Amid all the general gloom I found this exchange rather encouraging…… Read more
Category:
US Politics
The Irish, the US a Personal Journey with implications for the GFA and the Backstop.
You get nowhere in America if you do not understand that Ireland is in the warp and weft of the Republic. It is the other story from that of the Pilgrim Fathers. Bonnie Greer -Full Article here. Introduction The relationship between Ireland an the US has been described as a 250 year love affair, with… Read more
Policy priorities: a stark contrast from the US of A
Last Friday I was interested to watch a segment of The Rachel Maddow Show (TRMS) – a US news and current affairs programme on MSNBC which I’ve mentioned before on this blog – which contrasted the policy agenda of the incoming Democrat Congress (i.e. the House of Representatives) with that of the previous Republican controlled… Read more
‘Trafficking in unreality’: Trump takes the US further down the road to authoritarianism
Perhaps understandably the UK media’s daily reporting on Donald Trump was dominated yesterday (Wednesday) by the release of a recording of a conversation between Trump and his (ex) personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. The recording provided irrefutable evidence that Trump has been lying since before the Presidential election about what he did or did not know… Read more
Putin, Trump and ‘treason’: what now for the US (and UK)?
Much has been written in the media worldwide about the astonishing press conference President Trump gave with Vladimir Putin yesterday. I say astonishing because having watched a variety of clips, and read numerous reports, the gravity of what unfolded cannot be overstated. In front of the world’s media a President of the United States took… Read more
Why a Universal Basic Income might shore up Neoliberalism
I occasionally read what the ex New York Times journalist, Chris Hedges, writes as it is always well written and usually hard hitting. This piece is no exception and I was drawn to it because he is railing against the idea of a Universal Basic Income – something which, although I’d prefer it were called… Read more
Wake up America! Trumpism and the road to Putin’s ‘managed’ democracy (a warning from history)
We all know by now that Trump and anyone on his ‘team’ – which includes almost every Republican member of Congress – are extremely uncomfortable talking about anything to do with Russia. Indeed, so all encompassing is this phobia that the President still finds it impossible to admit that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections,… Read more
Desperation and shame: Theresa May and the Liar in Chief
So now we know, the details of Donald Trump’s much derided State Visit to the UK are being ‘finalised’ for later in 2018. This after Trump and May had a short meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos, at which Trump declared the US and UK to be ‘joined at the hip’. We also… Read more
Brexit Tories take another page from the Trumpian-Republican playbook
There can’t be many rational people who don’t see the similarities between the Brexit wing of the Tory Party and the Trumpian version of the Republican Party. There are the similarities between leading figures, Trump and Boris Johnson being the obvious one: apart from the rather silly blond hair styles both are egotists and liars… Read more
‘Democracy in Chains’: a US export that’s not as new as some might claim
On Wednesday I read George Monbiot’s most recent column in The Guardian* in which he briefly discusses James McGill Buchanan, a man who features prominently in US historian Nancy MacLean’s new book, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America. As Monbiot notes, McLean’s book makes what has previously… Read more