"Every time something bad happened, I would turn to poetry -- it would give me calm." "It's been seven months that I can't write. It no longer gives me calm. When I sit down to focus on one incident for a poem, 30 others flash through my head." "My words do not have the strength for all of them." Sajid Bahar, 25, Khost, Afghanistan
"We had a fake economy, fake money and fake prosperity [with the presence of U.S. and NATO forces and international humanitarian aid groups]. Security was provided by foreigners." "My sense is that the situation will get worse as that fakeness crumbles, that we will reach the edge of collapse before there is a move for the better." "But once it crumbles, we will see that underneath, the society has actually transformed." Mirwais Arya, Kabul, Afghanistan
"This election is an arena for two generations: one that is about the glories and the grievances of the past, and a younger generation that wants to build the Afghanistan of the future." "People still have a lot of hope in this new generation that they can stand against the corruption, against the warlords, against the stereotypes." Sami Mahdi, candidate for Kabul Parliament
Civilians and military personnel stand beside the grave of Gen. Abdul
Raziq, Kandahar police chief, during his burial in Kandahar
Ah, yes, but can they 'stand against' a neighbour like Pakistan that encourages and supports the Taliban in its unending campaign to restore themselves to power? Can they 'stand against' the presence of al-Qaeda and Islamic State, vying with the Taliban to destroy as much of civil society as possible, in Afghanistan? Can they 'stand against' the nation's farmers opting to grow poppies instead of basic food commodities because the Taliban threaten them if they turn away from producing crops whose profit swell Talibran treasuries?
Afghans in general, so beaten down by countless invasions over the centuries, yet assertively defensive and prepared to fight back to restore a vestige of sovereignty to find a way forward to their undetermined destiny, will have their own tribal and sectarian blights that constrain civil life, not to mention corruption strangling the operation of a civil society, and the frailty of a national police force and military infiltrated by violent Islamists. Ah, and the scourge of war lords...!
The scene after a blast Wednesday targeting parliamentary candidate
Abdul Jabar Qaharman, in Helmand province's capital, Lashkargah city
Suicide bombings even in areas held to be the most secure where foreign aid workers, diplomats and government departments are considered to be beyond the reach of the Taliban and Islamic State are devastating in their death grasps when they occur, putting the lie to security and trust. Government security forces have been unable to overcome the Taliban advantage in conflict; a daily toll of 100 dead devastates the mind.
Islamic State loyalists in Kabul have succeeded in sowing terror through their ability to foil security and the burgeoning death toll they take. Sectarian divisions run deep and are intensified with each succeeding act of violence against the Shiite minority despite government promises of protection. Ordinary Afghans are reluctant to surrender their vision of democracy of some type in their future for all the good that's done them, to date.
Though despite the turmoil, the violence, the uncertainty, an October 20 parliamentary election proceeded. Ten candidates for election and dozens of their supporters died, including a parliamentary hopeful, during the election campaign. Abdul Jabar Qahraman died in Helmand Province when a bomb placed by a Taliban under his chair, exploded. An estimated 78 people, among them 28 members of the security forces, were killed while 470 mostly civilians were wounded in the election violence.
Violence has plagued the run-up to Afghanistan's long-delayed parliamentary vote, scheduled for October 20 [Parwiz/Re
Taking centre stage in all of this turmoil sits Pakistan which refuses to halt its sheltering of the insurgency leaders or to make use of its influence with the Taliban to persuade it to come to the bargaining table for a solution to the constant attacks. Russia and Iran have involved themselves by supporting the Taliban, for their own nefarious reasons, neither concerned with the casualties represented by Afghan deaths.
Intelligence working with the Afghan military has enabled suspects to be rounded up and he disruption of insurgent networks, even while it is acknowledged that the bombings will continue. Afghans who have suffered the fallout of attacks, surviving them, take their wounds in stride and make every effort to get on with their daily lives. Advocacy and politics remain an avenue to hope for needed change.
President Ashraf Ghani is counting on a new generation of Afghans able and willing to help the country overcome the adversity facing it, appointing young officials to government jobs, despite criticism, even while thousands of other young Afghans choose to leave their country for a stable future elsewhere -- if they can.
Afghan men lined up to cast their vote at a polling center in Mazar-i-Sharif
"Polls don't mean anything anymore." "The polls were wrong in the U.S. and in Britain because people do not openly register how they vote in secret." "Nobody can predict what will happen next here." Christophe Szczurek, deputy mayor, Henin-Beaumont, France, National Front member
"Marine is superb. We give too much to foreigners when we, the French, have needs, too." "Every time we complain about terrorism, they say we are racists." Marie Vasteene, 29, Henin-Beaumont, France "I am a member of the National Front and I am not ashamed of it." "I don't like foreigners who do not respect France." Danielle Parsy, 69, Henin-Beaumont, France
"We need change. That is clear." "But the more I hear from Marine the less I like her. I do not like her connection to Vladimir Putin." "And with everything [the National Front] have produced before, I don't want their extremism." Regina Godar, 53, beauty salon operator, Henin-Beaumont, France
"Everyone who wants power tells us stories. Will Marine be any different?" "All we know is that she is not Francois Hollande. I am not really with her but with everything that has happened we do not know really who to vote for." Beatire Dey, 61, Henin-Beaumont, France
Pictured is armed police crowded two other officers, believed to have
been shot in the attack, on Champs Elysees on Thursday night Mail Online
A one-hour, high-speed train trip from Paris, the city of Henin-Beaumont, population 27,000 has become a faithful base for the National Front's Marine Le Pen. Its mayor, enormously popular himself, ranks as the head of a municipal council dominated by the Front. They are all regarded by Parisian business, cultural and media elite as fascist and xenophobic; they are miles apart on the political spectrum though geographically close.
This same city up to a decade earlier voted 60 percent for the socialists and 20 percent for the communists. Since then it has chosen the anti-immigrant, anti-European Union and anti-globalization platform of the National Front. In the upcoming general election in France, the Front is expected to be the recipient of at least 60 percent of the ballots cast by diehard supporters. Those in the know feel that Marine LePen may very well win on the first ballot. Much, perhaps can be explained by its 19 percent unemployment, double the national average.
It is in the subsequent vote that betting has it that Le Pen will have competition from progressive independent reformer Emmanuel Macron, or alternately a candidate who has begun to surge, hardline communist Jean-Luc Melenchon. France's dalliance with the left has come to a scudding halt. Le Pen has made this city her political base. Its coal mines closed 40 years earlier, its factories have closed since then with jobs exported to Central Europe and the Far East, events that polarized the residents and then popularized the National Front.
The residents are themselves of mixed origin. Turkish heritaged Hasibe Lesieux feels a strong option to vote for Le Pen: "We feel the tension here between Muslims and the rest of society and Marine looks strong and approachable", she explained. A Muslim from Algeria, now a beat policeman feels a personal pull for Le Pen since "she is the only one brave enough to take on terrorists and immigrants from the Middle East."
And France keeps getting reminded that terrorists and immigrants from the Middle East threaten the Republic and its pride in secular equality. The disequilibrium between native French-French and the immigrant Muslim French population with its ghettoizing penchant and hostility toward French secularism and white privilege has created a society within the greater society. The immigrant society is one of suspicion and resentment, blame and hostility. From among whose festering ills arise volunteers for jihad.
The latest attack by a man known to authorities whose previous attempts to kill police had him imprisoned for fifteen years where, authorities like to say, he was 'radicalized', as though he hadn't been sufficiently 'radical' previous to incarceration, has repeated a pattern of vengeance against the society that accepted him before he turned on it. Security forces are everywhere in Paris in response to the deadly Islamic extremist assaults in the past several years.
The voting public is tired of the vigilance required of them, the everpresent fear of yet another attack unfolding when they least expect it, the tension of life among millions of alienated and threatening immigrants who fail to appreciate the opportunities they have been granted to blend into an equality-driven society where advancement and prosperity are there to be had for the motivated. The situation that has overtaken France reflects a pattern seen throughout Europe.
"All Americans should be alarmed by Russian actions. Such activities have consequences." "These data theft and disclosure activities could only have been directed by the highest levels of the Russian government." "These actions are not the sum total of our response to Russia's aggressive activities. We will continue to take a variety of actions at a time and place of our choosing, some of which will not be publicized." U.S. President Barack Obama
"The Russian diplomats returning home will spend the New Year holidays with their relatives and dear ones. We will not create problems for U.S. diplomats. We will not expel anybody." "Moreover, I am inviting all children of U.S diplomats accredited in Russia to the New Year and Christmas parties at the Kremlin." Russian President Vladimir Putin
Mikhail Svetlov via Getty Images
Did Barack Obama suddenly awaken from a long, leisurely nap that kept him too busy to act out his role of commander-in-chief for the past eight years? The thunderous outrage he evinces at the outcome of the November presidential election, attributing the Democratic loss to Russian intervention is fairly cringeworthy, as though powerful America has been brought to its knees by the nefarious activities of intelligence cyber espionage on the part of an adversary America has, up to now, 'trusted'.
The sanctimony behind the outrage would be understandable coming from a source other than one that has itself continually engaged in efforts to destabilize other nations' political outcomes. Like Russia, the United States has even invaded another country -- Panama -- to halt an election it felt not in its best interests. When a popular protest movement in Egypt led to the downfall of a former ally of the U.S., Hosni Mubarak, by inaction and the courting and support of the Muslim Brotherhood, Obama interfered in Egyptian politics.
And American sanctions against Cuba have everything to do with the politics of another country; here too American intervention was deleterious to the economy of another nation. But for full head-on interference in another country's political affairs, Israel stands out as a major recipient of negative interference when Mr. Obama felt himself justified in manipulating events to favour his view of what a foreign nation should commit to in reflection of U.S. financial influence entitling it to run the Israeli show.
But of course, interference by the United States in other countries' politics is a standard, and those countries who have suffered such interference are legion. Even planned assassinations by U.S. agents dispatched by the government to do their dirty work to stop a political ascension viewed with disfavour by Washington are nothing new. So, now that the Democrats are history and the Republicans have returned, Barack Obama is furious and there will be consequences before his last two weeks in office have completely vanished.
Quite the legacy he has left for posterity which will doubtless validate the impression of many that he has been a complete and utter failure. Bipartisan relations between the two American political parties have disintegrated during his presidency, his legacy projects are soon to be undone by an incoming presidency whose election has caused widespread dismay, but who in the end, may yet rescue the United States from the dungeon that Mr. Obama has left it in.
And crafty Vladimir Putin will have the last laugh. For all his machinations and immoral, illegal trysts with his own destiny, as a pirate of the first order on the world stage, Barack Obama's insipid responses to the Ukraine debacle and the Syrian implosion has resulted in a beleaguered Europe, a catastrophic massacre of citizens by their own government, a spreading Islamist fascistic threat to international security and an Iran/North Korea nuclear threat hanging over the world.
"This idea that Trump represents such a threat to western civilization -- it's often predicted about presidents and nothing ever happens -- yet if Trump wins it will be an amazing moment of change because it would destroy the power structure of the Republican party the power structure of the Democratic party and destroy the power of the media." Camille Paglia, author, professor of humanities, University of the Arts, Philadelphia
"Everyone -- everyone -- is knocked down in life." "And my mother showed me and taught me, what matters is whether you get back up. And those of us who are people of faith know that getting back up is what we are called to do." "It's unprecedented [revelations by James Comey, director of the FBI] and it is deeply troubling because voters deserve to get full and complete facts." Hillary Clinton, U.S. presidential candidate, Democrat
"[Clinton] set up this illegal server knowing full well that her actions put our national security at risk." "We have one ultimate check on Hillary's corruption, and that is the power of voting. Hillary put the office of secretary of state up for sale and, if she ever got the chance, she'd put the Oval Office up for sale too." Donald J. Trump, U.S. presidential candidate, Republican
Either of these unlikeable, deeply compromised candidates for President of the United States of America would, under any other circumstances, appear some lunatic's idea of a bad, bad joke. It is difficult to believe that American politics have become so degraded and desperately at conflict that candidates of their ilk would represent the best that the United States has to offer at this time. It is a mind-bogglingly frightening reality that either would become president.
The ongoing investigation into whether Mrs. Clinton violated American laws in her casual disregard of classified emails has yet to render a definitive opinion, but the odour that emanates from the issue and Mrs. Clinton's evasive tactics, along with her obvious links while Secretary of State to her husband's Clinton family charity in effect selling to high bidders entree to the inner sanctorums of government is shudderingly reflective of an inappropriate candidate to put it politely.
Why Mr. Comey made his decision when he did, citing 'pertinent' information forthcoming when the newly-revealed emails surfaced on a computer owned by a disreputable, discredited, tawdry sexual molester matching the tarnished record of Mrs. Clinton's husband, both of whom appear as sullied as Donald Trump's own record as a perverse and ugly misogynist denigrating women even while appraising them for their possibilities, is not yet clear. Other than the kind of outraged denunciations he was subject to the first time around when he declared malfeasance but no grounds to prosecute.
The polarized, disgustingly sleazy campaign must present as a delightful diversion to the leaders of China and Russia. Viewing from afar the decibel-level of disbelief and antic manoeuvres and declarations of ultimate grubbiness must surely satisfy schadenfreude at its most appreciative descent into madness. The superiority and righteousness of democracy as the ultimate human-rights defending equalizer of society, stumbling and falling off a humbling cliff.
There will be no dignity in this woman ascending the presidency. And nor would there be any reason to smile should the debased and bizarre Trump trump her for the vote. The world will have cause to tremble and moan when either of the two candidates declares victory; only slightly less so should Hillary Clinton become the first female American president. Stoicism will be required over the succeeding four years and the wish that all that preceded the vote swiftly becomes a forgettable agony of disgrace.
"Already, the tightening polls have caused great angst to Democratic leaders as they have watched Republican incumbents and candidates gain in the crucial Senate contests, also to be decided this year. The politicos have gone from supreme confidence to great doubt about whether they have a chance to take back Senate control and they now generally concede the U.S. House of Representatives to the Republicans." "But what if Hillary Clinton's health issues are more serious than she is letting on? Some experts on Parkinson's disease claim to see its symptoms in her recent conduct. Her health record is far from good." "So the U.S. presidential campaign has been plunged into unknown territory. There has never been a candidate forced to withdraw in the middle of the campaign. Despite Clinton's determination to plow ahead, she may not be able to do so." Dick Morris, author: Armageddon: How Trump Can Beat Hillary
Blood pressure: 100/70
No one can claim with any degree of justification that this man doesn't know the Washington scene and its politics from the close and intimate inside. Formerly ex-P)resident Bill Clinton's chief political advisor, this man has worked for over thirty American senators or governors as well as for foreign political executives. If anyone has the inside track on the persona, capabilities and background of the woman running as an entitled goal for President of the United States, he most be regarded as an outstanding candidate.
Studiously unimpressed with the Republican candidate's lack of political experience, combative and rudely insulting manner, he nonetheless notes that the team behind Donald Trump has prevailed upon him finally to tighten his address, and demonstrate his utter ignorance far less frequently by following a script prepared for him, abandoning for the most part -- albeit not entirely, given his return to the 'birther' controversy -- his clumsily ignorant bait-and-slander technique of attracting supporters.
Sept. 16, 2016Donald
Trump speaks in front of a group of Medal of Honor recipients and
veterans during a news conference at the Trump International Hotel in
Washington, D.C.Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Exonerating himself and infecting Clinton with the disease they both revel in, the spores of his 'birther' denial of Barack Obama as a true-blue American and a Christian returned Trump to his bumptiously atrocious behaviour of the past year in grooming himself as the next president of the United States whose bloopers, accusations and stereotypes are so beloved of the typical politico-averse average American: "Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther
controversy. I finished it. President Obama was born in
the United States. Period."
From incoherence to coherence and a return to incoherent blathering and outright lies. Wince and carry on. So do Americans truly envision this man as their soon-to-be president? Complacent with the reality of this non-stop village idiot setting the rules for the free world to follow? Of course, there's Hillary Clinton. Of course there is, and he and she enjoy the distrust and disfavour of 50 percent of voting Americans. Which translates nicely as half of the voting population having their heads screwed on right.
So, back to Clinton and setting aside the history of her conduct in the political arena, and her stint as Secretary of State along with her unfathomable decision-making on behalf of her country's security.
In 1998 during her New York campaign her right foot became grossly swollen and she was diagnosed with a large blood clot behind her right knee;
In 2005 she fainted, her aides catching her, blaming a gastrointestinal problem caused the interruption of a campaign speech;
In 2009 she fell, fracturing her right elbow and surgery followed;
In 2009 another blood clot developed, diagnosed as "deep vein thrombosis";
In 2011, she tripped and fell while boarding a plane;
In 2012, she fainted and fell, resulting in a concussion which her husband said "required six months of very serious work to get over";
Again in 2012 doctors discovered another, third blood clot in a large vein alongside her head between brain and skull;
In 2014 and 2015 she experienced prolonged coughing fits while speaking, attributing them to seasonal allergies;
In July of 2015 she experienced a seizure while campaigning, video recording her head moving uncontrollably for ten seconds;
At a 9/11 memorial service she became faint and required propping, then collapsed into a van, revealing eventually a diagnosis of pneumonia.
The scenario goes that, forced to withdraw from the presidential run-off, the Democratic National Committee would then be permitted to select a new candidate to replace Mrs. Clinton, with current Vice-President Joe Biden appearing to be the most preferentially logical choice, appealing to a relieved electorate who would bring him in with something close to popular acclaim, while the world, exhaled.
"[A Russian infiltration operation in the United States] is something we're looking very closely at." "[While American intelligence does not claim] definite proof [of tampering in the election process] ...even the hint of something impacting the security of our election system would be of significant concern." Senior intelligence official, Washington
"Free and legitimate elections are non-negotiable. It’s clear that
Russia thinks the reward outweighs any consequences." "That
calculation must be changed. . . . This is going to take a cross-domain
response — diplomatic, political and economic — that turns the screws on
Putin and his cronies." Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.)
"[Accusations against Russia by U.S. officials and politicians represent an attempt to] distract the [American] public’s attention." "It
doesn’t really matter who hacked this data from Mrs. Clinton’s campaign
headquarters. The
important thing is the content was given to the public." Russian President Vladimir V. Putin
A view through a construction fence shows the Kremlin towers and St. Basil's Cathedral in central Moscow. (Maxim Zmeyev/Reuters)
It seems the bias is there; reflecting the impression that the reprehensibly boorish Donald Trump, Republican candidate for the U.S. presidency expressing his admiration for the Russian President, and avowing his intention to reset relations between the two countries, appears to have inspired Mr. Putin to reflect that should Trump be elected, his relationship with Washington would be immensely improved. With Hillary Clinton, not so much.
The flawed candidate that she represents as someone who is untrustworthy in the minds of the American public, yet between that proverbial rock and a hard place, comparing the venal corruption of Trump with the venal corruption of Clinton, still gives her an edge.
Making it an enticing prospect for Russia to intervene with an effort to reveal even more damaging information about Mrs. Clinton's poor judgement and dreadful choices with respect to security and her countless manipulations of the truth, let alone her unscrupulous machinations to benefit herself and her husband's charity financially to further discredit her as a viable candidate.
Leading to the hack by the Russian government of the Democratic National Committee and the disclosures with the release of 20,000 emails by WikiLeaks.
"We've seen an unprecedented intrusion and an attempt to influence or disrupt our political process", declared Representative Adam B. Schiff, ranking Democrat of the House Intelligence Committee. Russia has blandly denied any involvement in the cyber-intrusions carried out in the United States, even while the FBI issued warnings to urge state election officials to be wary of election systems intrusions, requiring additional measures to upgrade security.
It's not as though they're just blind-guessing that Russia is behind the cyber-espionage, after all. Arizona and Illinois and the Democratic and Republican parties have been victimized by attempted and successful cyber attacks, all of which are being investigated by FBI agents experienced in Russian government hacking. The covert Russian operation has been tracked to government sources by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
Nothing, of course, is exempt from being probed by outside forces skilled in this kind of espionage. And nor can the United States claim itself to be innocent of very similar cyber-security probes of other nations' systems, friendly or not. It's even possible that Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the National Security Agency along with the Central Intelligence Agency could learn something by studying Russian methodology.
Internet use for the dissemination of propaganda appears to have been pioneered by Russia, and it has become a global movement capable of influencing people and political events. Since the U.S. and the European Union imposed sanctions on Russia for its influence and assistance to Russian-speaking Ukrainian rebels and the annexation of Crimea, cyber-attacks have been on the increase. Russia began with targeting the Baltic states, Georgia and Ukraine, to destabilize them. It has simply moved on to include the United States.
Janis Sarts, director of the NATO Strategic
Communications Center of Excellence, a research organization based in
Riga, Latvia, stated that "Our studies show it is very likely that [the influence] operations are
centrally run"; that a coordinated effort "involving [groups using] Twitter and Facebook and networks of bots to
amplify their message" exists. "The main themes seem to be orchestrated rather
high up in the hierarchy of the Russian state, and then there are
individual endeavors by people to exploit specific themes."
According to Sarts, the Russian propaganda agenda has been "successful in exploiting
the vulnerabilities within societies". In 2014, just before a critical post-revolution
presidential vote in Ukraine, a digital assault came close to destroying Ukraine's Central Election Commission’s website. CyberBerkut hackers claimed responsibility but Kiev authorities placed the blame squarely on Moscow.
The Russians made use of a tried-and-true "denial of service" technique, to flood the
commission’s Web server with a high volume of requests, meant
to disable the network.
They've had plenty of practice to excel, and they have succeeded in this bold new direction of international intrigue and skulduggery.
"It is outrageous to misrepresent Secretary Clinton's basis for meeting
with these individual." "[Reports present] a
distorted portrayal of how often she crossed paths with individuals
connected to charitable donations to the Clinton Foundation." Brian Fallon, Clinton campaign spokesman
"There's a lot of potential conflicts and a lot of potential problems." "The
point is, she can't just walk away from these 6,000 donors." Douglas White, nonprofits expert, past director,
Columbia University's graduate fundraising management program
In this Aug. 16, 2016 file photo, Democratic presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton speaks in Philadelphia. More than half the people
outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she was
secretary of state gave money, either personally or through companies or
groups, to the Clinton Foundation. It's an extraordinary proportion
indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected president. (AP
Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)
Over fifty percent of those outside American government who happened to meet with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seemed to feel it was incumbent on them to donate either personally or via the corporations or groups they represented to handsomely benefit the Clinton Foundation operated by Bill Clinton. The appearance of an ethical dilemma appears never to have concerned this runner-up for the U.S. presidency up until the time it was brought to public attention by data leaks.
Of 154 individuals representing private interests who had met or engaged in telephone conversations with Hillary Clinton during her time at the State Department, 85 chose to give generously to the Clinton family charity. Commitments alternately were pledged to its international programs, affirmed by a review of State Department calendars and reported on by The Associated Press.
The 85 donors contributed a combined sum of $156 million, with an estimated 40 donors making good with over $100,000 each, while twenty of the donors released over $1-million each to the Clinton Foundation. A diverse group of people, granted meeting time with Secretary of State Clinton went on to express their appreciation for her time devoted to their requests or problems, by loosening purse strings.
Despite the aura of privilege, concession and obligation and the odour emanating from all of this, evidently there were no legal breaches committed. Access, however, linked to donations are that prevalent that a pattern emerges that cannot be overlooked for a singular lack of ethical consideration. At this date in proceedings former President Bill Clinton promises to step away from active collaboration with his charity should his wife be elected president.
And nor will the foundation in future, or at least during that time when and if she is elected, accept any donations out of country by independent philanthropic sources. "Gifts" from foreign groups, currently the norm, will no longer be accepted. Over six thousand donors have given the Clinton charity in excess of a grand $2-billion since 2000. Quite the legacy trading on resourceful privileged contact.
In this June 10, 2015 file photo, former U.S. President Bill Clinton
speaks at annual gathering of the Clinton Global Initiative America,
which is a part of The Clinton Foundation, in Denver. More than half the
people outside the government who met with Hillary Clinton while she
was secretary of state gave money, either personally or through
companies or groups, to the Clinton Foundation. It's an extraordinary
proportion indicating her possible ethics challenges if elected
president. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)
"Paul Manafort offered and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign." "I am very appreciative for his work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process." Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate
"If you had had one of these things happen, it would have been survivable. But you had two of these things in concert. One thing I don't think Trump will tolerate is the focus being on someone else rather than himself." Republican strategist
"He knows he's been doing this stuff. It was going to become an issue. He wasn't prepared to tamp it down When he decided to re-enter high-profile American politics, and he ratcheted it up with lots of Sunday shows and TV appearances, he had to know he was putting himself out there as a target." Manafort associate
Donald Trump isn't so much averse to his trusted agent being involved in past deals with Russian interests as he is offended that a scandal has erupted focusing the limelight on Paul Manafort, rather than on Donald Trump. Trump's own awkward manifestations of doltish intelligence vis-a-vis relations and impressions with and of Vladimir Putin engendered his share of notoriety, but as far as Trump is concerned that old truism that publicity, negative as well as positive is all to the good is good only when it features himself.
He simply leers and babbles his way around any scandal that would undo anyone other than chutzpa-laden Trump, a man whose celebrity founded on bluster and lunatic assertions appears to have secured him a place in American voters' hearts and minds. The fact that one business failure after another has been unearthed, with ample proof of the huckster's deliberate fleecing of those who believe his tall tales appears irrelevant.
The New York Times has just revealed other lies underlying Trump's success as a peerless business manager and entrepreneur; that his real estate holdings in the
United States reveals that companies he owns have amassed some $650 million in debt
— double what appears on public filings he has submitted related to his bid for the White House
The Associated Press reported confidential emails from the Manafort firm put the lie to his claims he had never lobbied in the United States on behalf of Ukrainian political figures aligned with the former Russia-linked political executives, and was paid handsomely for his efforts, scuppering his claims of non-involvement and trustworthiness. But why should a Trump lieutenant be any more trustworthy than the man whose political fortunes he has fronted?
Manafort was listed as the recipient of payments coming in at $12.7 million. Notes describing "Payment for Manafort's services", or "Contract payment to Manafort", dated 2011 and 2012 implicate him without excuse. He's Trump's man in every sense. But in a sense, how different is that from Hillary Clinton and former president Bill Clinton's questionable donations to their charity?
While she was American Secretary of State with all the prestige, power and influence inherent in that exalted position internationally, within the bureaucracy and the White House, she was also linked with the Clinton charitable enterprise; emails have surfaced with direct links between the State Department and the Clinton charity. A charity that was accepting walloping donations from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Russian interests. Is there a difference there?
Where one would-be office holder has been irremediably tainted by association, while another in the same situation but with a background that includes some of the same powers also includes the same issues. Unwholesome, unethical and un-American. Or is it?
America: Is this really the best you can do?!
Bill
and Hillary Clinton's charitable foundation reportedly hired a
security firm to examine its data systems after seeing indications they
might have been hacked.(Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)
"Politics were very low on the list of priorities when we met. Therapists say you have the best relationships when you are clearly separate people. And I like to think that we are emotionally centred, so that we can have a major disagreement about something, and it's not a big problem." "I'm reasonably convinced that Hillary is handcuffed to the economic progressive populism that has totally taken over the Democratic Party, a.k.a, socialism" "I think that if she gets power and the party gets power, there is a good likelihood that the agendas of that movement will be enacted. To me, that counters what I consider to be what brings us prosperity, which is entrepreneurship." Dr. Thomas Stossel, 74, hematologist, professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School
"That is news to me [husband planning to vote for Trump despite her threats against it]. And I'll be calling my attorney." "I don't think he will vote for him. But if he does, I hope he never tells me about it. For someone who is so reasonable in every other part of his life, and who expects people to have expertise, it doesn't really link with the Tom Stossel that I know. I would just be disgusted on every level." "And also a little fearful. Disgusted on the marriage level, but fearful for our society." Dr. Kerry Maguire, 54, dentist, Forsyth Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Donald Trump has become the darling of the uninformed, uneducated, lower- and middle-class, older white male demographic in the United States who distrust government at any level, far more so at the federal level. Women, on the whole, decidedly dislike the man with his unwholesome baggage not only of nasty cynicism and ego-driven, bumptious ignorance, but general misanthropy. So it's fairly amazing to see the level of popular support he has, even among some blacks and Latinos.
But from a man who is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute? A man whose experience and presumed intelligence should logically lead him to a position of aghast apprehension that such a pompous blowhard know-nothing has set America on edge with the possibility he could become president? His disgust of Hillary Clinton is manifest, and so powerful that he prefers Trump. "I think that it is very unlikely that he (Trump) can pull any of that stuff (banning Muslims, building a Mexican border wall) off. "It seems improbable to me, because he still has to work in the constraints of what I hope will be a checks-and-balances system. Frankly, I don't think he is going to have to make good on a lot of these crazy promises", he says of his voting choice. His wife, Kerry Maguire, director of the children's outreach program at the Forsyth Institute in Cambridge, Mass., has some trouble believing her husband, Stossel, a hematologist and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School is serious.
But he is. And he's not the only one. "I loved him and still love him, but at the same time I had to resist my first instinct, which was to say, 'Gross'"; of the man Anna Sproul-Latimer meant to marry who had Tea Party tendencies. And who is politically attracted to Donald Trump. She married him anyway,but their disagreement on the issue of voting for either Clinton or Trump has constrained their relationship worryingly. "I loved him when he first ran. I thought he was hilarious. I loved the idea that he would drive everyone insane. I loved that he was pure chaos and total stream of consciousness" said Matt Latimer, a former George W. Bush speechwriter.
Who would have imagined that the unlikely candidacy of a construction magnate who is also a dabbler in hugely unethical schemes to shed trusting admirers of their tuition money through a scheme to have them think his pseudo-university could imbue them with the magic dust that has seen him succeed in one venture after another after business failures and bankruptcies, would ever enter the bedrooms of the nation to destroy love and stable marriages?
Well, for all the uneducated grievance-burdened voters that Trump has mesmerized, and the more politically informed yet still captivated people who plan to vote for the man who, should he succeed will send the country into a spin of revolting decision-making that will alienate one half of the country from the other half, and ensure that the international community keeps a wide berth lest they too become contaminated in the process of retaining their ally status, the Republican party itself is digging in its heels.
Daily, greater numbers of prominent Republicans and donors to their cause have been creating a wide berth between themselves and this stunningly flawed candidate. No fewer than 50 Republican national security professionals from the Bush regime have stated unequivocally that a threat to the nation's security lies in Trump's candidacy aspiring to the presidency. Another 70 Republicans have signed a request that the Republican party take steps to divert funding for Trump's candidacy to the support of "down ticket" Republicans in an effort to save the GOP.
Helpfully, this man who history will contest as the likeliest candidate for village idiot this century, has himself orchestrated plummeting support. Every time he candidly spouts whatever comes to mind irrespective of how absurd and volatile, the resulting outrage reaches some on the outer fringes of Trumpmania to add to the downward-spiralling trajectory of polling numbers. The hope is desperately pinned on his deciding to avert the election by claiming it is so rigged he cannot continue.
And should he become bored with creating the raucous circus that results from the attention he so badly craves from the public, the news media and the panic evinced in the Republican party, then wives of husbands who, academic credentials aside, insist they will vote for the clown that the Republicans fell prey to, will only have to continue worrying about the cretinous state of their loved ones' minds, not the state of the union under an accidental comedian.
"Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment By the way, and if she gets to pick -- if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do folks." "Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know. But I'll tell you what -- that will be a horrible day." Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate
"This is simple: What Trump is saying is dangerous. A person seeking to be the President of the United Stats should not suggest violence in any way." Robby Mook, Clinton campaign manager "Donald Trump Just Suggested That Someone Shoot Hillary Clinton." "THIS IS NOT OK." Justin Barasky, super-PAC
Chris Keane | Reuters Democratic presidential nominee Hillary
Clinton speaks during a rally at Lincoln High School in Des Moines, Iowa
August 10, 2016.
This is all an elaborate send-up, a nasty little fun-thing, presenting a travesty of bad politics and worse candidates jostling to become the next president of the United States; essentially the world's most powerful leader. So what does some wicked wit do? Send in the clowns. In the process running a popularity contest between a disgusting mountebank whose egocentricity is matched by his eccentricity as a monumental ignoramus, and a politician who has been there, done that, and has become the most distrusted politician in the current American political arena.
He lies constantly because it is integral to his persona as a bullying braggart whose intellectual capacity was stunted at birth which didn't stop him, in the great American tradition of becoming a celebrity through sheer audacity. Remember what Obama so famously said and reiterated during his run for the presidency? Be audacious. See what it gets you?! She lies because not to do so would be to admit she has consistently failed in the trust given her as a political insider whose avocation was amassing a fortune while her vocation was to serve the nation.
How could this pair of clowns be anything but representative of an elaborate scheme to prolong April First? The only puzzle here is why it is taking soooo long for the electorate to fully appreciate that they're being had, teased, being made fools of for believing that the Democratic and the Republican parties would field such amazingly flawed candidates. It's a contest between Trump and Clinton -- which one is more devastatingly inept and self-involved, each desperate to demonstrate they are deserving of the gold ring.
Although halos don't come with the presidential office, a deep need for cerebral functioning, a grasp of integrity, an abiding respect for those who will be represented by the office, and a resolve to do justice to the elite executive position of president and commander-in-chief lest the world exhale a gasp of incredulity threatening an oceanic tsunami of vitriol be exuded threatening to engulf the southern half of North America, excluding Mexico which has enough problems of its own.
So whoever so cleverly devised this bit of authentic theatre, roll it up, please. Enough truly is enough. You've proved your point; the electorate is sadly gullible. Politicians can be despicable. The world is an angry place. Have some pity. Boot out your extras, and please, please bring in the functioning, capable and reliable representatives of America's best for a laudable campaign to result in an acceptable election.
Cornucopia of Lies, More Lies, Damn Lies : A Plague on Both Their Houses
"I actually think Donald, if you hooked him up to a lie detector test, he could say one thing in the morning, one thing at noon and one thing in the evening, all contradictory and he'd pass the lie detector test each time." "Whatever lie he's telling, at that minute he believes it." Ted Cruz, former contender Republican presidential nominee
"[She lies] for good reason: To admit otherwise would be to confess taking, and paying taxes on, what some think amounted to a $100,000 bribe [through cattle-futures trades]." William Safire, columnist, New York Times "Blizzard of Lies"
"On any fair reading, the pattern of behaviour that [investigative reporter Peter] Schweizer has charged is corruption." Lawrence Lessig, director, Edmond Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University
"Bill and Hillary have mixed personal wealth, power and influence peddling." Jeffrey D. Sachs, Earth Institute Director, Columbia University
A boorish low-lifing, self-promoting narcissist who is a television celebrity, a brash loud mouth, a real estate tycoon and a man whose short attention span and boredom convinced him he could have some fun in the political arena, challenging all the Republican hyenas whose political positions more or less mirror his own but without his charisma and talent, so why not advance himself as someone able to fund his own campaign for Republican candidate for the presidency?
Speaker Paul Ryan has has criticized Trump’s call for a ban on Muslim
entering the US and said his attack on a federal judge was ‘textbook
racist’.
Photograph: Eric Thayer/Reuters
Just to stir up the waters, as it were. To get a high out of seeing all those stiff-mannered, civil clowns blanch at his comments that the man-on-the-street lauds as honest and plain-speaking. Who could have predicted the wave of popular support that would sweep him off his feet? But it's there, and it's genuine as people applaud his authenticity, his diamond-in-the-rough qualities and his extravagant prose, his promises to deliver them back into American pride.
The game became serious for Donald Trump when he assessed the popularity his ebullient self-confidence was met with, his condemnation of dirty, corrupt politics as usual. They enjoy his eccentric boastfulness, they like to see someone who's in the billionaire class being casual and down-to-earth; he's their man, their middle-finger-raised to the Washington crowd, the corporate interests. Overlooking his own, of course, because he's special.
And who is he running against? The most blatantly incompetent, corrupt Democratic candidate that connections and influence and women's lib could conceive. A congenital liar, an underperformer, a schemer who lied about exposing classified government secrets to hostile nations, a woman who as Secretary of State just shrugged off her failure to secure the lives of Americans from terrorists in Benghazi, lying under oath, celebrating her innocence after James Comey's indictment.
A woman accused of fraud, obstruction of justice and corruption. Of course her Republican rival is nothing to brag about as an upstanding citizen of virtuous conduct; he too is suspected of all those venal and illegal practices. But as a private citizen, not an elected official in the executive branch. Betraying the public trust at the most fundamentally deep levels of government administration of the public weal is Hillary's faultline. Trump is just a nasty little charlatan.
The Clintons mysteriously have gone from White House penurious to massive private wealth. The Clinton family foundation did well by leveraging their political influence and power. The Clinton Foundation took in millions in donations from parties involved in the transfer of half of America's domestic uranium output to Moscow through those same parties; what an amazing coincidence was revealed by The New York Times.
Is anyone listening? Doesn't matter, really. Sometimes you're really and truly stuck between a rock and a hard place, and that's where the American voting public now find themselves. Out of a population of 320 million people, two of this low calibre is all that remains to challenge one another for the presidency? Is the United States prepared for this.>
Tossing Incumbents in Gullible Desperation no Solution
"Any of the allegations that circulate here in the United States about Russia's involvement are groundless." "There's no attempts whatsoever to meddle with the political process or the results of the election." Yury Melnik, spokesman, Russian embassy, Washington
People
walk past a mural in Vilnius, Lithuania, depicting Donald Trump and
Russian President Vladimir Putin kissing. (Petras Malukas/AFP)
"If you've lost your job or if you're under-employed and someone tells you, 'Trade did it and it's because America was weak', it touches your buttons." "It can be an effective message for him [Donald Trump, Republican presidential election candidate, 2016]." Ed Rendell, chairman, Democratic National Committee
The popular (and Democratic party-infused outrage) reaction to news that American intelligence agencies are pointing to Russian government agency involvement in cyber-spying enabling the collecting of data from the Democratic National Committee, causing huge embarrassment and upheaval at a critical time of electioneering and a challenge from a putative Republican candidate whose scooping up of the presidential candidacy has horrified the GOP itself, is fairly ingenuous.
First, because the very fact that someone of the wretched ilk of Trump has succeeded in his mission to gull the gullible to support his candidacy over those of ineffably more qualified, if rather more palatable genuine Republican candidates. The very fact that Trump has ended up the Republican "choice" gives the Democratic Party the only opportunity they might have under the circumstances after appointing Hillary Clinton their candidate to remain in the White House.
That the unfortunate public airing of emails revealing that the nominating committee itself, a pledged neutral body undertook to plot the downfall of Bernie Sanders' challenge, simply continues a trajectory of deceit that has plagued the Democratic Party and its candidate of note whom President Obama lauds as the epitome of discretion, decision-making and enduring trustworthiness; the sole individual prepared and experienced sufficiently to lead the country with his departure.
The scandalous revelation that Moscow has undertaken steps to influence the outcome of the presidency eliciting disbelief and anger from America, is slightly amusing given the propensity of the United States to infiltrate and influence events externally pertaining to the governance of other nations. If countries deemed by the United States to be important to America's fortunes undertake the election of executive officials inimical to those fortunes, it can be guaranteed that Washington will pull out all stops to intervene.
Donald Trump's toxic vision for an America that he visualizes reflecting his wonky values and the intemperance of his overtures and statements, including a verbal invitation extended to Russia to continue interfering in the election, mitigates against a sustainable global political future of less, not more instability at a time when international peace is already irremediably fractured.
As for the laughable assurances Trump extends to his followers that he will swiftly return manufacturing to America's blue-collar demographic, coming from a profit-driven corporatist, it is bumptious nonsense.
As well as the fact that it is the out-of-work, under-employed, economy-strapped public in the United States that itself has demanded over the years cheaper, more accessible products produced in China which has drained the country of its productivity for the sought-after reality that a proliferation of foreign-made goods can be accessed at bottom price, dropping the floor out of 'made-in-America' pride.
"The
most important difference between our plan and that of our opponents,
is that our plan will put America First. Americanism, not globalism,
will be our credo." "They
[big business/major donors] are throwing money at her [Democratic
Hillary Clinton] because they have total control over everything she
does. She is their puppet, and they pull the strings." "I
have a message for all of you: the crime and violence that today
afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20th,
2017, safety will be restored." "...
My greatest compassion will be for our own struggling citizens. My plan
is the exact opposite of the radical and dangerous immigration policy
of Hilary Clinton. Americans want relief from uncontrolled immigration.
Communities want relief." "Yet
Hillary Clinton is proposing mass amnesty, mass immigration and mass
lawlessness. Her plan will overwhelm your schools and hospitals, further
reduce your jobs and wages, and make it harder for recent immigrants to
escape from poverty." Republican candidate for November 2016 U.S Presidential election, Donald Trump
Donald J. Trump greeting supporters in Cleveland on Wednesday.Credit
Doug Mills/The New York Times The inconceivable has occurred. A monomaniacal
self-promoter, with the attention span of a gnat and the intelligence of
a toad has bored himself with business interests, no longer absorbed in
his success as a television entertainer, aspiring to unlimited power
and prestige, now has succeeded in convincing a large and diverse
segment of the American population which has been suckled at the teat of
wealth and celebrity, that he is the ideal candidate for the presidency
of the United States.
It is as though a mass
psychosis has overtaken a significant proportion of Americans; those who
have not personally been offended by the man's insufferable arrogance,
meanness of spirit, doltish behaviour and leering assaults on women,
Hispanics, blacks, gays and Muslims. Incredibly, at the Republican
convention just concluded, there were groups of Republicans holding
signage identifying them as Hispanics for Trump. The master of
ceremonies welcoming convention delegates was a black man with a raucous
voice and a beaming countenance as a Trump standard-bearer.
Trump
accuses Clinton of lies, of corruption, of offending all standards of
decency and official regulations. All of which no one can deny, all of
which he is himself guilty of. The only matter that distinguishes the
two candidates is that she presents as the establishment figure, the
woman who shared the presidency then took up the most powerful executive
position other than the presidency and was incapable of the most
elementary security precautions in protecting state security and he is a
political poseur.
Trump is champing at the bit to have the same opportunities when the same outcome or worse can be guaranteed.
His
xenophobic free trade aversion and his intention to sequester America
from its traditional role as a military, commercial, trade and cultural
power with a wide and vast net of collegial nations would alter the
balance of world power beyond belief. His clumsy, bullish offhandedness
and penchant for abusing people of whom he is critical -- and they are
legion -- represents his fitness as a diplomat on the world stage, but
on the other hand, it is the world stage he plans to vacate the United
States from.
Both Republican and Democratic candidates
are resorting to appealing to the lowest common denominator in their
respective bids to become the next president of the United States of
America. Surely, Americans must feel they deserve considerably better
than to be served by these two horribly flawed candidates each of whom
has dreadful baggage of incompetence, overweening ambition outstripping
suitability for the position, and a host of failures in their
professional lives trailing them.
Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
Hillary Clinton has the current executive
body behind her. Was there even the remotest chance she would face
criminal charges for flouting security of her country when she was
Secretary of State? Mildly finger-flicked as careless, but no cause for
any further action which would obviously destroy the ambition of an
unfit politician to lead the country her entitlements to do as she
wished placed in potential peril. The Clintons who cried poor while in
the White House have parlayed their joint experience into vast wealth
through story-telling publications, speaking engagements and charity.
Donald
Trump, the bored billionaire, is merely attempting to do far more
successfully what previous moneyed contenders have tried, to buy the
White House that will become another piece of commercial property in the
Trump empire. His poor taste and rude commercial attributes were
reflected in his daughter's viewing of the convention as a splendid
opportunity to flaunt her design label, then advertise its modest price
for those eager to appear as fashionable as a celebrity figure.
It's
all in the family, and American voters will get their chance to select
which family they prefer to guide them into the near future and it's a
tossup which of the two could bring a greater blemish of misery and
incompetence to the office each of them, Trump and Clinton, hunger for.
It is a power game, at the most elite level, one an amateur novelist
might have conjured up out of a fevered imagination which would have
received poor literary reviews as a credible storyline.
Mostly because we believe, as rational human beings, that no one could be that ignoble, crass and downright stupid.
"Global warming is a total, and very expensive, hoax!" "This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop. Our planet is freezing, record low temps, and our GW scientists are stuck in ice." "Autism has become an epidemic. We've had so many instances, people that work for me, just the other day, two years old, two-and-a-half years old, a child, a beautiful child went to have the vaccine, and came back, and a week later got a tremendous fever, got very, very sick, now is autistic." "As has been stated continuously in the press, people are pouring across
our borders unabated. Public reports routinely state great amounts of
crime are being committed by illegal immigrants. This must be stopped
and it must be stopped now." "The right of self-defense doesn't stop at the end of your driveway. That's why
I have a concealed carry permit and why tens of millions of Americans
do too. That permit should be valid in all 50 states." "I try and pay as little tax as possible,
because I hate what they do with my tax money. I hate the way they spend
our money." "We are going to repeal Obamacare. We are going to repeal Obamacare. We
are going to replace Obamacare with something so much better." "Raising the prevailing wage paid to H-1Bs will force companies to give these coveted entry-level jobs to the
existing domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in
the U.S., instead of flying in cheaper workers from overseas." "It's not necessarily loyalty to me, it's loyal to the country. They [Trump faithful] want great security. They want
great military. They want to take care of their vets. They want a
border. They want a wall." American Presidential Republican aspirant, Donald Trump
Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Fresno, Calif. on May 27, 2016.
The world waits with bated breath. If it manages to hold its breath until October, it might expire for lack of oxygen, but it begins to look increasingly as though nothing can hold back the incredible tide of support for this ignoramus who celebrates himself as America's answer to its declining power and prestige. He has all the answers that anyone could possibly pose questions for and those answers are unfailingly trite and stupid beyond belief.
But he believes them because they've issued from his mouth independent of a brain and those who celebrate his wisdom and his business acumen, his impeccable knowledge of world history and international affairs, his capacity to administer the American business of state and security, feel he represents the answer to their wishes to advance the fortunes of the United States of America. This is a man who, if a cruelly clever caricature was imagined as the precise opposite of Barack Obama, fits the bill.
There was and is so much that is not ideal about Barack Obama, and his failures were many, but his investiture as the first man of colour, integrity and intelligence to reside in the White House was one of distinction and promise, while the possibility that this vain clown could do so is enough to make a ghost blanch with fear of the unknown but fairly accurately assumed outcome. Those in the international community looking on incredulously, viscerally gasp in dismay.
Donald Trump today at a campaign rally in Billings, Montana, after officially becoming a presidential hopeful
But the seemingly impossible has become all too possible, and now those foreign leaders are taking a deep gulp of air and re-imagining their response. David Cameron, for one, almost but not quite retracting some of his statements in description of the detestable Republican candidate for POTUS: "If he came to our country I think he would unite us all against him" he had previously said, describing Trump as "divisive, stupid and wrong". Now saying he would be "very happy" to meet Trump ... "American presidential candidates have made a habit of coming through Europe and through the UK so if that happens I'd be very happy to meet him."
So Muslim-terrorist-fearing Americans will vote for Donald Trump, and those who feel Mexicans should stay in Mexico will be loyal to him as well as trade protectionists and foreign-policy isolationists, all eager to vote for their champion who feels as they do and can be relied upon to steer the country in the direction that all want to achieve. He's their man.
In fact, if any group is truly passionate about anything, he will be prepared to give a directive from the White House to validate that passion, the sole exception being any group hoping he will bow out -- Just kidding folks; my business empire needs my undivided attention!
Vaccine skeptic Dr. Ben Carson who couldn't make the grade as a credible candidate can expect perhaps a Health Department role in a Trump administration, to enact federal legislation outlawing all vaccinations and therefore return America to a state of natural holistic health, where it will be completely redundant to even remotely imagine a universal health care system to benefit Americans since they won't need one at that juncture.
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
![Violence has plagued the run-up to Afghanistan's long-delayed parliamentary vote, which is scheduled for October 20 [Parwiz/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2018/10/2/465ede9249a24feea998064539f1cf8b_18.jpg "Afghanistan: Suicide bomber targets election rally in Nangarhar")
