One ally the US can count on in any military conflict is their favourite poodle, we Brits over here in the UK. It has just been announced that we are preparing an unfinished aircraft carrier with no planes to put on it for action in North Korean waters or very nearby. Presumably our halfwit foreign secretary, Boris Johnson and that old fool defense minister, Michael Fallon have been given their orders from Trump and his junta of generals. If this is the case then prime minister Mrs May will see this as heaven sent distraction from her woes as a truly useless leader. Never mind the millions of men, women and children that will be slaughtered, Trump and May need a distraction from their own domestic problems and what better way to achieve that than war.
Obama pardoning Manning is odd to say the least, for Obama declared Manning guilty even before the sham show trial that Manning had. I'm sure I heard Julian Assange say the other day that if Manning was released he would give himself up to the Americans. If he did then he can't have had much sleep last night! However, as Obama and Clintonites have made it quite clear that they hold Putin responsible for the various leaks which they erroneously claim won Trump the election, what do they want with Assange? The fact is Trump was never meant to win the election or even win the primaries any more than was Sanders meant to win his primaries. These two were mere tokenism to the democratic process which gave an air of inclusiveness and respectability to democracy. Both the Republicans and the Democrats have been stung to the very core because a complete outsider has had the temerity to stand for election and has actually won. We have a similar set up in this regard over here in the UK . Americans may well have heard of the Monster raving loony party which always stands in British elections. Of course, they get no where and they are tolerated only because they give colour and the notion of free inclusive elections. I say again, the unemployed voters in the wastelands of Detroit and other once great industrial cities, voted for Trump because he spoke to their concerns. I doubt many of these people were exercised or having sleepless night by Trump idea of having good relations with the Russians. Those who make fortunes out of the war industry however, have really got their knickers in a twist! It will be interesting to see if Manning is able to do the rounds of the talk shows or write a book or something.
You are letting your undisguised dislike of Trump get in the way of facts professor. Whilst I carry no torch for Trump he is absolutely right about German excessive immigration and the consequences which have subsequently followed. In case you've forgotten, the success of the Brexit vote was precisely because of immigration and Merkel was much quoted by the leave the EU camp during their campaign. You appear to be also implying that the Russian dossier is a fact whereas there is not one shred of evidence to support it. Over here in the UK we once also had a dossier about how Iraq could fire missiles into the UK in forty five minutes but this dossier has long been universally acknowledged to be a "dodgy dossier" I can't recall exactly now, but this dossier or another one was called the 'dodgy dossier' because it was actually a straight forward copy of a university student's study thesis with no attempt to disguise the fact. Trump's election was a great example of democracy in action and he won according to the constitution and the electoral rules in place as was the case for the other candidates. Those supporters of Clinton who lost the election are starting to engaged in 'coup' like activities and are not willing to embrace the democratic process. You are starting to sound like this a bit yourself professor and I am disappointed that a man of your intellect should now be wallowing in the gutter of speculation along with the many other people who are not happy that the democratic has process has not produced the candidate they expected it to.
As far as we British over here on the other side of the pond see it, Trump won the election according to the rules of the American electoral system. The notion Trump was helped by the Russians isn't supported by hardly anyone over here and on any of the millions of posters on internet forums. True, he didn't win the popular vote which went to Clinton by some two million votes, but that's not Trumps fault. He stood for election and set out his stall and won the support of the electorate according to the system. The electoral system in America is stupid of course, but its got nothing on our system over here in the UK. First of all we have an entirely unelected queen as head of state. Our current prime minister who is the head of the government hasn't received one single public vote for her to be the prime minister. She was handed the job of head of the UK government by a few hundred members of her own party. Our current government is a Conservative one which actually only got about a third of the popular vote, the other two main parties taking two thirds or so between. them. Both the American and the British system of democracy is flawed and yet it is we who go around the world destroying other people's countries so that we can foist our flawed democracy on them! The covert secret services and shadow government in America seem to all but be plotting a coup against Trump, even before he has take his seat in the white house. Coups brought about in other countries by meddling and direct intervention by the Americans, we British and others. are common enough. It would seem that dark forces who are actually behind this kind of stuff overseas are quite capable of even doing it in their own country. Should the unthinkable happen, then America will go from a laughing stock to being universally despised." Listen up America, its your electoral system, you chose it and accepted it so stop carping about Trump because he's not the candidate that some of you wanted"
Saying Trump had packed his press conference with his supporters and that some how this is underhand is rather churlish of you professor. All political parties have their rallies packed with their own people and always have. At the daily White House briefings the person taking questions has on more than one occasion been rebuked because he criticized the RT reporter for daring to ask perfectly reasonable questions and he was challenge by OTHER none RT reporters. Considering the amount of flak Trump has come in for from the main stream media, it would be surprising if he didn't try to make sure certain media organisations were kept at arms length. I see there is another secret dossier about Trump reported today from one of our own MI6 officers. no evidence of course, just here say and from "our sources" . Things must be pretty bad when the USA spooks have got to get MI6 to come out with this stuff especially as MI6 has already been found to produce dodgy dossiers in the case of the Iraq war. Frankly, Professor, the Americans are beginning to make themselves look stupid with this attempt to undermine Trump with this childish nonsense. Let Trump have his presidency and if he's a failure let him fail himself which he probably will without any help from anyone else.
May I remind you professor of the well known psychology experiment where an ordinary person is required to give a pretend victim electric shocks by a pretend official personage. The person giving the shocks carries on administering shocks when told to by the official, even though the pretend victim is screaming in agony. There is this very large grey area between the psychopathic tendency and those who feel they have to obey orders. Hitler's Germany was a good case in point. Drone operators blow up people they don't know every day and do so from an armchair thousands of miles away. At the end of the day they go home to their family just like normal people who go home from the office etc. The thing is; when is a psychopath not a psychopath? The power of the state to control and manipulate is enormous and many otherwise normal people are sucked into the excesses of the state without realizing it. I don't know for sure, but I suggest most Americans agree with the death penalty, where a human being is hanged on a piece of rope or half burned alive in an electric chair! Perhaps there's a bit of psychopath in all of us professor
Like many famous stars of stage and screen who are dripping with money, Steep can afford crocodile tears at one of these mutual admiration society actor's get together. Perhaps if she was an unemployed worker trying to survive in the waste lands of Detroit etc she might not find Trump's rallying call to get the jobs lost to America back again so very terrible. I always find theses "loveys" who use their fame to pronounce on political matters rather disingenuous.
Gary the point about Trump is he's up front about his views etc. I agree the man is an oaf, course and his views are most objectionable, but the thing is, he's up front about it and we know what he thinks. When I say 'damning' I mean something criminal, hidden etc and not in the public domain.
You don't need to worry about our members of parliament professor, they are mostly so up to their arm pits in muck that anything agents from Israel might come up with, would roll off them like water off a duck's back. Covert agents of the state are the same everywhere including your own country. The bizarre public pronouncement recently by them that they had some very tenuous evidence that proved Russia hacked Clinton's emails just shows how far they will go to besmirch Trump, always at the same time linking him with the Russians. There is too much at stake for the industrial military complex to let Trump have a free reign on foreign policy when he gets into power. The last thing the CIA pentagon and secret agencies want is peace breaking out. One would have hoped that somewhere in the recess's of their black hearts they would give the democratic process a chance, but these people are so far up Satan's rear end, there not much chance of this. It amazes me that the American secret agencies haven't come up with something really damning about Trump yet. Trump is a bizarre candidate for president and doubtless a bit of a buffoon, but like our own Nigel Farage over here in the UK, he is a breath of fresh air compared with anyone else from the cesspit from which most politicians seem to come from. I haven't seen anything in our own press about this stuff from Israel yet. However, the amount of shyte which emanates from the UK Westminster political bubble is so voluminous that its like standing in the path of a wall of effluence being discharged from the Southern outfall, so I may have missed it !
Fascinating post professor and rather scary one at that. As many of us believe, elected governments are there by courtesy of dark forces behind the facade of democracy. Had Clinton won we would not be hearing much about the fantasy Russian hacks and how they influenced the out come of the election. As far as the "insiders" were concerned, Trump was just a joke figure who was there to play the role of an alternative candidate to give democracy an air of legitimacy. It was never intended or even imagined he would actually win!! After all, he wasn't part of the 'Washington insider set.' Indeed, he had no political acumen whatsoever. It is obvious that there is incandescent outrage that Trump is in fact going to be the next president and so far, he is exhibiting a clear principal of independent thought and intention. If Trump was fully in accord with the covert institutions of government, we would not be hearing any of this ludicrous stuff about Putin personally ordering hacks etc. This debacle is beginning to show that democracy isn't all its cracked up to be and other quasi or non democratic regimes must be laughing their heads off. Democracy is fine as long as it provides the expected and required result and it was never intended to actually produce a Trump or a Brexit. I fear for Trump's safety and he really does need to watch his back.
You seem to forget that the alternative to Trump was Clinton who is a known war monger and a liar to boot. At least Trump had no political baggage.= to his name.
You may well be right about the media and press being respectful to Trump once he is in the white house, but to date they have treated Trump with contempt and disdain. The press and media will look rather silly if they suddenly start to laud every thing Trump says or does. Frankly, I just can't see the media praising Trump if he cosies up to Putin and starts making overtures of good will to the Russians.
You are probably right about the cease fire agreed by the Syrian government, Russia, Turkey and Iran, not being likely to last. What fascinates me about this particular deal is who did the Russians actually speak to on the rebels side. Presumably they met a leader(s) but since the Russians and the Syrian government has declared all the protagonists fighting against the Syrian government as terrorists, its hard to know how they managed to make contact with the 'other side' . You are right of course, to say most of the anti Assad fighters are members of ISIS and others who are universally acknowledged to be terrorists and won't be taking part in any cease fire. The question is, will the so called moderates be able to separate themselves from ISIS etc? It didn't work last time so I doubt it will work this time. The Americans have only just signed of a law to allow the provision of shoulder mounted anti aircraft missiles to the rebels so what will happen to this deal? Will America, Britain and other allies continue to arm and finance the rebels during the cease fire? Lastly, Saudi Arabia has made no secret of the fact that they intend to keep on supporting the ISIS fighters until Assad is gone. I fear the horror of the Syrian conflict is far from over.
I suppose I can't comment with any authority concerning the accusation that the Americans are arming the terrorists, but over here in the UK its a fact that my government is arming terrorists who go under the pseudonym of freedom fighters. I recently watch a question and answer session of a parliamentary committee in which the defense secretary and two of his side kicks discussed how they could get more ammunition to the Syrian terrorist for the heavy machine guns that we had supplied. Its worth pointing out that Congress has just past a bill to enable America to supply the so called rebels with shoulder mounted anti air craft missiles! How long before one of these ferocious weapons finds its way to Europe and is used against a civilian air liner?
You are right professor but its worth mentioning that the overwhelming number of Americans just don't read blogs like yours, Tomdispatch, Glen greenwald, Huffington post, ICH etc but they get their news from the main stream media. Notwithstanding the complete saturation by the media in favour of Hillary Clinton and the complete drubbing they gave Trump, he won just the same. I hold no brief for Trump but I suppose one can take heart from his election as it does show the ordinary man in the street is capable of making up his own mind and cannot be completely taken over by the mass media.
It appears that Egypt is now entering the Syrian conflict on the side of Assad and are already working under the umbrella of the Russian air command. Ironically, the two Mistral class war ships that the French refused to sell to the Russians because of sanctions, have been sold to Egypt and are about to go to Syria to support the Assad government. I am surprised that you take any notice of the Syrian observatory for human rights. Allegedly, this is a one man band run by a man from a semi detached house over here in the UK from Coventry. This character is anti Assad and has been over here in the UK for more that a decade, having been in prison in Syria a number of times and then fled to the UK. Apparently, he gets his information from his 'sources' which only he knows about and are rarely able to be verified. Our press and media over here in the UK are much the same as yours in America and they are basically enthralled to the government line. The UK government is anti Assad and anti Russia so our pathetic media just carry on quoting the man from Coventry in his clothes shop without any kind of journalistic investigation. There was a time when well respected organisations like Reuters had their own reporters on the ground, but these days they just report anything from anyone who says what they want to hear. I don't have a problem with the man from Coventry putting forward his point of view and any info he might have, but the notion that the press and media should just take this mans word or anyone's word at face value without so much as a cursory investigation, is absurd.
I hold no brief for Trump professor, but making the assumption he will brand ever more people in the USA who demonstrate against something as terrorists, seems unlikely because he won't need to. The job has already been done for him. Have you forgotten the patriot act dreamed up by the Bush administration? This piece of legislation along with statements like "if you're not with us then you are against us" made it abundantly clear that anyone challenging the state would be regarded as some kind of trouble maker or worse. As you know, certain news papers in the USA have declared that many independent news outlets on the internet as 'fake news' with calls for them to be banned or curtailed. Bearing in mind that these same newspapers are little more than mouth pieces for the state, it would appear that what Trump might do will be just a thin layer of icing on the top of an already rotten cake. There are terrorists and freedom fighters. There are demonstrators and writers but the state decides who's good and who's bad. You yourself may well be on the so called 'fake news' list and as I have recently made a donation to your site perhaps I will be thought of as some kind of agitator or worse.
I seem to detect a hint of 'sour grapes' in this piece of yours, professor. Had the West prevailed in their endeavour to oust Assad I think they would have been 'crowing in much the same way. I recall that when the West attacked Libya, Cameron and William Hague, our then not very bright foreign secretary, rushed off to Libya when they heard that the West backed terrorists had won. They went there full of undisguised glee, wreathed in smiles on a march of triumph and glory to shake hands with the terrorists who had overthrown Gadaffi. Even worse, your own secretary of state, Hillary Clinton positively exuded joy and satisfaction at the appalling murder of Gadaffi and she too was clapping her hands and laughing with undisguised pleasure. Her immortal words will be for ever remembered which were: "We came, we saw, and he died" Gloating the Russians might be, but they've got nothing our lot who are masters when it comes to smugness and self gratification.
Professor, you are preaching to the already converted as we are reading your alternative comments rather than the main stream media. The mainstream media are now losing out to the internet and programmes like RT big time. The EU parliament recently voted money to an EU site called "debunking Russian propaganda" and did so with a very dubious majority where there were few MEP's present. In other words, EU tax payers are funding this outfit to feed them even more propaganda of their own. The best propaganda outfit championed by the main stream media at the moment are the so called 'white helmets in Syria. This outfit is linked to the Americans and is funded by them to the of tune of 400 million Dollars and we British and others pour more cash as well. The white helmets are only ever filmed carry some golden hair little girl from a bombed out building and I have never seen the rescue any adult. They also carry arms and only work only in the areas controlled by the terrorists. The head of this organisation said a while back that he saw Syrian helicopters dropping barrel bombs on the UN aid convey in an agreed cessation of hostilities. This was another fake story by the main stream media because the gentleman concerned was adamant that he saw this from his veranda while drinking tea at 7.pm in the evening. As it so happens he forgot that it is completely dark at that time of year so he couldn't have seen anything! Needless to say, the mainstream media didn't challenge this or even point out the obvious lie. Already we are hearing cries from the MSM that service providers and search engines should start preventing any so called "fake news" as they it. They included in this all the well know sites like anti war, alternet and all on the list you have here on your site. I don't know for sure, but you may be on the list as well professor. We live in dangerous times!
Really professor, are you suggesting that we Brits are all conspiracy nut jobs? Surely the worlds largest collection of alien abduction nut cases are American. As for Trumps election I think he has the Media, press and Washington disinformation insiders to thank for his election win. The old saying "there's no such thing as bad publicity" holds good in the case of the election of Trump. He was given enormous exposure to the public which was always critical, mocking and full of downright mirth and nastiness. I don't say some of it or even lots of it wasn't justified, but the endless carping eventually had the affect of making Trump seem like the underdog. People are always sorry for the underdog and suspicious of those who are doing the bullying. The press, media etc handed Trump the presidency on a plate so trying g to pick any more holes in him is just stupid. The campaign against Trump back fired spectacularly so America has got what it deserves. Many didn't want Trump but just as many didn't want Clinton either. Perhaps next time round lessons will be learned and candidates of a higher caliber will be on the hustings and give the American people a real choice.
The whole point of the cease fire was to allow the rebel terrorists to leave the area and even do so with their weapons. Instead the terrorists chose to stay and keep maybe 250,000 civilians hostage and use them as a human shield. Stories abound of civilians being murdered by the terrorists if they were found trying to flee the situation. One thing is for sure, I doubt any civilian would stay there if the opportunity to leave were possible. Its hard to see what the Assad government, or for that matter any other government elsewhere can do in this situation.
Castor puts the rest the saying "only the good die young" he lived 90 years so he must be one of the oldest leaders of a country ever. He has seen off numerous presidents of the USA and managed to keep the American thirst for regime change and gross interference in other people's country at bay for all those years. If he had a fault it was his rabid belief that total communism was the only possible model of government. Cuba might have done rather better following say, the Swedish model of government which understands the worth of free enterprise and innovation whilst making sure that socialist programmes for the benefit of the population are always top of the agenda. Many saw Castro as a tyrant, but compared with the human excrement that passes for leaders of the world's countries today he was at least genuine in his purpose.
The old proverb "hunting with the hounds and running with the hare" comes to mind. Erdogan has the Russians to the East, the Europeans to the North and America to the West with some disparate Countries to the South of him. He is trying to be on the right side of all of them, however, you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time. He also has to contend with enemies in his own country who may well be planning his assassination at this very moment. He's got his work cut out.
Speaking from a UK perspective, clearly religion and politics have always been firmly intertwined. Centuries ago the clergy had enormous power and all but ran the country. Even today in the UK the queen is the head of the church of England as well as being the nominal ruler of the country. I suppose in the end its who makes laws that the rest of us have to abide by where failure to do so carries an enforceable penalty. We have plenty of laws in Western societies made by religious edict which have been carried on down through the centuries and are still in force today. As I understand it, Sharia law associated with the Muslim faith, is still producing absolute laws which have to be followed by everyone regardless of their own faith. It would seem therefore, that Flynn might have a point although its exaggerated to bolster his argument. For all Saddam Hussein's faults, he was of the idea that religion ends at the mosque door and he managed to run a secular society where women were not marginalized and subjugated by fanatical clerics. In other words he kept religious nutters firmly under control. Sadly, this was not what the Americans, we British and other wanted for Iraq, so Saddam had to go and he, like Gadaffi, was murdered with full connivance of the West. As a direct result religious extremism is rampant all over the middle East and the lives of ordinary people are horrendous.
I don't really see how one can say who is a Muslim as being a Muslim is a state of religious belief and not a specifically defined race. I know plenty of Muslims over here in the UK who are completely white and as English as the next man. There are millions of dark skinned people in America who have no religion or are rabid followers of other faiths. Perhaps you can tell me prof, if Americans have to have any form of identity papers on which they have to state their religion? Over here in the UK we don't have any form of identity papers and so don't have to produce them or carry them. We have passports (only if we want them) and driving licences but religious affiliation doesn't appear on them. I thought the persecution of people for their religious belief in the 'Western' world had died out hundreds of years ago.
I take issue with the comment in your last paragraph professor, where you say this man will most likely spy on Americans in contravention of the first and fourth amendment. I thought Edward Snowden had already showed that the American government is already spying on the American people and doing so in a massive way. The American government already boasts that all emails and phone call are logged and stored in meta data quantities. I fear this man can't do much to contravene the first and fourth amendment that his predecessors haven't already done. Indeed, their gigantic spying programme has all but made the these amendments obsolete .
We had the same problem over here in the UK for a while but its died down a bit now. However, Brexit as we call it was only another excuse for thugs and louts to attack foreigners. When the various incidents involving so called Muslim attacks like the London and Paris bombing etc happened, there were just as many attacks on people of dark skin and on people who had a religious affiliation. There is often a latent hostility towards people who seem "different" in most countries and being 'white Caucasian' is no protection if for some reason you are being singled out for attention. Unfortunately the press and media have a way of exacerbating this tendency. In the UK the main plank of the Brexit campaign was "keeping out foreigners" and it worked. I wonder if it would have worked if we had full employment and been a more prosperous people as a whole. When jobs, housing food and other means of living are in short supply, people look for someone to blame. At the present time in America, England and Europe, foreigners are being blamed and they don't have to be dark skinned either. The Polish worker in the UK are starting to come in for some 'foreigner bashing' as well. The election of Trump is the excuse for all this mayhem and not the symptom. The wastelands of Detroit etc is where we should be looking to see where its all gone wrong.
Trump could cut the R&D but on the other hand he might not. Trump could do a lot of things that he talked about in his election campaign, but like Obama and Guantanamo bay, he will soon find his wings being clipped by the establishment. Trump could take of a very tiny slice of the military budget which would fund R&D for lots of things and he could take a bit from here and cut a bit there for really worthwhile projects. However, Trump is not like the bank manager deciding on who will get loans or overdrafts etc, he is entirely in the hands of powerful vested interest who guard their own funding jealously. Trump will spend the first year of his presidency mired in paper work and protocol. As far as foreign policy is concerned he will have to contend with a belligerent military as did Obama, pet projects like building walls will almost certainly fall by the way. It should also be born in mind that Trump has no experience of government at all, so I suspect it will take him a year just to find his way around the maze of bureaucracy. He will be like a newly crowned king with all kinds of courtiers whispering in his ear advising and warning him of pitfalls etc. By the time the 'state' has finished with him he will wonder if he is not suffering from schizophrenia! Just as there was great hope when Obama was elected which didn't amount to much in the end, so the gloom and doom associated with Trump won't amount to much either. I have posted before, that the people who run the country are the power behind the throne and Trump, Obama, Clinton Bush and the rest are merely talking heads and are as manipulated as a ventriloquists dummy.
I accept much of what you say professor and if I was a Muslim or any other racial minority, I would indeed be anxious about my status, even though I might be just as American as the next man. I take issue however, with your last paragraph where you refer to Republican 'corporate backers' the inference being that Clinton was some how not in hoc to these corporate interests. She most definitely was and as far as I could see she had the support of just about every large corporate institute there is. She may not have been receiving financial support from many of them, but moral support was there in abundance. I hold no brief for Trump, but at least he spiced up your election and riveted world attention on the outcome. Your election is usually a dour predictable affair with the inevitable' more of the same' about it. I hope Trump puts aside his more salacious and stupid comments and really does make the next four years of the American presidency a positive one. He inherits no less than seven wars from Obama in which America is mired. He could start by extracting America from some of these murderous and expensive enterprises for a start.
For at least the past week the Russians and the Syrian government have had a cessation of hostilities in East Aleppo to allow the terrorists free passage to leave the area and even do so with their arms etc. The terrorists have instead chosen to stay and fight and hold the population there as hostages using them as a human shield. Its a bit of a stretch to link the Trump win for the presidency with anything going on In Syria. Had Trump lost the position would be exactly the same. Its two weeks or more that the Russian flotilla sailed through the English channel, when Clinton was expected to win the election. It will be interesting to see if Trump continues to spend millions of American tax payers dollars propping up the fantasy free Syrian army (terrorists by any other name) when he takes office.
What can I say professor, but "welcome to brexit land" Perhaps Obama had something to do with it when he spoke out against Trump in the maligned way he did. He certainly had an affect on we brexiteers over here in the UK when he said we should vote to stay in the EU. I shouldn't worry too much about Trump. He will soon have his puppet strings attached and be dancing to the tune of those powerful actors behind the throne just as Obama did. Remember Obama's speech about closing down Guantanamo bay, but of course it never happened, even after eight years. If Trump really does try to exert the power of the presidency, then I fear for him.
The news just out is that the FBI have made a public statement saying Clinton isn't guilty of anything. So they checked all 64,000 emails in just a couple of days. That's impressive indeed! This is absurd and all it does is deepen the suspicion that all is not well in the American government. There are already millions of posts on forums everywhere asking who leaned on the FBI to come up with this. Had there been only a few hundred emails it might have been believable, but 64,000? Pull the other one. Clinton was set to win without this second intervention by the FBI so all this does is leave people with the suspicion that powerful people have been working overtime behind the scenes.
Poor old Trump, he doesn't seem to have any friends anywhere in the establishment or the media and he has even raised the ire of our favourite professor and blogger, Juan Cole. Really, whilst Trump is a good whipping boy for the moment, one should be asking why is it that this 'wild card' candidate didn't fall by the wayside way back in the primaries. To all intents and purposes he's an independent candidate standing against a formidable establishment candidate who is of course, Hillary Clinton. We should not be wasting our time on Trump but asking why it is that the Republican party with all its power, money and experience, haven't been able to field one candidate capable of challenging Clinton. To me this is the real story of the presidential election.
The biggest surprise in your piece professor, is that you were once a life guard! I am also surprised that you think that either Clinton or Trump for the presidency will make any difference to the way America is run. Obama had all kinds of ideas to benefit the American people, but he has been involved in as many wars as Bush as far as I can see. He also promised to close guantanamo bay prison, but the 'establishment' wouldn't allow it. Ask any average American if anything much has changed for them personally under a democrat or republican president and the answer will probably be "not much" It seems to me the american president is becoming more like our queen of England, a figure head with little or no powers. The establishment don't want Trump because he is a wild card whereas Clinton is so much part of the 'establishment' club she is practically a founder member.The industrial military complex and the corporations see Hillary as a safe pair of hands from their prospective. Indeed, she is already planning more wars and she hasn't even been sworn in yet. It never ceases to amaze why even intelligent people such as your self still harbour the delusion that a democrat or a republican president will change anything. Its the same over here in the UK. Tony Blair was a socialist and he forced us into the disastrous Iraq war. The lot of the people of the UK however, was much the same under his leadership as it was before he was elected and after he had gone. Presidents come and presidents go, but the establishment, the real power behind the throne, reigns supreme forever
This election is like some kind of grotesque masque ball where all the dancers are serpents from hell. At midnight on election day they will remove their masks to reveal who they really are. Trumps mask has already been knocked off briefly, but Clinton's mask is still just about in place. One thing is for sure, the faces behind the masks of these two pretenders to the throne will be far more grisly than anything the kids are wearing on this halloween.
Oh come on prof, you know what you are saying is disingenuous. Weiner no doubt has faults but you are blaming the messenger when you should be examining the Clinton emails instead.
Surely, professor it all depends on whether Clinton decides to institute a no fly zone doesn't it? I can't see Assad or the Russians obeying some edict from America to ground their planes unless of course, the UN supported a no fly zone which is not going to happen as Russia and China won't agree to it. If the Americans bomb Assad's air force he will surely retaliate with the Russian air defense missiles he has and if Russian planes are shot down or their bases bombed, they are not just going to sit there and do nothing. I suggest the solution is as its been all along and is for America, Assad and the Russians to put aside their ideologies for a while and work fully together to rid Syria of the scourge of terrorism. While they are at it they should tell the so called fantasy free Syrian army to lay down their weapons or be regarded as terrorists. You should not imagine that world war three is just the ravings of Trump. I suggest there are plenty of hawks and lunatics in the pentagon and elsewhere in America who would think nothing of starting a war if their egos were thwarted.
It seems to me that torture, water boarding and rendition to other countries for more enhanced methods of torture, were around years ago long before any of us had ever heard of Trump. The hands of former American and British governments are stained with the blood of Muslims in the middle East. When Hillary Clinton laughed and clapped her hands in a debauched frenzy of glee when she heard that Gaddafi had been murdered and tortured by being bayoneted in the rectum, saying "we came, we saw, he died", political rhetoric had sunk to new depths. Trump and his associates have got a very long way to go to match anything previous American and British governments are capable of.
From what I have read and heard the election is all but in the bag for Clinton and Trump has no chance. However, your piece suggests you are not entirely certain yourself about the outcome. The inference of your piece is that in the unlikely event Trump wins there will be more prison sentences for protesters. It seems to me that protesters are already having a hard time under the benign leadership of Obama and I would anticipate their fate would be many times worse under Clinton, especially when she starts a proxy war against the Russians and their allies in Syria. Trump doesn't have much going for him, but his one redeeming feature is that he has indicated that he is not keen on getting involved in civil wars which are nothing to do with the USA.
When Hillary Clinton heard about the appalling death of Gaddafi by being bayoneted in the rectum, she laughed and clapped her hands in glee saying, "we came we saw and he died" I wonder professor, what character from story books you would liken Clinton to. I hold no brief for Trump, but he is after all a candidate with no political baggage to his name and the specter of 'war criminal' can't be levied against him. We don't know what Trump would do as president. Probably not much. But we do know that within the first year of her office, Clinton will be up to her neck in wars and strife in other people's countries.
If ever there was a shrill woman I suggest Samantha Power tops the bill and she leaves Zakhrova standing. The statement Power came out with a short while ago when she said Assad was trying to get most of Syria for himself, was mind boggling. Samantha power treats stupidity as though it were a virtue!
Khodarenok fails to mention that the Syrian government with Russian air support are not just fighting a few head chopping terrorists. They are in fact fighting the 'West' which is arming, supporting and financing the terrorists either directly or through middle East proxies. It should be pointed out to Khodarenok that America and her allies have been been bombing and fighting in Iraq for years and have poured millions of dollars into this country in arms, logistics and finance, but they still haven't yet overcome the terrorists there. I don't know if the American government is openly acknowledging arming terrorists, but over here in the UK its openly admitted. I watched a parliamentary committee over here in the UK recently, where the defense secretary and his side kicks made no secret of the fact that we British are providing heavy vehicle mounted machine guns for terrorists in Syria. These are of course the so called nice or moderate terrorists. A point made in this defense committee briefing was not that we had supplied the weapons, but that we were not following up with a more and plentiful supply of ammunition for them!
These political debates are like gladiators performing in a Roman arena. They seem to me to be a form of mass spectator sport. Unfortunately this ghastly trend seems to have found its way over here in the UK. Up until quite recently in the UK we never had any kind of TV debates, but the candidates for the main political parties each had a short time slot on all TV channels where they were able to put their case to the electorate in their own way without any audience or questions. The time they had was short (about 5 minutes) so they had to get on with explaining their policy and there was little time for them to hector the other political parties. this system was probably not perfect but at least the voter could have an idea of what the candidate had to offer.
Come on professor, you do the support for global warming a disservice when you make outlandish claims that the earth has never been this hot in the last 100,000 years. Archeologists have barely scratch the surface of twenty thousand years ago let alone a hundred thousand. I don't know about the weather in the good old US of A but over here in the UK we have had chilly summers for five years or more.
You are right as usual professor, but you miss out the most important point about death by terrorism. The deaths you mention don't give the state the excuse to have mass surveillance and a reason for a staggering military budget. Terrorists and paedophiles are the very life blood for mass surveillance and heaven sent for the state. If they didn't exist they would have to be invented. All the deaths you cite combined don't give succour to the state machine of control like a few deaths from a terrorist's attack. The media of course, go along with it. The annual published figures for road deaths will get an hours scrutiny from the media, but a terrorists bomb will get wall to wall coverage for days and that's even when no one is killed.
Professor, in your excellent piece you leave out the one thing that matters most and that is, "why are the public at large taken in by this stuff"? I have an average British education and I make no claim to have any superior intellect than anyone else, but I see how silly it looks when Clinton constantly refers to Putin this and Putin that. The same applies to wild statements made by Trump. Are the public so ill informed that they just can't see the absurdity of media and politician's claims which bear no reality to whats is really happening? The public seem like a flock of sheep to be herded by the farmer's dog into any way the farmer wants them to go. What kind of democracy is it when the individual voter can be so easily manipulated?
The cease fire is unlikely last as the positions of the two warring parties is not going to change. The Russians want to keep Assad or an acceptable successor and the so called moderate terrorists, we British and the Americans want the Assad government to go completely. The complaint against Assad is that he has not been elected, but neither have the moderate terrorists supported by the West. The whole thing could well end in some terrible conflagration. As Marx once said; great historical events happen twice. First as a tragedy and second as a farce. The farce of Iraq and Libya is there for all to see after the tragedy. The tragedy of Yemen is still unfolding as it is with the Ukraine. I don't put much store on quotations from the bible, but that one about "man will one day destroy himself" still seems plausible.
Professor, everything you report an say in your interesting piece, screams out "come back Saddam" "come back Gadaffi" and keep at it Assad, all is forgiven" ! The old proverb "let sleeping dogs lie" is a good one when it comes to spreading democracy to places that have no real use for it. Then there is the other proverb, "the devil you know is better than.................
The fact is, America, Turkey, we British, Saudi Arabia etc are breaking international law by being in Syria at all. It seems to me we are like a flock of vultures tearing at the rotting carrion which is what is left of Syria. We all want a bit of the carcass for ourselves.
I personally loathe religion but does this give me the right to demand that people who wear a crucifix around their neck should take it off because it offends me? I cannot imagine why anyone would care what someone else is wearing. One should always be careful what powers you give the state as you might get what you wish for and regret it. Logically, if its just the clothing that's at issue, then those participating in sub-aqua sports have got a problem.
One ally the US can count on in any military conflict is their favourite poodle, we Brits over here in the UK. It has just been announced that we are preparing an unfinished aircraft carrier with no planes to put on it for action in North Korean waters or very nearby. Presumably our halfwit foreign secretary, Boris Johnson and that old fool defense minister, Michael Fallon have been given their orders from Trump and his junta of generals. If this is the case then prime minister Mrs May will see this as heaven sent distraction from her woes as a truly useless leader. Never mind the millions of men, women and children that will be slaughtered, Trump and May need a distraction from their own domestic problems and what better way to achieve that than war.
Obama pardoning Manning is odd to say the least, for Obama declared Manning guilty even before the sham show trial that Manning had. I'm sure I heard Julian Assange say the other day that if Manning was released he would give himself up to the Americans. If he did then he can't have had much sleep last night! However, as Obama and Clintonites have made it quite clear that they hold Putin responsible for the various leaks which they erroneously claim won Trump the election, what do they want with Assange? The fact is Trump was never meant to win the election or even win the primaries any more than was Sanders meant to win his primaries. These two were mere tokenism to the democratic process which gave an air of inclusiveness and respectability to democracy. Both the Republicans and the Democrats have been stung to the very core because a complete outsider has had the temerity to stand for election and has actually won. We have a similar set up in this regard over here in the UK . Americans may well have heard of the Monster raving loony party which always stands in British elections. Of course, they get no where and they are tolerated only because they give colour and the notion of free inclusive elections. I say again, the unemployed voters in the wastelands of Detroit and other once great industrial cities, voted for Trump because he spoke to their concerns. I doubt many of these people were exercised or having sleepless night by Trump idea of having good relations with the Russians. Those who make fortunes out of the war industry however, have really got their knickers in a twist! It will be interesting to see if Manning is able to do the rounds of the talk shows or write a book or something.
You are letting your undisguised dislike of Trump get in the way of facts professor. Whilst I carry no torch for Trump he is absolutely right about German excessive immigration and the consequences which have subsequently followed. In case you've forgotten, the success of the Brexit vote was precisely because of immigration and Merkel was much quoted by the leave the EU camp during their campaign. You appear to be also implying that the Russian dossier is a fact whereas there is not one shred of evidence to support it. Over here in the UK we once also had a dossier about how Iraq could fire missiles into the UK in forty five minutes but this dossier has long been universally acknowledged to be a "dodgy dossier" I can't recall exactly now, but this dossier or another one was called the 'dodgy dossier' because it was actually a straight forward copy of a university student's study thesis with no attempt to disguise the fact. Trump's election was a great example of democracy in action and he won according to the constitution and the electoral rules in place as was the case for the other candidates. Those supporters of Clinton who lost the election are starting to engaged in 'coup' like activities and are not willing to embrace the democratic process. You are starting to sound like this a bit yourself professor and I am disappointed that a man of your intellect should now be wallowing in the gutter of speculation along with the many other people who are not happy that the democratic has process has not produced the candidate they expected it to.
As far as we British over here on the other side of the pond see it, Trump won the election according to the rules of the American electoral system. The notion Trump was helped by the Russians isn't supported by hardly anyone over here and on any of the millions of posters on internet forums. True, he didn't win the popular vote which went to Clinton by some two million votes, but that's not Trumps fault. He stood for election and set out his stall and won the support of the electorate according to the system. The electoral system in America is stupid of course, but its got nothing on our system over here in the UK. First of all we have an entirely unelected queen as head of state. Our current prime minister who is the head of the government hasn't received one single public vote for her to be the prime minister. She was handed the job of head of the UK government by a few hundred members of her own party. Our current government is a Conservative one which actually only got about a third of the popular vote, the other two main parties taking two thirds or so between. them. Both the American and the British system of democracy is flawed and yet it is we who go around the world destroying other people's countries so that we can foist our flawed democracy on them! The covert secret services and shadow government in America seem to all but be plotting a coup against Trump, even before he has take his seat in the white house. Coups brought about in other countries by meddling and direct intervention by the Americans, we British and others. are common enough. It would seem that dark forces who are actually behind this kind of stuff overseas are quite capable of even doing it in their own country. Should the unthinkable happen, then America will go from a laughing stock to being universally despised." Listen up America, its your electoral system, you chose it and accepted it so stop carping about Trump because he's not the candidate that some of you wanted"
Saying Trump had packed his press conference with his supporters and that some how this is underhand is rather churlish of you professor. All political parties have their rallies packed with their own people and always have. At the daily White House briefings the person taking questions has on more than one occasion been rebuked because he criticized the RT reporter for daring to ask perfectly reasonable questions and he was challenge by OTHER none RT reporters. Considering the amount of flak Trump has come in for from the main stream media, it would be surprising if he didn't try to make sure certain media organisations were kept at arms length. I see there is another secret dossier about Trump reported today from one of our own MI6 officers. no evidence of course, just here say and from "our sources" . Things must be pretty bad when the USA spooks have got to get MI6 to come out with this stuff especially as MI6 has already been found to produce dodgy dossiers in the case of the Iraq war. Frankly, Professor, the Americans are beginning to make themselves look stupid with this attempt to undermine Trump with this childish nonsense. Let Trump have his presidency and if he's a failure let him fail himself which he probably will without any help from anyone else.
May I remind you professor of the well known psychology experiment where an ordinary person is required to give a pretend victim electric shocks by a pretend official personage. The person giving the shocks carries on administering shocks when told to by the official, even though the pretend victim is screaming in agony. There is this very large grey area between the psychopathic tendency and those who feel they have to obey orders. Hitler's Germany was a good case in point. Drone operators blow up people they don't know every day and do so from an armchair thousands of miles away. At the end of the day they go home to their family just like normal people who go home from the office etc. The thing is; when is a psychopath not a psychopath? The power of the state to control and manipulate is enormous and many otherwise normal people are sucked into the excesses of the state without realizing it. I don't know for sure, but I suggest most Americans agree with the death penalty, where a human being is hanged on a piece of rope or half burned alive in an electric chair! Perhaps there's a bit of psychopath in all of us professor
Like many famous stars of stage and screen who are dripping with money, Steep can afford crocodile tears at one of these mutual admiration society actor's get together. Perhaps if she was an unemployed worker trying to survive in the waste lands of Detroit etc she might not find Trump's rallying call to get the jobs lost to America back again so very terrible. I always find theses "loveys" who use their fame to pronounce on political matters rather disingenuous.
Gary the point about Trump is he's up front about his views etc. I agree the man is an oaf, course and his views are most objectionable, but the thing is, he's up front about it and we know what he thinks. When I say 'damning' I mean something criminal, hidden etc and not in the public domain.
You don't need to worry about our members of parliament professor, they are mostly so up to their arm pits in muck that anything agents from Israel might come up with, would roll off them like water off a duck's back. Covert agents of the state are the same everywhere including your own country. The bizarre public pronouncement recently by them that they had some very tenuous evidence that proved Russia hacked Clinton's emails just shows how far they will go to besmirch Trump, always at the same time linking him with the Russians. There is too much at stake for the industrial military complex to let Trump have a free reign on foreign policy when he gets into power. The last thing the CIA pentagon and secret agencies want is peace breaking out. One would have hoped that somewhere in the recess's of their black hearts they would give the democratic process a chance, but these people are so far up Satan's rear end, there not much chance of this. It amazes me that the American secret agencies haven't come up with something really damning about Trump yet. Trump is a bizarre candidate for president and doubtless a bit of a buffoon, but like our own Nigel Farage over here in the UK, he is a breath of fresh air compared with anyone else from the cesspit from which most politicians seem to come from. I haven't seen anything in our own press about this stuff from Israel yet. However, the amount of shyte which emanates from the UK Westminster political bubble is so voluminous that its like standing in the path of a wall of effluence being discharged from the Southern outfall, so I may have missed it !
Fascinating post professor and rather scary one at that. As many of us believe, elected governments are there by courtesy of dark forces behind the facade of democracy. Had Clinton won we would not be hearing much about the fantasy Russian hacks and how they influenced the out come of the election. As far as the "insiders" were concerned, Trump was just a joke figure who was there to play the role of an alternative candidate to give democracy an air of legitimacy. It was never intended or even imagined he would actually win!! After all, he wasn't part of the 'Washington insider set.' Indeed, he had no political acumen whatsoever. It is obvious that there is incandescent outrage that Trump is in fact going to be the next president and so far, he is exhibiting a clear principal of independent thought and intention. If Trump was fully in accord with the covert institutions of government, we would not be hearing any of this ludicrous stuff about Putin personally ordering hacks etc. This debacle is beginning to show that democracy isn't all its cracked up to be and other quasi or non democratic regimes must be laughing their heads off. Democracy is fine as long as it provides the expected and required result and it was never intended to actually produce a Trump or a Brexit. I fear for Trump's safety and he really does need to watch his back.
You seem to forget that the alternative to Trump was Clinton who is a known war monger and a liar to boot. At least Trump had no political baggage.= to his name.
You may well be right about the media and press being respectful to Trump once he is in the white house, but to date they have treated Trump with contempt and disdain. The press and media will look rather silly if they suddenly start to laud every thing Trump says or does. Frankly, I just can't see the media praising Trump if he cosies up to Putin and starts making overtures of good will to the Russians.
You are probably right about the cease fire agreed by the Syrian government, Russia, Turkey and Iran, not being likely to last. What fascinates me about this particular deal is who did the Russians actually speak to on the rebels side. Presumably they met a leader(s) but since the Russians and the Syrian government has declared all the protagonists fighting against the Syrian government as terrorists, its hard to know how they managed to make contact with the 'other side' . You are right of course, to say most of the anti Assad fighters are members of ISIS and others who are universally acknowledged to be terrorists and won't be taking part in any cease fire. The question is, will the so called moderates be able to separate themselves from ISIS etc? It didn't work last time so I doubt it will work this time. The Americans have only just signed of a law to allow the provision of shoulder mounted anti aircraft missiles to the rebels so what will happen to this deal? Will America, Britain and other allies continue to arm and finance the rebels during the cease fire? Lastly, Saudi Arabia has made no secret of the fact that they intend to keep on supporting the ISIS fighters until Assad is gone. I fear the horror of the Syrian conflict is far from over.
I suppose I can't comment with any authority concerning the accusation that the Americans are arming the terrorists, but over here in the UK its a fact that my government is arming terrorists who go under the pseudonym of freedom fighters. I recently watch a question and answer session of a parliamentary committee in which the defense secretary and two of his side kicks discussed how they could get more ammunition to the Syrian terrorist for the heavy machine guns that we had supplied. Its worth pointing out that Congress has just past a bill to enable America to supply the so called rebels with shoulder mounted anti air craft missiles! How long before one of these ferocious weapons finds its way to Europe and is used against a civilian air liner?
You are right professor but its worth mentioning that the overwhelming number of Americans just don't read blogs like yours, Tomdispatch, Glen greenwald, Huffington post, ICH etc but they get their news from the main stream media. Notwithstanding the complete saturation by the media in favour of Hillary Clinton and the complete drubbing they gave Trump, he won just the same. I hold no brief for Trump but I suppose one can take heart from his election as it does show the ordinary man in the street is capable of making up his own mind and cannot be completely taken over by the mass media.
It appears that Egypt is now entering the Syrian conflict on the side of Assad and are already working under the umbrella of the Russian air command. Ironically, the two Mistral class war ships that the French refused to sell to the Russians because of sanctions, have been sold to Egypt and are about to go to Syria to support the Assad government. I am surprised that you take any notice of the Syrian observatory for human rights. Allegedly, this is a one man band run by a man from a semi detached house over here in the UK from Coventry. This character is anti Assad and has been over here in the UK for more that a decade, having been in prison in Syria a number of times and then fled to the UK. Apparently, he gets his information from his 'sources' which only he knows about and are rarely able to be verified. Our press and media over here in the UK are much the same as yours in America and they are basically enthralled to the government line. The UK government is anti Assad and anti Russia so our pathetic media just carry on quoting the man from Coventry in his clothes shop without any kind of journalistic investigation. There was a time when well respected organisations like Reuters had their own reporters on the ground, but these days they just report anything from anyone who says what they want to hear. I don't have a problem with the man from Coventry putting forward his point of view and any info he might have, but the notion that the press and media should just take this mans word or anyone's word at face value without so much as a cursory investigation, is absurd.
I hold no brief for Trump professor, but making the assumption he will brand ever more people in the USA who demonstrate against something as terrorists, seems unlikely because he won't need to. The job has already been done for him. Have you forgotten the patriot act dreamed up by the Bush administration? This piece of legislation along with statements like "if you're not with us then you are against us" made it abundantly clear that anyone challenging the state would be regarded as some kind of trouble maker or worse. As you know, certain news papers in the USA have declared that many independent news outlets on the internet as 'fake news' with calls for them to be banned or curtailed. Bearing in mind that these same newspapers are little more than mouth pieces for the state, it would appear that what Trump might do will be just a thin layer of icing on the top of an already rotten cake. There are terrorists and freedom fighters. There are demonstrators and writers but the state decides who's good and who's bad. You yourself may well be on the so called 'fake news' list and as I have recently made a donation to your site perhaps I will be thought of as some kind of agitator or worse.
I seem to detect a hint of 'sour grapes' in this piece of yours, professor. Had the West prevailed in their endeavour to oust Assad I think they would have been 'crowing in much the same way. I recall that when the West attacked Libya, Cameron and William Hague, our then not very bright foreign secretary, rushed off to Libya when they heard that the West backed terrorists had won. They went there full of undisguised glee, wreathed in smiles on a march of triumph and glory to shake hands with the terrorists who had overthrown Gadaffi. Even worse, your own secretary of state, Hillary Clinton positively exuded joy and satisfaction at the appalling murder of Gadaffi and she too was clapping her hands and laughing with undisguised pleasure. Her immortal words will be for ever remembered which were: "We came, we saw, and he died" Gloating the Russians might be, but they've got nothing our lot who are masters when it comes to smugness and self gratification.
Professor, you are preaching to the already converted as we are reading your alternative comments rather than the main stream media. The mainstream media are now losing out to the internet and programmes like RT big time. The EU parliament recently voted money to an EU site called "debunking Russian propaganda" and did so with a very dubious majority where there were few MEP's present. In other words, EU tax payers are funding this outfit to feed them even more propaganda of their own. The best propaganda outfit championed by the main stream media at the moment are the so called 'white helmets in Syria. This outfit is linked to the Americans and is funded by them to the of tune of 400 million Dollars and we British and others pour more cash as well. The white helmets are only ever filmed carry some golden hair little girl from a bombed out building and I have never seen the rescue any adult. They also carry arms and only work only in the areas controlled by the terrorists. The head of this organisation said a while back that he saw Syrian helicopters dropping barrel bombs on the UN aid convey in an agreed cessation of hostilities. This was another fake story by the main stream media because the gentleman concerned was adamant that he saw this from his veranda while drinking tea at 7.pm in the evening. As it so happens he forgot that it is completely dark at that time of year so he couldn't have seen anything! Needless to say, the mainstream media didn't challenge this or even point out the obvious lie. Already we are hearing cries from the MSM that service providers and search engines should start preventing any so called "fake news" as they it. They included in this all the well know sites like anti war, alternet and all on the list you have here on your site. I don't know for sure, but you may be on the list as well professor. We live in dangerous times!
Really professor, are you suggesting that we Brits are all conspiracy nut jobs? Surely the worlds largest collection of alien abduction nut cases are American. As for Trumps election I think he has the Media, press and Washington disinformation insiders to thank for his election win. The old saying "there's no such thing as bad publicity" holds good in the case of the election of Trump. He was given enormous exposure to the public which was always critical, mocking and full of downright mirth and nastiness. I don't say some of it or even lots of it wasn't justified, but the endless carping eventually had the affect of making Trump seem like the underdog. People are always sorry for the underdog and suspicious of those who are doing the bullying. The press, media etc handed Trump the presidency on a plate so trying g to pick any more holes in him is just stupid. The campaign against Trump back fired spectacularly so America has got what it deserves. Many didn't want Trump but just as many didn't want Clinton either. Perhaps next time round lessons will be learned and candidates of a higher caliber will be on the hustings and give the American people a real choice.
The whole point of the cease fire was to allow the rebel terrorists to leave the area and even do so with their weapons. Instead the terrorists chose to stay and keep maybe 250,000 civilians hostage and use them as a human shield. Stories abound of civilians being murdered by the terrorists if they were found trying to flee the situation. One thing is for sure, I doubt any civilian would stay there if the opportunity to leave were possible. Its hard to see what the Assad government, or for that matter any other government elsewhere can do in this situation.
Castor puts the rest the saying "only the good die young" he lived 90 years so he must be one of the oldest leaders of a country ever. He has seen off numerous presidents of the USA and managed to keep the American thirst for regime change and gross interference in other people's country at bay for all those years. If he had a fault it was his rabid belief that total communism was the only possible model of government. Cuba might have done rather better following say, the Swedish model of government which understands the worth of free enterprise and innovation whilst making sure that socialist programmes for the benefit of the population are always top of the agenda. Many saw Castro as a tyrant, but compared with the human excrement that passes for leaders of the world's countries today he was at least genuine in his purpose.
The old proverb "hunting with the hounds and running with the hare" comes to mind. Erdogan has the Russians to the East, the Europeans to the North and America to the West with some disparate Countries to the South of him. He is trying to be on the right side of all of them, however, you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can't please all of the people all of the time. He also has to contend with enemies in his own country who may well be planning his assassination at this very moment. He's got his work cut out.
Speaking from a UK perspective, clearly religion and politics have always been firmly intertwined. Centuries ago the clergy had enormous power and all but ran the country. Even today in the UK the queen is the head of the church of England as well as being the nominal ruler of the country. I suppose in the end its who makes laws that the rest of us have to abide by where failure to do so carries an enforceable penalty. We have plenty of laws in Western societies made by religious edict which have been carried on down through the centuries and are still in force today. As I understand it, Sharia law associated with the Muslim faith, is still producing absolute laws which have to be followed by everyone regardless of their own faith. It would seem therefore, that Flynn might have a point although its exaggerated to bolster his argument. For all Saddam Hussein's faults, he was of the idea that religion ends at the mosque door and he managed to run a secular society where women were not marginalized and subjugated by fanatical clerics. In other words he kept religious nutters firmly under control. Sadly, this was not what the Americans, we British and other wanted for Iraq, so Saddam had to go and he, like Gadaffi, was murdered with full connivance of the West. As a direct result religious extremism is rampant all over the middle East and the lives of ordinary people are horrendous.
I don't really see how one can say who is a Muslim as being a Muslim is a state of religious belief and not a specifically defined race. I know plenty of Muslims over here in the UK who are completely white and as English as the next man. There are millions of dark skinned people in America who have no religion or are rabid followers of other faiths. Perhaps you can tell me prof, if Americans have to have any form of identity papers on which they have to state their religion? Over here in the UK we don't have any form of identity papers and so don't have to produce them or carry them. We have passports (only if we want them) and driving licences but religious affiliation doesn't appear on them. I thought the persecution of people for their religious belief in the 'Western' world had died out hundreds of years ago.
I take issue with the comment in your last paragraph professor, where you say this man will most likely spy on Americans in contravention of the first and fourth amendment. I thought Edward Snowden had already showed that the American government is already spying on the American people and doing so in a massive way. The American government already boasts that all emails and phone call are logged and stored in meta data quantities. I fear this man can't do much to contravene the first and fourth amendment that his predecessors haven't already done. Indeed, their gigantic spying programme has all but made the these amendments obsolete .
We had the same problem over here in the UK for a while but its died down a bit now. However, Brexit as we call it was only another excuse for thugs and louts to attack foreigners. When the various incidents involving so called Muslim attacks like the London and Paris bombing etc happened, there were just as many attacks on people of dark skin and on people who had a religious affiliation. There is often a latent hostility towards people who seem "different" in most countries and being 'white Caucasian' is no protection if for some reason you are being singled out for attention. Unfortunately the press and media have a way of exacerbating this tendency. In the UK the main plank of the Brexit campaign was "keeping out foreigners" and it worked. I wonder if it would have worked if we had full employment and been a more prosperous people as a whole. When jobs, housing food and other means of living are in short supply, people look for someone to blame. At the present time in America, England and Europe, foreigners are being blamed and they don't have to be dark skinned either. The Polish worker in the UK are starting to come in for some 'foreigner bashing' as well. The election of Trump is the excuse for all this mayhem and not the symptom. The wastelands of Detroit etc is where we should be looking to see where its all gone wrong.
Trump could cut the R&D but on the other hand he might not. Trump could do a lot of things that he talked about in his election campaign, but like Obama and Guantanamo bay, he will soon find his wings being clipped by the establishment. Trump could take of a very tiny slice of the military budget which would fund R&D for lots of things and he could take a bit from here and cut a bit there for really worthwhile projects. However, Trump is not like the bank manager deciding on who will get loans or overdrafts etc, he is entirely in the hands of powerful vested interest who guard their own funding jealously. Trump will spend the first year of his presidency mired in paper work and protocol. As far as foreign policy is concerned he will have to contend with a belligerent military as did Obama, pet projects like building walls will almost certainly fall by the way. It should also be born in mind that Trump has no experience of government at all, so I suspect it will take him a year just to find his way around the maze of bureaucracy. He will be like a newly crowned king with all kinds of courtiers whispering in his ear advising and warning him of pitfalls etc. By the time the 'state' has finished with him he will wonder if he is not suffering from schizophrenia! Just as there was great hope when Obama was elected which didn't amount to much in the end, so the gloom and doom associated with Trump won't amount to much either. I have posted before, that the people who run the country are the power behind the throne and Trump, Obama, Clinton Bush and the rest are merely talking heads and are as manipulated as a ventriloquists dummy.
I accept much of what you say professor and if I was a Muslim or any other racial minority, I would indeed be anxious about my status, even though I might be just as American as the next man. I take issue however, with your last paragraph where you refer to Republican 'corporate backers' the inference being that Clinton was some how not in hoc to these corporate interests. She most definitely was and as far as I could see she had the support of just about every large corporate institute there is. She may not have been receiving financial support from many of them, but moral support was there in abundance. I hold no brief for Trump, but at least he spiced up your election and riveted world attention on the outcome. Your election is usually a dour predictable affair with the inevitable' more of the same' about it. I hope Trump puts aside his more salacious and stupid comments and really does make the next four years of the American presidency a positive one. He inherits no less than seven wars from Obama in which America is mired. He could start by extracting America from some of these murderous and expensive enterprises for a start.
For at least the past week the Russians and the Syrian government have had a cessation of hostilities in East Aleppo to allow the terrorists free passage to leave the area and even do so with their arms etc. The terrorists have instead chosen to stay and fight and hold the population there as hostages using them as a human shield. Its a bit of a stretch to link the Trump win for the presidency with anything going on In Syria. Had Trump lost the position would be exactly the same. Its two weeks or more that the Russian flotilla sailed through the English channel, when Clinton was expected to win the election. It will be interesting to see if Trump continues to spend millions of American tax payers dollars propping up the fantasy free Syrian army (terrorists by any other name) when he takes office.
What can I say professor, but "welcome to brexit land" Perhaps Obama had something to do with it when he spoke out against Trump in the maligned way he did. He certainly had an affect on we brexiteers over here in the UK when he said we should vote to stay in the EU. I shouldn't worry too much about Trump. He will soon have his puppet strings attached and be dancing to the tune of those powerful actors behind the throne just as Obama did. Remember Obama's speech about closing down Guantanamo bay, but of course it never happened, even after eight years. If Trump really does try to exert the power of the presidency, then I fear for him.
The news just out is that the FBI have made a public statement saying Clinton isn't guilty of anything. So they checked all 64,000 emails in just a couple of days. That's impressive indeed! This is absurd and all it does is deepen the suspicion that all is not well in the American government. There are already millions of posts on forums everywhere asking who leaned on the FBI to come up with this. Had there been only a few hundred emails it might have been believable, but 64,000? Pull the other one. Clinton was set to win without this second intervention by the FBI so all this does is leave people with the suspicion that powerful people have been working overtime behind the scenes.
Poor old Trump, he doesn't seem to have any friends anywhere in the establishment or the media and he has even raised the ire of our favourite professor and blogger, Juan Cole. Really, whilst Trump is a good whipping boy for the moment, one should be asking why is it that this 'wild card' candidate didn't fall by the wayside way back in the primaries. To all intents and purposes he's an independent candidate standing against a formidable establishment candidate who is of course, Hillary Clinton. We should not be wasting our time on Trump but asking why it is that the Republican party with all its power, money and experience, haven't been able to field one candidate capable of challenging Clinton. To me this is the real story of the presidential election.
The biggest surprise in your piece professor, is that you were once a life guard! I am also surprised that you think that either Clinton or Trump for the presidency will make any difference to the way America is run. Obama had all kinds of ideas to benefit the American people, but he has been involved in as many wars as Bush as far as I can see. He also promised to close guantanamo bay prison, but the 'establishment' wouldn't allow it. Ask any average American if anything much has changed for them personally under a democrat or republican president and the answer will probably be "not much" It seems to me the american president is becoming more like our queen of England, a figure head with little or no powers. The establishment don't want Trump because he is a wild card whereas Clinton is so much part of the 'establishment' club she is practically a founder member.The industrial military complex and the corporations see Hillary as a safe pair of hands from their prospective. Indeed, she is already planning more wars and she hasn't even been sworn in yet. It never ceases to amaze why even intelligent people such as your self still harbour the delusion that a democrat or a republican president will change anything. Its the same over here in the UK. Tony Blair was a socialist and he forced us into the disastrous Iraq war. The lot of the people of the UK however, was much the same under his leadership as it was before he was elected and after he had gone. Presidents come and presidents go, but the establishment, the real power behind the throne, reigns supreme forever
This election is like some kind of grotesque masque ball where all the dancers are serpents from hell. At midnight on election day they will remove their masks to reveal who they really are. Trumps mask has already been knocked off briefly, but Clinton's mask is still just about in place. One thing is for sure, the faces behind the masks of these two pretenders to the throne will be far more grisly than anything the kids are wearing on this halloween.
Oh come on prof, you know what you are saying is disingenuous. Weiner no doubt has faults but you are blaming the messenger when you should be examining the Clinton emails instead.
Surely, professor it all depends on whether Clinton decides to institute a no fly zone doesn't it? I can't see Assad or the Russians obeying some edict from America to ground their planes unless of course, the UN supported a no fly zone which is not going to happen as Russia and China won't agree to it. If the Americans bomb Assad's air force he will surely retaliate with the Russian air defense missiles he has and if Russian planes are shot down or their bases bombed, they are not just going to sit there and do nothing. I suggest the solution is as its been all along and is for America, Assad and the Russians to put aside their ideologies for a while and work fully together to rid Syria of the scourge of terrorism. While they are at it they should tell the so called fantasy free Syrian army to lay down their weapons or be regarded as terrorists. You should not imagine that world war three is just the ravings of Trump. I suggest there are plenty of hawks and lunatics in the pentagon and elsewhere in America who would think nothing of starting a war if their egos were thwarted.
It seems to me that torture, water boarding and rendition to other countries for more enhanced methods of torture, were around years ago long before any of us had ever heard of Trump. The hands of former American and British governments are stained with the blood of Muslims in the middle East. When Hillary Clinton laughed and clapped her hands in a debauched frenzy of glee when she heard that Gaddafi had been murdered and tortured by being bayoneted in the rectum, saying "we came, we saw, he died", political rhetoric had sunk to new depths. Trump and his associates have got a very long way to go to match anything previous American and British governments are capable of.
From what I have read and heard the election is all but in the bag for Clinton and Trump has no chance. However, your piece suggests you are not entirely certain yourself about the outcome. The inference of your piece is that in the unlikely event Trump wins there will be more prison sentences for protesters. It seems to me that protesters are already having a hard time under the benign leadership of Obama and I would anticipate their fate would be many times worse under Clinton, especially when she starts a proxy war against the Russians and their allies in Syria. Trump doesn't have much going for him, but his one redeeming feature is that he has indicated that he is not keen on getting involved in civil wars which are nothing to do with the USA.
When Hillary Clinton heard about the appalling death of Gaddafi by being bayoneted in the rectum, she laughed and clapped her hands in glee saying, "we came we saw and he died" I wonder professor, what character from story books you would liken Clinton to. I hold no brief for Trump, but he is after all a candidate with no political baggage to his name and the specter of 'war criminal' can't be levied against him. We don't know what Trump would do as president. Probably not much. But we do know that within the first year of her office, Clinton will be up to her neck in wars and strife in other people's countries.
If ever there was a shrill woman I suggest Samantha Power tops the bill and she leaves Zakhrova standing. The statement Power came out with a short while ago when she said Assad was trying to get most of Syria for himself, was mind boggling. Samantha power treats stupidity as though it were a virtue!
Khodarenok fails to mention that the Syrian government with Russian air support are not just fighting a few head chopping terrorists. They are in fact fighting the 'West' which is arming, supporting and financing the terrorists either directly or through middle East proxies. It should be pointed out to Khodarenok that America and her allies have been been bombing and fighting in Iraq for years and have poured millions of dollars into this country in arms, logistics and finance, but they still haven't yet overcome the terrorists there. I don't know if the American government is openly acknowledging arming terrorists, but over here in the UK its openly admitted. I watched a parliamentary committee over here in the UK recently, where the defense secretary and his side kicks made no secret of the fact that we British are providing heavy vehicle mounted machine guns for terrorists in Syria. These are of course the so called nice or moderate terrorists. A point made in this defense committee briefing was not that we had supplied the weapons, but that we were not following up with a more and plentiful supply of ammunition for them!
These political debates are like gladiators performing in a Roman arena. They seem to me to be a form of mass spectator sport. Unfortunately this ghastly trend seems to have found its way over here in the UK. Up until quite recently in the UK we never had any kind of TV debates, but the candidates for the main political parties each had a short time slot on all TV channels where they were able to put their case to the electorate in their own way without any audience or questions. The time they had was short (about 5 minutes) so they had to get on with explaining their policy and there was little time for them to hector the other political parties. this system was probably not perfect but at least the voter could have an idea of what the candidate had to offer.
Come on professor, you do the support for global warming a disservice when you make outlandish claims that the earth has never been this hot in the last 100,000 years. Archeologists have barely scratch the surface of twenty thousand years ago let alone a hundred thousand. I don't know about the weather in the good old US of A but over here in the UK we have had chilly summers for five years or more.
You are right as usual professor, but you miss out the most important point about death by terrorism. The deaths you mention don't give the state the excuse to have mass surveillance and a reason for a staggering military budget. Terrorists and paedophiles are the very life blood for mass surveillance and heaven sent for the state. If they didn't exist they would have to be invented. All the deaths you cite combined don't give succour to the state machine of control like a few deaths from a terrorist's attack. The media of course, go along with it. The annual published figures for road deaths will get an hours scrutiny from the media, but a terrorists bomb will get wall to wall coverage for days and that's even when no one is killed.
Professor, in your excellent piece you leave out the one thing that matters most and that is, "why are the public at large taken in by this stuff"? I have an average British education and I make no claim to have any superior intellect than anyone else, but I see how silly it looks when Clinton constantly refers to Putin this and Putin that. The same applies to wild statements made by Trump. Are the public so ill informed that they just can't see the absurdity of media and politician's claims which bear no reality to whats is really happening? The public seem like a flock of sheep to be herded by the farmer's dog into any way the farmer wants them to go. What kind of democracy is it when the individual voter can be so easily manipulated?
The cease fire is unlikely last as the positions of the two warring parties is not going to change. The Russians want to keep Assad or an acceptable successor and the so called moderate terrorists, we British and the Americans want the Assad government to go completely. The complaint against Assad is that he has not been elected, but neither have the moderate terrorists supported by the West. The whole thing could well end in some terrible conflagration. As Marx once said; great historical events happen twice. First as a tragedy and second as a farce. The farce of Iraq and Libya is there for all to see after the tragedy. The tragedy of Yemen is still unfolding as it is with the Ukraine. I don't put much store on quotations from the bible, but that one about "man will one day destroy himself" still seems plausible.
Professor, everything you report an say in your interesting piece, screams out "come back Saddam" "come back Gadaffi" and keep at it Assad, all is forgiven" ! The old proverb "let sleeping dogs lie" is a good one when it comes to spreading democracy to places that have no real use for it. Then there is the other proverb, "the devil you know is better than.................
The fact is, America, Turkey, we British, Saudi Arabia etc are breaking international law by being in Syria at all. It seems to me we are like a flock of vultures tearing at the rotting carrion which is what is left of Syria. We all want a bit of the carcass for ourselves.
I personally loathe religion but does this give me the right to demand that people who wear a crucifix around their neck should take it off because it offends me? I cannot imagine why anyone would care what someone else is wearing. One should always be careful what powers you give the state as you might get what you wish for and regret it. Logically, if its just the clothing that's at issue, then those participating in sub-aqua sports have got a problem.