics[Read More…]
In 2000, I was 17 years old. I didn’t know the first thing about politics, history, or social change. My first preference in the U.S. Presidential Election was for George W. Bush.[i] Somehow in my ignorance I had figured out that the Democrats were the more popular party, and I reviled what was popular. The President for the last eight[Read More…]
The US corporate press was abuzz with front page, top stories today about the disagreement between incoming president Trump and some figures from the CIA and other intelligence agencies regarding the leaking of facts about Hillary Clinton, which some in the US speculate caused her to lose the election. Some US establishment figures claim the information was stolen and released[Read More…]
This Christmas I mourn the long, slow death of our democracy that led to the political ascendancy of Donald Trump. I fear the euphoria of those who have embraced the atavistic lust for violence and bigotry stoked by him. These nativist forces, part of the continuum of white vigilante violence directed against people of color and radical dissidents throughout American[Read More…]
A tweet sent Thursday by President-elect Donald Trump advocating the expansion of the US nuclear weapons arsenal has become the top news story around the world. Trump wrote: “The United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capability until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.” https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/811977223326625792 Trump’s tweet was almost certainly a response to[Read More…]
The heroic work of the Standing Rock water protectors represents a defining moment in the long struggle against the institutions of empire and colonial rule. It is fitting that the leaders are indigenous peoples who have come together in an ever-widening circle. As the Standing Rock circle has expanded, it has included nonindigenous participants who reflect the diverse racial, religious,[Read More…]
A month has passed since Donald Trump was declared president-elect soon to be the 45th president of the United States. Since his win, pundits, analysts, and experts continue to debate the victory – a surprise to most. While the reason/s for this victory depend on one’s perspective, most agree on one thing: Trump is unpredictable. But is he really? There[Read More…]
Today human civilization and the biosphere face two existential threats: catastrophic climate change, and thermonuclear war. Each of these disasters could cause mass extinctions, and each could make large portions of the earth permanently uninhabitable. The hubris of oligarchic leaders in the United States is leading the world directly towards both these threats; and this is particularly true after the[Read More…]
A woman I know (white, middle-aged, let’s call her D) recently told me about a Muslim family that lives on her block in Queens, New York. One of the family’s daughters (about 11 years old) has recently begun wearing a hijab so I sent D a link about the rapid rise in post-election hate crimes. The next time D saw[Read More…]
Even for a failed gambling czar, Donald Trump has been surprisingly quick to show his hand as he sets the course of his forthcoming presidency. With a reactionary fervor, he is bursting backwards into the future. He has accomplished this feat through the first wave of nominations to his Cabinet and White House staff. Only if there is a superlative[Read More…]
President-elect Donald Trump’s Energy Department transition team has reportedly been asking for the names of civil servants that have worked on environmental policies under President Barack Obama, sparking fears of a coming “climate purge” by the incoming Trump administration. A “document circulated by the Energy Department,” first reported by Bloomberg Thursday and later by Politico, lists 65 questions posed by[Read More…]
Given his cabinet picks so far, it’s reasonable to assume that The Donald finds hanging out with anyone who isn’t a billionaire (or at least a multimillionaire) a drag. What would there be to talk about if you left the Machiavellian class and its exploits for the company of the sort of normal folk you can rouse at a rally? [Read More…]
On December 7th, was posed the biggest test so far of the mettle of America’s President-Elect, Donald Trump. He had said several times during his campaign, that if elected as President, he would seek a new, less-hostile, relationship between the U.S. and Russia. Now the moment has come when he must either make his first move forward with that historic commitment,[Read More…]
Prince Ea, rapper and spoken-word artist and social justice advocate, has a soliloquy on YouTube with a surprising title: WHY IM HAPPY TRUMP WON. How could he think that, as he has passionately called for recognizing the dignity in all people? He’s happy, he says, because he sees this election result as a wake-up call. It forces us to recognize[Read More…]
There was much tittering in the US-China fraternity over the casual, yet infuriating engagement US President elect Donald Trump had with Taiwan’s President, Tsai Ing-wen. A reading of the reactions suggested meltdown, a terrifying, imminent apocalypse. An outrageous booboo, or an typically uncharacteristic move hardly worth a mention? There are no covering laws on this, though international relations theorists attempt,[Read More…]
Co-Written By Joseph Kishore and Jerry White In a rally in Cincinnati, Ohio on Thursday night, US President-elect Donald Trump outlined the right-wing program of extreme “America First” nationalism of the incoming administration. The Cincinnati speech was unlike any delivered by a president or president-elect in US history. It was a combination of blatant contradictions, exaggerations, wild hyperbole, empty demagogy[Read More…]
An unequal society is like tinder, dry and just waiting for a match to set it off. In the US case, add multi-ethnicity, a surfeit of guns, joblessness resulting in the blame game, and the environment is not only virulent but dangerously explosive. Early last Sunday morning in New Orleans one man was shot and killed and nine injured in[Read More…]
The dust has settled on the Presidential election. Peoples and governments everywhere have accepted the reality that a controversial personality has been elected to the highest political office in the world.There is muted hope, indeed rejoicing, among those American citizens who have hitherto felt woefully disenfranchised, that their concerns will soon be addressed. Millions, however, are fearful their country will[Read More…]
Politics can be a deliciously self-defeating field. For the US-Australian alliance, one born out of desperate insecurity on the part of Canberra, a dramatic change in the White House was always going to cause a shudder. A Clinton presidency was presumed to be inevitable and, on taking place, a no-fuss affair, one which was to continue President Barack Obama’s “pivot”[Read More…]
Co-Written by Helena Norberg-Hodge and Rupert Read The election of Donald Trump was a rude awakening from which many people in the US have still not recovered. Their shock is similar to that felt by UK progressives, Greens, and those on the Left following the Brexit referendum. In both cases, the visceral reaction was heightened by the barely-disguised racist and[Read More…]
Normal is coming unhinged. For the past eight years it has been possible for most people (at least in the relatively privileged classes) to believe that society is sound, that the system, though creaky, basically works, and that the progressive deterioration of everything from ecology to economy is a temporary deviation from the evolutionary imperative of progress. A Clinton presidency[Read More…]
Only citizens can vote in the US Presidential elections, yet the impact is global. The world is suddenly in disarray, in panic. A man notorious for his bigoted rhetoric, a man who believes in American exceptionalism, who wants to build the walls and to ‘restore order’, has been elected the 45th President of the mightiest nation on Earth. Hiscountryis[Read More…]
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble. — Macbeth Mass protest demonstrations have been taking place across the United States after dangerous right wing billionaire Donald J. Trump unexpectedly defeated Hillary R. Clinton in the U.S. election Nov. 8. She was the first woman candidate of a major party to run for the presidency in the[Read More…]
US President-elect Donald Trump continued over the weekend to assemble the makings of the most right-wing and militarist administration in U.S. history, while taking steps to ensure that he retains personal control over his multi-billion-dollar business empire. On Sunday, Trump met with retired Marine General James N. Mattis, responsible for U.S. war crimes in the Iraqi city of Fallujah. Mattis[Read More…]
My first book was an alternative history of World War II called Saving Private Power: The Hidden History of the “Good War.” The jam-packed release party took place in July 2000 at the old Brecht Forum. I gave a kick-ass (if I say so myself) one-hour presentation — without notes. Afterwards, during the Q&A, I was asked what I would’ve[Read More…]
Since Donald Trump’s victory in the most bizarre US presidential election in memory, pundits, Rightists, “democrats” and even Barack Obama himself have called upon people to support ideas and results that go against their own feelings, ethics, and desires. This, apparently, is what “Democracy” is all about. Ironically, it is the Right now that is lecturing us the need to[Read More…]
The election of Donald J. Trump on Tuesday, November 8 terrified many who consider themselves notionally progressive or traditional republicans. It also terrified free trade ideologues, and those who believe that opening borders to boundless consumer goods and services eradicates poverty. There are few better exponents of this idea on trade than Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, whose insistence that[Read More…]
Optimists are hoping for a Trump makeover. They cling to his brief victory remarks suggesting that he wants to be the “president of all the people.” In his 60 Minutes interview following the election Trump said that the protestors were out in the streets because “they do not know me.” They recall his statement some months ago that he had[Read More…]
This has been the first presidential election in living memory where it was difficult to cast a vote. As the voting numbers show, many stayed away. Better the devil you know … goes the adage. The choice between ‘crooked’ Hillary and, well, the Donald … He who thumbed his nose at the establishment, was labeled a neo-Nazi, was shunned by[Read More…]
Nazareth: While the United States presidential election bitterly divided the American public, most Israelis were sanguine about the race. Both candidates – Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton – were keen to end eight years of icy mistrust between Barack Obama, the outgoing president, and Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli prime minister should – at least on paper – be happier with[Read More…]
At least we have some clarity. The mystifications and rationalizations are evaporating. If nothing else, the election of Donald Trump illuminates many of the deep structural problems that we need to face squarely. While most post-election commentary is focused on Trump and the political realignment in Washington, I think the bigger stories are the tectonic shifts in the neoliberal political[Read More…]
Many Americans are frightened by the idea of Donald Trump as the country’s new pilot-in-chief, fearing he’ll crash the airliner of state (including climate and environmental policies) into a mountain or the ground. Clinton, they argued, for all her flaws, knows how to fly this thing called a country using the federal government and at least won’t end up crashing[Read More…]
In an age where many pundits and pollsters ought to be put out to an ignoble pasture, predictions and astrology gazing on the US election continues. While he did have a better sense of this election than most, actually predicting the result, Michael Moore has decided to essentially ignore it except in the negative. On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Moore took[Read More…]
Arctic News June 10, 2014 “There are such massive methane reserves below the Arctic Ocean floor, that they represent around 100 times the amount that is required to cause a Permian style major extinction event, should the subsea Arctic methane be released in a short period of time into the atmosphere….The energy necessary to produce these Arctic methane release rates[Read More…]
In late 2012, Peter Turchin, a professor at the University of Connecticut made a startling claim. Based on an analysis of revolutionary upheavals across history, he found that there were 3 social conditions in place shortly before all major outbreaks of social violence: an increase in the elite population; a decrease in the living standards of the masses; and huge[Read More…]
The 2016 election and the rise of both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump can be explained by growing inequality and the nature of populist movements. Understanding this creates potential for serious radical change. The architects of our economy — both Republicans and Democrats — shouldn’t be surprised that there is backlash after decades of shifting most of our economy’s income[Read More…]
Billionaire US president-elect Donald Trump belongs to the richest 0.1% of Americans but has been elected by an anti-science, neoliberal electoral continuum from the desperate White poor to the homicidally greedy rich. Trump is an explicit climate change denier and promises a neoliberal agenda of $1 trillion annually in tax-cuts disproportionately favouring the rich in an environmentally disastrous Business As[Read More…]
Universally, Trump was depicted as an anti-establishment candidate. Washington and Wall Street hated him, and the media were deployed to vilify him endlessly. If they could not discredit Trump enough, surely they would steal the election from him. Some even suggested Trump would be assassinated. Acting the part, Trump charged repeatedly that the election was rigged, and he was[Read More…]
So-called liberals and leftists in the US and around the world, are now wailing and gnashing their teeth in reaction to Hillary Clinton’s crushing defeat. They are, however, the first to blame for the outcome of the US presidential elections. Their candidate, Hillary Clinton, was the embodiment of a totally corrupt political system. She is a hypocrite par excellence, talking[Read More…]
Like millions of voters and minorities, the upset victory of Donald Trump on Tuesday night was not a pleasant situation for the seven-million-strong American Muslim Community that was at the receiving end during the 2016 controversial presidential election campaign. Hence, an urgent question for the American Muslims is how they will be treated by the forthcoming administration of Donald Trump.[Read More…]
Brushing away the extreme claims and rhetoric of much election analysis, there are some observations which deserve attention. These unfortunately mostly provide hard lessons and not a lot of encouragement for people who hold to principles of democracy, enlightenment, and progressivity. The election demonstrated perhaps better than ever, and better than has been generally been recognized, that American is, indeed,[Read More…]
It’s the morning after Trump’s election. I watched the election until about 2 am, Eastern time, so I knew he was going to win. Already early this morning, my friend, Karen, has called to talk—she’s an African American with a 22-year old son, and she’s scared: and this is not someone who scares easily. My daughter messaged me from The[Read More…]
On the eve of the U.S. Presidential election this writer’s article, DAPL Uprising Against Dakota Access Pipeline Ignored By Clinton and Trump was posted online by the Countercurrents.org The gist of that article was a message to the American electorate that the choice in the election wasn’t just between the evil of two political lessers but that other highly-principled candidates[Read More…]
Right wing political groups throughout the world are celebrating Trump’s victory but rather prematurely. The traditional conservatives and liberals are sufficiently delusional to believe that they are somehow far removed from Trump-style authoritarian politics when in fact they laid the groundwork for Trump to succeed. Meanwhile, some traditional conservative political leaders around the world are wondering if right wing populism[Read More…]
On a day that most people expected not to see, we can say few things with certainty. One of them is that Hillary Clinton would have been a disastrous president for those supporting the Palestinian struggle for their rights. Her failed campaign pitched her as the natural successor to President Barack Obama, the Democrat who just unconditionally handed Israel the[Read More…]
That’s my first entry here in my list of a baker’s dozen. The other “sides” to my personal joy are listed below (in no special order). Keep in mind, if you will, that I’m one of the most radical souls on earth, with many decades of having my head bashed in at the barricades (in the name of leftist causes) under my belt. I belt out what’s below now because of the highly unproductive commentary coming out of alternative media outlets and from mainstream sources freaking out about Trump’s downsides. I’m fully aware of his horrid downsides.
Whew! Finally, the charade is over. Donald Trump is now the President of the United States of America. What does that mean? It means that Simpsons prediction came true: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2146815/the-simpsons-correctly-predicted-a-donald-trump-presidency-16-years-ago-in-episode-set-in-the-near-future/ So now you know who to refer to for accurate predictions about the future. Goodbye Tarot cards, et al. In 1995 I recall reading a survey which concluded that America[Read More…]
I watched Donald Trump’s presidential victory speech. He spoke a lot about unity, the potential of ordinary, marginalised people and about making the US great again. He spoke about rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, creating jobs and about finding common ground with other nations. He can be quite charismatic and, taken at face value, quite convincing. His victory was, to a[Read More…]
The earth has been shifting under our feet for a while, but all liberals want to do is desperately cling to the status quo like a life-raft. Middle-class Britons are still hyperventiliating about Brexit, and now middle-class America is trembling at the prospect of Donald Trump in the White House. And, of course, middle-class Americans are blaming everyone but themselves.[Read More…]
The results of the US elections were not so surprising for me: after all, I live in a country where politics has been dominated by a financial tycoon, Silvio Berlusconi, for more than 20 years. Berlusconi and Trump share many characteristics, but the most curious one is that they are rich and that the poor vote for them. Why is[Read More…]
By sabotaging Bernie Sander’s primary campaign, the Democratic National Committee seems to have committed suicide and destroyed the Democratic party. USA’s mass media were also responsible for the stolen primary, and for Trump’s election to the US Presidency. Bernie was the people’s choice, and he would easily have defeated Donald Trump. Americans suffering from economic hardship would have been[Read More…]
The chugging train of fear continues to drone away on the eve of what has been considered one of the most important elections in generations. Mind you, this was the sort of stuff spouted during the campaigns of 2008, when a disgusted electorate washed a mouth contaminated by George W. Bush’s years with Barack Obama’s honeyed promises. Eight years after[Read More…]
San Francisco: Coming into San Francisco, and a note of spellbinding terror can be sensed. Donald Trump haunts the political landscape with a menace that has become a caricature of terror before the fact. Even conservative bodies like the Hoover Institute run comments of angst such as those of one of its senior fellows, Victor Davis Hanson. For Hanson, Trump offers[Read More…]
In a few days the election, and what to many Americans is a political nightmare, will be over. But will it? Who can imagine Trump graciously disappearing from the scene if he loses, or for that matter Hillary. He is likely to parlay his greater celebrity into a new enterprise, and she into another run with the same political[Read More…]
The American journalist, Edward Bernays, is often described as the man who invented modern propaganda. The nephew of Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psycho-analysis, it was Bernays who coined the term “public relations” as a euphemism for spin and its deceptions. In 1929, he persuaded feminists to promote cigarettes for women by smoking in the New York Easter Parade –[Read More…]
In the US, the political system has now disgorged two candidates the citizenry cannot be less enthusiastic about. Driven by ambition more than a love of the people or a sincere desire to serve, one can be forgiven for wondering if they are just as trapped by their motivations as the public in its two-party myopia. No authentic leader among[Read More…]
History should tell us that writing scolding, even scornful letters, to electorates as part of a conversation for persuasion do not work. They are even less effective when coming from outside that electorate, however well-intentioned. Non-voters should be careful to judge and lecture. Consider the attempt on the part of The Guardian to mount its electoral high horse prior to[Read More…]
For humane, anti-racist, pro-peace, pro-environment, pro-human rights American voters the Green Party candidate Dr Jill Stein ticks all boxes. However, as controversially argued over the Ralph Nader Green Party candidacy in the 2000 George Bush versus Al Gore presidential race, support for Stein might decrease Democrat votes (by wooing Bernie Sanders supporters) and deliver victory for Trump. However from a[Read More…]
Elections in the United States are far and away the most expensive in the entire world. In 2012, the Federal Election Commission reported that $7 billion was spent on the presidential campaign. By the time the ink is dry on the 2016 election, the number will likely be even higher. American voters take for granted that political campaigns provide value[Read More…]
With 3 weeks to go before the US Presidential Elections the lying Mainstream media have ignored the extremely serious issues raised by Donald Trump of 9-11 truth, US military interventions and the impact of globalization, and have launched an hysterical, grubby, sex-based personal campaign against Donald Trump in support of mendacious warmonger and war criminal Hillary Clinton. And why the[Read More…]
There is no getting away from the degradation that is taking place, on colossal scale, in US presidential politics. The sense of two dysfunctional candidates beating each other over the remains of the US republic as it suffers the last paroxysm of what might have been an interesting future are all too evident. Sunday’s second presidential debate featured the depravity,[Read More…]
Righteousness is rarely endearing, and when concocted in a brew of hypocrisy, it becomes noxious. US political campaigning tends to overflow in it, a mixture of rights, noisily championed liberties and supposed exceptionalism. To that end, Donald Trump is enigmatic. He does, to a large extent fit that bill, only in so far as he assumes making money is a[Read More…]
It really doesn’t matter that these two creatures loathed and feared in varying degrees should even be conducting a debate. What, after all, is there to dispute? Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump inhabit worlds of the disparately dislikeable, and reaped the bounty of the US with varying degrees of ruthlessness.
On 9/11/2001, Donald Trump did a live phone interview with New York’s WWOR. Digging this up 15 years later, Politico and Mother Jones pointed out how Trump bragged about the new status of his 71-story Trump Tower, “40 Wall Street actually was the second-tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and it was actually, before the World Trade Center, was the[Read More…]
The first debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was a political and cultural abomination. It demonstrated, in both style and substance, the thoroughgoing decay of American capitalist society over many decades. It says a great deal about the US political system that, out of 330 million people in America, the choice for president has been narrowed down to these[Read More…]
Everybody knows that both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are inveterate liars; but, do Americans really care? The vast majority of us care only as partisans in politics, not as partisans for truth and against lies. And that’s why democracy has died in America. (Please click on the link here, wherever you question this, or any other given assertion’s[Read More…]
In July, the Caine Prize for African Writing was awarded to Lidudumalingani Mgombothi. The 10,000 pounds sterling award recognizes African writers for short stories written in English. His story, “Memories We Lost,” is graced with beautifully expressed sentences, and one in particular is apt for the role often played by governments: “Secrets stay buried for so long, but one day[Read More…]
The media battle between Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has sidetracked the impact of an unusual congressional campaign and diluted its essential meaning — voter dissatisfaction. In the democratic primary race for Washington’s 7th congressional district, State Senator Pramila Jayapal’s victory relates an important story of this election year — the public favors a new Democratic[Read More…]
I am a leftist for Trump. As an alumni of “Leftists for Bush” and living these past 10 years in the Horn of Africa, I cant help myself. I am irresistibly drawn to “Leftists for Trump”. Of course if I was living in the good old U-S-of A I would be in the streets demonstrating against The Trumpster. But then[Read More…]
It’s not every day that Republicans publish an open letter announcing that their presidential candidate is unfit for office. But lately this sort of thing has been happening more and more frequently. The most recent example: we just heard from 50 representatives of the national security apparatus, men — and a few women — who served under Republican presidents from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush.[Read More…]
There is a disturbingly realistic assessment by Trump’s followers that Trump won’t kill constitutional government because it is already dead. Constitutional government will not win a decisive victory and likely not a victory at all unless Hillary makes a clean break with her all-too-well-known past and offers a full restoration of constitutional government..
Ever straddling that fine line between the absurd and the puncturing revelation, Donald J. Trump’s “ISIS” remarks about the Obama administration and the Democrat presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, were vintage. “[Obama] was the founder of ISIS absolutely, the way he removed our troops. … I call them [Obama and Hillary Clinton] co-founders.” In a political environment where sarcasm is set[Read More…]
On 10 August 2016, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump accused president Barak Hussein Obama and Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton of co-founding the jihadist rebel organization ISIS (Islamic State) operating mainly in Syria and Iraq but with operative in many Middle Eastern countries and around the world. Trump used Obama’s full name to provoke a racist-xenophobic response from the public[Read More…]
Possibly I have spent too many years ‘abroad’, outside of North America and Europe. Perhaps I don’t feel ‘white’, or ‘Western’ anymore. Or who knows, maybe I never really felt too ‘Western’ anyway, thanks to my Russian and Chinese blood. That could help to explain why, when I listened to the acceptance speech delivered by Donald Trump at the Republican[Read More…]
America’s press cover the Trump campaign with barely concealed hostility toward it, and with an obsessive emphasis upon the candidate’s positions regarding Russia; they’re attacking Trump as being (wittingly or unwittingly) an agent of Russia — and portraying Russia as being America’s enemy. It’s not only Republican newsmedia that are apparently agreeing with the Republican Mitt Romney’s famous statement made[Read More…]
So, I recently told you all about Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s positive assessment of Mussolini and how FDR was the architect of U.S. prison camps. There’s much more but even with such stellar authoritarian credentials, there’s also strong evidence that home-grown fascists may have openly explored the option of anti-FDR coup in 1934. That year, the DuPonts and the Morgans tried[Read More…]
On the first day of the Republican National Convention, while Republican delegates were arguing about voting rules, and the anti-Trump delegates were being put in their place, I was touring the Manzanar War Relocation Center in the California desert. An historic marker at the entrance to Manzanar reads, “May the injustices and humiliation suffered here as a result of hysteria,[Read More…]
Donald Trump formally accepted the nomination as the Republican Party candidate in the 2016 presidential elections Thursday night with a fascistic rant delivered before cheering delegates at the convention hall in Cleveland, Ohio. In contrast to most of his speeches, Trump’s remarks on Thursday closely followed a prepared script, eschewing his characteristic stream-of-consciousness rambling. However, this change in form did[Read More…]
Preface: This is not an article. This is a desperate plea to evolve. During the many, many talks and lectures I gave between 2008 and 2013, I’d often provide a healthy (read: jolting) dose of reality (read: gloom and doom) that would typically bring the proceedings to a palpable pause. That would be my cue to ask: So, who’s ready[Read More…]
Never doubt the ballistic factor of Laura Ingraham. Ingraham is never into facts, which tend to be the unwanted gate crashers of her party. What matters in that particular world view is sentiment, often tinged by viciousness. In so far as it matters, she is the great weapon that someone like Trump needs: intangible, but feeling; vicious but at heart[Read More…]
Nazareth: The grubby underside of US electoral politics is on show once again as the Democratic and Republican candidates prepare to fight it out for the presidency. And it doesn’t get seamier than the battle to prove how loyal each candidate is to Israel. New depths are likely to be plumbed this week at the Republican convention in Cleveland, as[Read More…]
Donald Trump, the Republican Presidential nominee-to-be, has effectively ended his chances to become U.S. President, by his choice of the Mike Pence to be his Vice Presidential choice. Pence’s only articles about his vision for the nation and for the Republican Party were published at his campaign site “Mike Pence for Congress,” between 1991 and the year 2000, when he finally[Read More…]
It wouldn’t be strange for a contemporary 2D artist to imagineher sketchbook as a kind of immediate scientific laboratory, a site wherever repeated experiments and knowledge-building practices get drawn into existence. Moreover, the art that accumulates within the pages of the artist’s sketchbook would likely provide a unique description of her as an individual, especially aftera lifetime of drawing.[Read More…]
Katherine Hoof Illinois—probably your average Hillary supporter. She published a letter to the editor in the Times the very day after Bernie’s piece and titled it“Dear Bernie Sanders: What You Didn’t Say”. In her letter, Ho claimed that“…[Bernie Sanders] needs to wake up to a modern reality in which globalization is both inevitable and beneficial, creating domestic jobs and raising millions worldwide out of poverty.”
At least 40 immigrants dead in fire at US-Mexico border 
Contemporary Anti-Semitism – A Jewish View from Germany 
In memory of 40th Anniversary of Military Dictatorship in Argentina 
Poor work conditions, non-compliance with Constitutional provisions seriously impact adolescent girls in workforce 
Take action against K Surendran for insulting Women 
Calculated Exoneration: Command Responsibility and War Crimes in Afghanistan 
DOJ Called Upon to Investigate Environmental Activists Abuses 
The World’s Coffee Shops Have Emerged as Plant Milk’s Front Line 
Lara Sheehi’s ordeal, like Steven Salaita’s, is not quite over 
“Facing Clear Evidence of Peril” in a Country of Lies 
The case of Kashmir: A Gandhian Resolution 
Non-Availability of Badly Needed Funds for Dalit Students Increases Their Difficulties 
A bureaucrat-turned- minister in a mess 
Hundreds Of Thousands Of Workers’ 24-Hour Mega Transport Strike Halts Germany 
Oldest Interfaith Organization in America Calls for Children to Have More Rights Than Guns 
What’s the Best Way Out from the War in Ukraine? 
How Indigenous Land Management Practices Are a Blueprint for Climate-Resilient Agriculture 
In memory of Hugo Chavez on 10th death Anniversary 
Xi’s ‘Chilling’ Remarks: A Multipolar World Offers Challenges and Opportunities to the Middle East and Africa 
Ukraine War – US-China Relations And the Doomsday Clock 
Anti-Rahul Defamation Card Has Its Limitations! 
Questions We Should Ask to Understand Real Impact of Poverty Reduction and Welfare Schemes 
Punjab: Democracy Under Siege? 
Declaration excessive dividends by the Board of HZL may not be in compliance with Section 123 of the Companies Act 
Men, masculinities, and gender equality 
EU Warns After Russia Plans To Place Tactical Nuclear Weapon In Belarus 
A Hazardous Decision: Supplying Ukraine with Depleted Uranium Shells 
Media and the March to War 
The Basic Issue is not of Taking Sides in Superpower Rivalry, it is of Durable Peace to Save Earth’s Life 
The Pentagon’s Budget from Hell 
“…I want poetry to be detonated like a bomb!” -Nathalie Quintane 
Bundelkhand Must Choose its Priorities Carefully 
Citizenship: Beyond the Forked Vision 
Caste-wise census is necessary for balanced development 
Tribal woman murdered after rape in Rohtas and strong protest demanding punishment of culprits 
Why Avoiding Catastrophic War is the Biggest Priority Today 
Labor in market, and the mainstream economics 
Serbia Shall Never Forget NATO Aggression, Vows Serb President 
Kerala’s New Public Health Bill 2023: Subservient to Market Forces rather than Deliberative Democracy 
The Piracy of Development – The 3-Ds: Dispossession, Displacement, Destitution 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
Trump’s Misogyny And The Media’s “Righteous-Indignation Dollar”
Twenty years ago, the great Bill Hicks had a classic stand-up bit in which he imagined ad executives watching his rant against advertising, and saying to each other: “Oh, I see what Bill is doing! He’s going after the anti-marketing dollar, the righteous-indignation dollar! That’s a good dollar!” Hicks was pointing out the ability of advertising to, in an utterly[Read More…]