World

The Trump administration has appointed a new U.S. special envoy for Venezuela, Elliot Abrams. If that name rings a bell it’s because oh, about 30 years ago, Mr. Abrams was convicted of lying to...

If there is one lesson both the United States and the UK have learned since 2016, it’s that a controversial election won by a narrow margin of votes can be disastrous. Theresa May’s government has seen a tumultuous fallout since the Brexit vote and in America, the very foundations of democracy have been shaken to the core by the election of Donald Trump — which is why it is fascinating, to say the least, that more evidence has come to light that both elections were manipulated, and in concert, by a mere handful of players with right-wing nationalist philosophies: to wit, Robert Mercer, Steve Bannon, British banker Aaron Banks, and not so far out there in the shadows, Nigel Farage and Vladimir Putin. New Yorker: Emma Briant, an academic expert on disinformation at George Washington University, has unearthed new e-mails that appear to reveal the earliest documented role played by Bannon in Brexit. The e-mails, which date back to October of 2015, show that Bannon, who was then the vice-president of Cambridge Analytica, an American firm largely owned by the U.S. hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer, was in the loop on discussions taking place at the time between his company and the leaders of Leave.EU, a far-right nationalist organization. The following month, Leave.EU publicly launched a campaign aimed at convincing British voters to support a referendum in favor of exiting the European Union. Leave.EU was the brainchild of UK financier Aaron Banks. Refresh your recollection of Banks. He has a Russian-born wife, a vanity license plate, “X MI5 SPY,” and he spent over eight million British pounds to finance the Brexit referendum, the largest donation in British campaign history. Russia tantalized him with opportunities in gold and diamond mines, and in consideration of that, Banks acted as a pass through for funds coming from Russia and successfully financed Brexit on its behalf. Then Banks met with the newly elected Trump, also in 2016, and then again right after that with Russian ambassador to Britain Alexander Yakovenko, and so on and so forth. The paw of Putin is easily found in both 2016 election interference and Brexit. New York Times, June 29, 2018: “From what we’ve seen, the parallels between the Russian intervention in Brexit and the Russian intervention in the Trump campaign appear to be extraordinary,” said Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “The Russians were apparently dangling gold mines and diamond mines and financial incentives behind one of the largest backers of Brexit,” he added. […] On Nov. 12, 2016, Mr. Banks met President-elect Trump in Trump Tower. Upon his return to London, Mr. Banks had another lunch with the Russian ambassador where they discussed the Trump visit. Now, new emails have been unearthed which show that Banks, who was in charge of the Leave.EU campaign, met with Cambridge Analytica executives in 2015 to discuss what Banks called a “two-stage process” that would “get CA on the team.” Banks wrote, “It’s clear that major donors are sitting on the fence, but we aim to do something about that.” Banks returns to the topic later in the note, adding, “We would like CA to come up with a strategy for fund raising in the states and engaging companies and special interest groups that […]

These are dark days, there’s no doubt about it. Like Sauron in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Trump has cast his dark cloud over the entire land. Pundits, and even some Democratic presidential candidates are calling the 2020 election more than just an election, they’re casting it as the apocalyptic battle for the soul of the country. They will tell you that democracy itself is at stake. But is it really? Maybe, but if His Lowness has spread his dark, noxious cloud o’er the land, there are some pretty big patches of blue breaking through up there, enough to at least give us hope. For starters, our own 2018 midterms. The Democrats not only shook off their famous midterm apathy with their voting base, they shook off the 2016 apathy, and the rampant despondence that followed Trump’s coronation. And 2020 is looking positive so far as well. Grassroots activism is high, fund raising is healthy, recruitment for candidates seems strong, and both issue awareness, and voter intensity is high. But regardless of Trump’s anti American “America First” policy, and despite the best efforts of Rupert Murdoch and his merry band of sycophants at FOX News, we don’t live in a self contained bubble, and we never have. Only Trombies have the luxury of willful, perpetual ignorance. But if you’ve been looking outside of our own news in the last week, there have been three developments that show us not only how important it is to be an American, and a proud one at that, but how important Americs still is to the rest of the world, in spite of Trump’s desperate machinations. The first one has been going on for a while, but the other two are new. Here they are, for your consideration. The first one is immigration. Donald Trump has done everything but sign an Executive Order formally declaring war on anyone south of El Paso. Trump and his jackbooted thugs have thrown them into cages, separated parents from their children, and then sent the children off to live with strangers, with no plans or ability to reunite them with their parents. He’s made them sleep on cold concrete floors and drink from toilets. He has forced them to remain in cramped, even dangerous conditions in Mexico for weeks on end, before even beginning to fill out their asylum paperwork. Jesus, he even had his agents lob tear gas into a foreign country to try to break up a protest. And still they come. They come because they believe. They believe in America, and everything it represents. They come because no matter how much Trump vilifies them, no matter how much hatred he stirs up against them, no matter what trials and trials he puts them through, it’s still better than what they face at home. And they come because they know that America is more than just one man, no matter how bad he may be. It’s now up to us to show them that their trust and belief was not misplaced. The second, more recent developments are taking place a half a world away, in President Bone spur’s favorite playpen. For multiple weeks now, Moscow has been rocked by massive weekend pro democracy protests in the streets. Did you catch the operative word in that last sentence? They are having pro democracy protests in Moscow. Yeah, you […]

4th ever USA title. The average salary for a #USMNT player is $263,320. The MAX salary for a #USWNT player is $99,000. And the latter just scored their second consecutive World Cup championship.  Now...

Presidential historian Jon Meachem said Donald Trump’s performance at the NATO breakfast reminded him of “a guy at the end of the bar with a bee in his bonnet and he’s already had four beers.” Right after Trump spoke a Munich newspaper’s headline blared “It is not only bad, it is catastrophic,” and even a […]

Trump’s desire to withdraw half of the current US forces from Afghanistan immediately makes mistakes similar to his reckless Syrian force withdrawal. Trump’s wagging the dog may only ever be about wagging, as the nation gets...

As Hurricane Florence heads towards the U.S. mainland and evacuation orders are being issued by states on its path, the Orange Occupant of the White House decided to pretend to be Presidential and exhibit concern for those folks being affected by...

Dryad Maritime, a  maritime intelligence company, to provide specialist navigation and risk mitigation services for vessels transiting or coming alongside in high risk areas, has assessed the incident in the Gulf of Oman reported this morning and, unlike Pompeo, is not pointing it’s finger at Iran. Hellenic Shipping News “Incidents of this nature in relative close proximity […]

He’s a mess. Cry or laugh because this is our reality. Trump is unable to tackle the most simple of tasks of his presidency, signing his name. For the signing ceremony of his NAFTA agreement,...

We have now entered some interesting speculative territory that is being reported in Turkey and via CNN and MSNBC. Sensing the possibility of foul play, Jamal Khashoggi set his watch up to record before he stepped...