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A thought for the Fourth of July: Can the U.S. Constitution accommodate a rogue president?
On Monday, June 12, in his first public cabinet meeting, Trump is seen accepting a North-Korean-style pledge from his sycophant cabinet members, on live television, after he had praised himself profusely. This was eerie: Watching all these secretaries humiliating themselves in lavishly praising the self-appointed ‘Great One.’ They all echoed Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus, who said: “We thank you for the opportunity and blessing to serve your agenda.” This was quite a totalitarian show, rarely seen in a democracy, but common in a dictatorship. Continue reading
From the Trump administration, expect an erratic flip-flop foreign policy, a return to gunboat diplomacy and more illegal wars of aggression
Another terrible war crime against Syrian civilians has taken place in Syria, on top of multiple war crimes committed in that country torn apart by six years of a civil war marked by foreign interventions. On Tuesday, April 4, 2017, a chemical attack killed more than 70 people, including women and children. No neutral official investigation has yet taken place, but two versions of events have surfaced. Continue reading
What to expect from the Trump administration: A protectionist and pro-corporate American government
Presidential candidate Donald Trump raised the hopes of many Americans when he criticized his political opponents for their close ties to Wall Street and, above all, when he promised to ‘drain the swamp’ in Washington, D.C. He may still fulfill that last promise, but as the quote above indicates, he may have to fight House Republicans on that central issue. Candidate Trump also raised the hopes of many when he promised to end costly wars abroad and to concentrate rather on preventing jobs from moving offshore, on creating more middle-class jobs at home and on preventing the American middle class from shrinking any further. Continue reading
The Trump revolution in the United States: What could the new president’s Herculean works be?
There has just been a generational political earthquake in the United States and the after shocks are potentially going to be huge. Indeed, on November 8, 2016, against all odds, the Republican candidate Donald Trump (1946- ) was elected to serve as the 45th American president, repeating ad nauseam his main slogan, “Make America Great Again.” He will be the first American president since Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) to occupy the White House without having personal political experience. Continue reading
The new immoral age: How technology offers new ways of killing people and of destroying the world
We not only live in the computer and digital age, we also live in a profoundly immoral age, in which the use of violence against people has become easily justifiable, nearly routinely, either for religious, military or security reasons. Continue reading
The 2016 U.S. election: A possible repeat of the 1964 election?
The way this 2016 American presidential election is unfolding, there is a good chance that it could be a repeat of the 1964 U.S. election. In both instances, a Democratic presidential candidate is facing a flawed and frightening Republican presidential candidate who multiplies provocative and reckless statements and off-hand comments. Continue reading
Ten reasons why Bill and Hillary Clinton do not deserve a third term in the White House
Polls indicate that most of the 2016 U.S. presidential candidates, with a few exceptions, have more than 50 % negative ratings. Also, poll after poll, after poll show that most Americans are dissatisfied with the way things are, and some are even outspokenly “angry” at the current situation. The polls also indicate a high degree of polarization. Continue reading
The lies, fabrications and forgeries of the Bush-Cheney administration to go to war against Iraq, for oil and for Israel
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has rendered a great service to the truth and to historians in stating publicly, on Saturday, February 13, 2016, what most people by now know, i.e., that the US-led war of aggression against Iraq, in March 2003, was not only illegal under international law, it was also an exercise in pure deceptive propaganda, and it was promoted thanks to well-documented lies, fabrications and forgeries. Continue reading
Financial turmoil and increasing risks of a severe worldwide economic recession in 2016-17
The onset of 2016 has been most chaotic for global financial markets with, so far, a severe stock market correction. As a matter of fact, the first month of 2016 has witnessed the most severe drop in financial stocks ever, with the MSCI All-Country World Stock Index, which measures major developed and emerging stock markets, dropping more than 20 percent, as compared to early 2015. For sure, there will be oversold rallies in the coming weeks and months, but one can expect more trouble ahead. Continue reading
A confused situation as to Syria and ISIS
The chaotic situation in Syria, a country of 22 million, source of some 220,000 Syrian deaths and of between 6 to 8 million refugees fleeing to Europe, is most confusing. Continue reading
International Islamist terrorism: It’s more than a mere question of semantics
Early in January, it was widely reported that President Barack Obama’s staff had said that for him or his vice president not joining other heads of state in the largest rally in the history of Paris to protest the carnage done by Islamist terrorists in their attacks against journalists and against French Jews, had been a “mistake,” made by an “unnamed senior White House staff.” Continue reading
2015: A pivotal year for economic and financial crises and wars?
These days, militaristic neoconservatives, or neocons, have near complete control of the American government under the façade of whoever is president at the time. They direct U.S. policies at the State Department, at the Pentagon, at the U.S. Treasury and at the Fed central bank. They are thus in position to influence and frame American foreign policy, military policy, economic and financial policies and monetary policy. Continue reading
The vicious politico-religious Sunni-Shi’ite civil war that the U.S. has ignited in Iraq and in Syria
When the U.S. administration of George W. Bush (2001-2009) decided to illegally invade militarily the country of Iraq and overthrow the Sunni government of Saddam Hussein, against the advice of many thinking persons, it opened a “Pandora Box” of woes that is still spewing out its calamities today, and probably will for many years to come. This is the first and foremost cause of the current quagmire prevailing in Iraq and in Syria today. Continue reading
Bill Clinton’s three crucial neocon-inspired decisions that led to three major crises in our times
An eye-popping new book has alleged that U.S. President Bill Clinton had his White House phones tapped in real time, for the benefit of the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The book also reveals how the Israeli prime minister could have used taped conversations of the American president regarding Mr. Clinton’s 1990s sexual scandal in the White House, to exert pressure on him to release from prison a convicted Israeli spy, Jonathan Pollard, who had been arrested in 1985, for espionage against the United States. In fact, the Israeli surveillance activities in the United States may be very widespread. Continue reading
The blundering Obama administration and its apparent incoherent foreign policy
Am I alone in having the uneasy feeling, while listening to Barack Obama’s speeches, that we are witnessing an actor playing the role of an American president and carefully reading the script he has been given? Continue reading
The Bush-Obama’s neocon foreign policy of isolating Russia and of expanding NATO is a dismal failure
The hazards associated with American foreign policy since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 should appear obvious to all, because it is precisely this policy that has caused the crisis in Ukraine with all its negative consequences for the coming months and years. Continue reading
Attacks against Syria: Another illegal war based on manipulation and false pretenses?
The Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad has categorically denied that it launched a poison chemical attack on August 21, 2013, against its own civilian population. Rather, it has pointed to Syrian rebels who are alleged to have recently carried out three such chemical weapon attacks against Syrian soldiers in the same area of the country. Continue reading
Surveillance, secrecy and control in the age of Big Brother
Some American presidents reveal their true character only during their second terms. Without the obligation to campaign for a re-election and with leaks of past misbehavior, the mask of pretense falls and the person’s true colors show. Then more inappropriate behavior and abuse of power follow and scandal tends to pile upon scandal. Continue reading
The real Obama is bent on killing innocent people with remote-controlled drones
When Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney in the 2012 U.S. presidential election, there was hope that the newly reelected president would show his true colors during his second term, not having to run again and having nothing to lose by being himself. Continue reading
The Iraq war fiasco, ten years later
This month marks the 10th anniversary of the decision by the Bush-Cheney administration to invade the country of Iraq and initiate what can be called a war of choice. This is a good time to briefly look back at this unsavory historical episode. Continue reading
The U.S. Congress: From one crisis to another
One crisis averted, three to come! Indeed, that’s what can be said after the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on January 23, 2013, to suspend the government’s statutory borrowing limit for three months. Continue reading
The five pillars of the growing inequality in the U.S.
On November 6, 2012, American voters chose not to entrust their central government to ultra-conservative billionaires and their candidates, and they rejected their anti-government, low taxation and no regulation ideology. Continue reading
A four-more-years mandate for Barack Obama: A new opportunity
American voters must be congratulated for their democratic decision in this 2012 election for giving President Barack Obama a second chance, even if it was done within a close margin. Continue reading
Why are things crumbling around us . . . and could easily get worse?*
I believe that we live presently in what I would call a semi-civilized world; and I would like to demonstrate it. Continue reading
The corrupt influence of money in the American political system
The 2012 U.S. presidential election is the first one to be held under the new electoral financing rule decreed by a majority of five on the Roberts Supreme Court on January 21, 2010. With this fateful decision, the Roberts Supreme Court really changed the meaning of the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution that says, “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union . . .” and decided on its own to change it for “We, the rich corporations of America . . .” Continue reading
Of candidates and negative campaigning
In current American politics, money and wars of aggression abroad seem to rule the day. When a candidate’s fortune turns sour, the natural reflex is to spend millions in negative ads to destroy adversaries and/or to issue hawkish policy statements with the promise to start new wars abroad and even to rekindle old ones. The motto seems to be that “If you destroy me with your negative ads; I will destroy you with mine.” This is truly amazing. Continue reading
The end of the Bush-Cheney disaster in Iraq
The Obama administration officially put an end to the Iraq war on Thursday December 15, 2011, close to nine years after the March 20, 2003, military invasion of Iraq, dubbed “shock-and-awe.” Continue reading
Financial black holes and economic stagnation: An explanation
Presently, one has the net impression that today’s governments, both in Europe and in the United States, have their fingers plugging the holes in the financial dike, but fear that that the entire dam could collapse in the not too distant future with dire economic consequences. Continue reading
The five macro crises of our times
Our world has become very complex and, as a consequence, it is increasingly open to macro crises of huge proportions. Continue reading
A few important causes of the decline of the United States of America
Around the world, many are baffled by what’s happening to the United States. It seems that all at once the wheels are going off the cart. The American economy is in the doldrums, the American political system is dysfunctional and paralyzed, and a series of elective, far away foreign wars is ruining the country. Continue reading
The aim should be to restore confidence and avoid a global economic depression
Financial markets show signs that they have lost confidence in politicians both in the U.S. and in Europe. They have reached the conclusion that those presently in charge are not on top of things, and that either they don’t understand the current economic problems their countries face or they lack the will or ability to bring forth the bold economic policies that would be required to solve them. Continue reading
The imperial presidency of Donald Trump: A threat to American democracy and an agent of chaos in the world?
Posted on February 17, 2017 by Dr. Rodrigue Tremblay
When 46.1% of Americans who voted, in November 2016, to elect a real estate magnate in the person of Donald Trump as U.S. president, they did not know precisely what they were buying, because, as the quote above says, we really know how a politician will behave only once he or she assumes power. Americans surely did not expect that the promised “change” the Republican presidential candidate envisioned and promised was going to be, in fact, “chaos” and “turmoil” in the U.S. government. Continue reading →