13
   

Monitoring Biden and other Contemporary Events

 
 
blatham
 
  4  
Reply Sun 21 Jan, 2024 10:32 am
@hightor,
That is a particularly good post from her.
blatham
 
  5  
Reply Sun 21 Jan, 2024 11:48 am
Trump in campaign speech yesterday...

Quote:
Theres a great man in Europe. Viktor Orbán… He’s a very strong man. It’s nice to have a strongman running your country
Walter Hinteler
 
  5  
Reply Sun 21 Jan, 2024 11:55 am
@blatham,
As Trump faced criminal charges, the Hungarian Prime Minister publicly supported him. More recently, he congratulated Trump on his victory after the first Republican caucuses in Iowa.

Hungary does not support the Ukraine with weapons and blocks EU financial aid.
On Oct. 17, 2023, Orban personally met with Vladimir Putin in China, and after criticizing the EU and the United States, he said he was "proud" of the meeting.

‘Dictators love other dictators’ is trending on social media.
blatham
 
  4  
Reply Sun 21 Jan, 2024 02:02 pm
@Walter Hinteler,
Quote:
‘Dictators love other dictators’ is trending on social media.


Also trending in the real world.
0 Replies
 
hightor
 
  2  
Reply Sun 21 Jan, 2024 02:13 pm
@blatham,
Opening up her email every morning is a treat and so is sharing it with A2K.
Rebelofnj
 
  5  
Reply Sun 21 Jan, 2024 02:43 pm
Ron DeSantis ends presidential campaign, endorses Trump

Quote:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Sunday ended his once-promising presidential campaign, which steadily deflated as he struggled to connect with voters and convince Republicans to swap Donald Trump for a younger, more disciplined champion of his ideas.

DeSantis, 45, had seemed to many Republicans like the most viable challenger to Trump after the 2022 midterms, when the governor won reelection by a landslide. But he started to lose ground in polling even before his official campaign launch in May — via a glitchy live chat that neatly embodied the way his grand plans were going awry.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/21/ron-desantis-drops-out/

DeSantis has been campaigning for months, even forcing Florida State Legislature to change laws so that he can run for President without resigning as Governor, and he still crashed and burned.

Now he can either go back to Florida and deal with his state's insurance problems (plus the whole Disney legal situation he created and didn't leave well enough alone)...or he will presumably take the vice president ticket and run with Trump (which seems very likely).
hightor
 
  3  
Reply Sun 21 Jan, 2024 02:53 pm
Boris Johnson: Trump’s return could be ‘big win for the world’

Quote:
Former United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson has endorsed Donald Trump to be the next president of the United States, arguing the controversial former leader might just be “what the world needs” right now — so long as Trump supports Ukraine in its war against Russia.

“We all need to grow up and get used to the prospect,” the former British leader wrote Friday in his weekly Daily Mail column. “If he does the right thing and backs the Ukrainians — and I believe he will — a Trump presidency can be a big win for the world.”

NATO-skeptic Trump — who has repeatedly lavished praise on the bellicose Russian President Vladimir Putin — has sparked fears in Kyiv that he would withdraw U.S. military aid for Ukraine; such concerns are echoed in other Western capitals. But Johnson disagrees.

The globe needs a leader “whose willingness to use force and sheer unpredictability is a major deterrent to the enemies of the West” who is “an enthusiastic exponent of free markets and capitalism” and who is interested in a “proper free trade deal with the U.K.”

And Trump is “your man,” Johnson said.

Johnson, who was forced out as U.K. prime minister in summer 2022, has remained a staunch ally of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, even visiting the Ukrainian capital in January 2023.

Last year, Johnson took his lobbying overseas, turning up in Texas to rouse support for Ukraine among dozens of leading American conservative figures including politicians, donors and captains of industry. Johnson was attempting to curb growing discontent among Republicans over America’s financial support for Ukraine.

In his column, Johnson wrote that Trump was the first U.S. president to stand up for Ukraine, giving them “those Javelin anti-tank weapons” in 2018 which were “so valuable” in the battle for Kyiv.

“So whatever they now say about President Trump, I cannot believe that he will want to go down in history as the President who abandoned a country that he has already signally helped to keep free,” Johnson wrote.

“So to all my high-minded anti-Trump friends I say, calm down, folks,” he added. “The more you froth and fret, the more determined his supporters will be — and a Trump victory will continue to migrate from possibility to likelihood to nailed-on certainty.”

Johnson joins Trump’s longtime supporter, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, on a short list of European leaders who would welcome the return of the former president to the top political ranks. Orbán has repeatedly expressed his support for Trump, even sporting a red hat signed by the firebrand Republican front-runner last year.

But outside of these outliers, the European Union elite has for the most part been dreading Trump’s potential return to the White House.
NATO-skeptic Trump — who has repeatedly lavished praise on the bellicose Russian President Vladimir Putin — has sparked fears in Kyiv that he would withdraw U.S. military aid for Ukraine | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde recently warned that Trump’s reelection would be a “threat” to Europe; Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said that Europe would be left “on its own”; and the ghost of the ex-president haunted political and business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week.

But despite the the international community’s reticence, Trump is inching ever closer to a showdown with incumbent U.S. President Joe Biden in November’s election.

He recently landed his first victory of the primary season in the Iowa caucuses, winning by a large margin and cementing his status as the candidate to beat. Johnson poked fun at the “hysterics” and panicked reaction that followed Trump’s recent win.

“In the cocktail parties of Davos, I am told, the global wokerati have been trembling so violently that you could hear the ice tinkling in their negronis,” he joked.

“Yes, folks, the great orange dirigible is miraculously re-inflating across the Atlantic,” he wrote. “The pachydermous human bouncy castle is rising again. Following his sweeping victory in Iowa, Donald Trump is now the overwhelming favourite to be the Republican nominee, and odds on to take the Presidency.” source

blatham
 
  2  
Reply Sun 21 Jan, 2024 03:00 pm
@hightor,
Quote:
Opening up her email every morning is a treat and so is sharing it with A2K.

Yes! For me, she is one of the most valuable voices around. And she certainly is not a lazy individual. I don't know who - in any field - I respect more.
blatham
 
  3  
Reply Sun 21 Jan, 2024 03:06 pm
@hightor,
Quote:
Boris Johnson: Trump’s return could be ‘big win for the world’

I started to read that this morning and got through the first sentence of the second paragraph when my level of disgust was so great I just closed the window.
0 Replies
 
Lash
 
  -2  
Reply Sun 21 Jan, 2024 03:18 pm
@Rebelofnj,
Nimrata steps up.
0 Replies
 
Bogulum
 
  4  
Reply Sun 21 Jan, 2024 03:37 pm
@blatham,
I ground my teeth through every minute, but I forced myself to watch clips of Trump's latest "rally speeches".

His slip from reality and reason has gotten so pronounced it even shocked ME a little - and I've ALWAYS thought he was a crazy ************. I mean, when he was standing there saying Nikki Haley could have protected the Capitol on 1/6, I really think in his fetid swamp of a mind he could not tell Pelosi and Haley apart. I used to think he knew he was lying when he said he had offered Pelosi 200 National Guardsmen on 1/6, but now I can't tell if he's got anything straight in his head about what happened.

What gets me is his followers. This jagoff still has tens of millions of people people who will vote for him, and it blows my mind.

Do you have any conservative/republican friends or acquaintances who can view that disheveled, confused, evil lunatic spouting inanities, and who can then turn to you and say, "that's my guy!"? I don't personally know anyone - but then again, I cut ties with any who even might be for awhile now.

And if you know anyone like that, what can you say to them?
Region Philbis
 
  3  
Reply Sun 21 Jan, 2024 04:07 pm
@Bogulum,
Quote:
what can you say to them?
nothing.

they're riding that crazy train to the bitter end...
0 Replies
 
hingehead
 
  6  
Reply Sun 21 Jan, 2024 04:54 pm
@Rebelofnj,
Best commentary on DeSantis' dropout:


Santiago Mayer
@santiagomayer_
Ron DeSantis should be forced to carry his presidential campaign to term
6:04 AM · Jan 22, 2024
·
1M
Views
bobsal u1553115
 
  2  
Reply Sun 21 Jan, 2024 05:56 pm
@hingehead,
Beat me to it.
0 Replies
 
bobsal u1553115
 
  1  
Reply Sun 21 Jan, 2024 06:00 pm
@Rebelofnj,
He's running for AG? Sec of Education? FBI? Buttkisser?
0 Replies
 
blatham
 
  3  
Reply Sun 21 Jan, 2024 07:08 pm
@Bogulum,
Quote:
Do you have any conservative/republican friends or acquaintances who can view that disheveled, confused, evil lunatic spouting inanities, and who can then turn to you and say, "that's my guy!"? I don't personally know anyone - but then again, I cut ties with any who even might be for awhile now.

And if you know anyone like that, what can you say to them?

Region's response is the correct response. Even here in Canada, there are pro-Trump folks - simply because they are very poorly educated and attend to the same or similar media sources. They are proud of their "independence of mind" and their brave stand against "group think".

They are really quite like the Shroud of Turin believers who have bought into the certainty that the Shroud covered Jesus after crucifixion and that the image on the Shroud resulted from Jesus' ascension. A couple of decades ago, these folks managed to have a small segment of the Shroud carbon-dated to prove their belief. However, the test showed that the Shroud was dated as from 1260-1390. How did they handle this news? They discounted it because, they said, modern science is incapable of accounting for the energies released during ascension to Heaven and how that could corrupt the carbon dating reading.
0 Replies
 
Real Music
 
  3  
Reply Mon 22 Jan, 2024 06:09 am
@Lash,
Quote:
This is about me mentioning that Pakistan is considered unstable?
Giving what I consider to be accurate context or a different opinion about charges against Trump?

No, I don’t think he’s the greatest scourge of humanity. He shouldn’t be a presidential candidate, but that is owed to the stupid plans of Hillary Clinton and the voting public’s utter disgust with her and Democrats. If Democrats served the needs of the public in any way, Trump would have n e v e r gotten near the Oval Office.

________________

Your level of argumentation has failed so utterly because your allegiance to your favored political candidate forces you to defend one of the worst people to ever hold public office in the US. It’s an impossible chore to defend him.

Or Democrats.

Or Trump.

Or Republicans.

It’s too damn hard a job. You can’t do it with a straight face. If I was still stuck in that duopoly bullshit, I’d be incredibly frustrated too. Forced to lie and cover for disgusting people. Gross. It’s gotta **** with your soul.

When Bernie was running, I was insufferable in my desperation to get you people to vote for him. At that point, I believed there was a chance to make the change that absolutely must be made to save this country from a decline into a variation of Nazi Germany.

You saw what happened to him.

I’m not desperate anymore. Electoralism won’t get us out of the mess we’re in. And I’m not going to waste my time trying to get you people to vote for Jill. I am proud of the work I did to get Greens on more ballots. I’m in contact with the Media guy who’s organizing some FreePalestine/Green protests locally. I’m donating to funds to pay bail for #StopCopCity protesters. I’m becoming educated about things an old lady with limited funds and energy can do to make a difference.

And what are you doing, Bob?
Does it have meaning for you?


There are two categories I've observed in your many years of political postings:


1. Category one is who or what you (downplay).

2. Category two is who or what you attack with persistence and tenacity.


From your many postings, Donald Trump, MAGAs, and the Republican Party as a whole, falls under category one for you. This is who and what you downplay.

From your many postings, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and the Democratic Party as a whole falls under category two for you. This is who and what you attack with persistence and tenacity.


This is not an attack on you. This is just an observation. If my assertions of what I've observe is incorrect, just say so.

I believe that you know what my political views and stances are. I am upfront and direct about my political views and political affiliations. I never try to hide my political views or my political affiliations. I've always let it be known that I am a Democrat and that for the most part, I agree with the Democratic Party.
0 Replies
 
bobsal u1553115
 
  2  
Reply Mon 22 Jan, 2024 06:46 am
https://i.imgflip.com/8ccgrn.jpg
0 Replies
 
bobsal u1553115
 
  1  
Reply Mon 22 Jan, 2024 07:26 am
Dr. Jürgen Knödlseder
@[email protected]

For my non German-speaking followers: several hundred thousand people are in the streets today in Germany to protest against fascism following the uncovering of deportation plans for migrants, foreigners and non-conform Germans projected by the AfD party #noafd


https://cdn.masto.host/astrodonsocial/media_attachments/files/111/789/280/486/546/281/small/9d25b43e2731e74c.jpeg
0 Replies
 
bobsal u1553115
 
  1  
Reply Mon 22 Jan, 2024 07:48 am
More than a million people in Germany demonstrate against the return of fascism

Marianne Arens, Christoph Vandreier
9 hours ago

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/01/22/7dec-j22.html

Well over a million people demonstrated across Germany over the weekend against the fascist Alternative for Germany (AfD). After it was revealed that politicians from the Values Union bloc between the AfD and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), together with business representatives, were discussing plans to expel millions of people with an immigrant background, masses of people took to the streets in dozens of cities.

Everywhere, the number of participants was many times higher than expected by the organisers. In Munich alone, over 200,000 people took to the streets. Leopoldstrasse and Ludwigstrasse were so crowded that there was a risk of suffocation. The organizers, who had expected 25,000 participants, canceled the march and urged the participants, via police announcements, to go home.
People hold up their cell phones as they protest against the AfD and right-wing extremism in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024. [AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi]

In Berlin, the organisers claimed 350,000 participants, while the police reported 100,000. The field in front of the Reichstag building was so densely packed that 17 June Street was declared part of the protest area. Originally, the organizers had registered only 1,000 participants.
More than 40,000 people demonstrated in Frankfurt on Saturday, January 20. The image shows a view of the crowded Römerberg.

The rallies also mobilized record numbers in Cologne (70,000 participants), Hamburg (80,000), Bremen (70,000), Frankfurt (40,000), Hanover (35,000), Dortmund (30,000), Stuttgart, Karlsruhe and Heidelberg (20,000 each), Halle and Kassel (15,000 each), and numerous smaller cities, where thousands of participants exceeded the expected number many times over. In eastern Germany, where the AfD is particularly high in the polls, up to 60,000 people participated in Leipzig, 40,000 in Dresden and 12,000 in Chemnitz.
In Cologne, over 70,000 people demonstrated at the Deutzer Werft on the Rhine on Sunday, January 21.

The demonstrations show the depth and breadth of opposition to the return of fascism and war within the German population. After the terrible experiences of two world wars and the Holocaust, the rejection of German imperialism and militarism is deeply rooted in the consciousness of the masses.

The demonstrations were dominated by homemade cardboard signs, with inscriptions such as: “That’s how it started back then,” “Now we have to do what our grandparents neglected,” “Hate is not an opinion,” “Whoever is silent agrees,” “Colorful instead of brown,” “Fascism is not an alternative,” and “Deport the AfD!”
Stuttgart: More than 20,000 demonstrated against the AfD on Schlossplatz on Saturday, January 20.

The mass mobilisation against the fascist AfD is also objectively directed against the right-wing policies of the federal government and all the parties in the Bundestag (Parliament), which only last week severely restricted the right of immigration and made deportations easier. The government and parliamentary parties are also implementing the AfD programme by supporting the genocide in Gaza, together with massive rearmament.

The demonstrations are part of an international movement of the working class against the policies of anti-immigrant chauvinism, austerity, dictatorship and war pursued by all capitalist parties.

For weeks, millions of people worldwide have been protesting against Israel’s genocide in Gaza which is actively supported by all imperialist governments. In France, 150,000 people took part in demonstrations on Sunday against Macron’s new immigration law, which bears the signature of the fascist Marine Le Pen. In Germany, large protests by farmers against the coalition government’s austerity policy are continuing, and a powerful strike movement of the working class is developing throughout Europe and worldwide.

But the demonstrations against the AfD are marked by a contradiction. While the majority of participants are resolute and serious in their opposition to right-wing politics, most of the protest organizers are doing everything they can to blunt the movement and subordinate it to the government and the parliamentary parties, which are themselves responsible for the rise of the AfD. In many places, representatives of the Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and CDU were invited to speak. Slogans such as “All together against the AfD” were intended to cover up the yawning gap between the right-wing policies of the government and the sentiment of the anti-fascist demonstrators.

At the demonstration in Flensburg, which was attended by 10,000 people, a speaker was interrupted by the organisers for criticising the government’s refugee policy. In various cities, the organizers banned Palestinian flags. In Berlin, there were repeated provocations against demonstrators who protested against the genocide in Gaza, which is strongly supported by the AfD. The group “PA Allies” reported that the demonstration organizers of “Fridays for the Future” (FFF) excluded them from the protest.

Many participants disagreed with the official pro-government orientation of the demonstrations.

Sophia, who works as a social worker in a refugee shelter, explained to the World Socialist Web Site in Cologne that in opposing the AfD she was also protesting against the government’s deportation policy. Deportations “have increased sharply and have become more inhumane,” she said.

Even protecting people’s health counts for nothing. “People who are pregnant or sick are deported,” she said. “I had an elderly woman with cancer who constantly had to go to oncology for treatment. She had been certified by the doctor as unable to travel, and she was nevertheless deported.” The Foreigners Agency in Cologne, Sophia said, simply ignores the existing laws.

On the adoption of the Repatriation Improvement Act last Thursday in the Bundestag, Sophia said, “They have only legalised what was already common practice.” She continued:

One of the affected groups now increasingly being deported is the Roma. They were also heavily persecuted under the Nazis. One would think they would be given special protection here in light of Germany’s historical responsibility. But that is not the case.

Bahar, who works in the public sector, also wanted to “make a statement against the AfD and right-wing extremism” by participating in the demonstration. But, as she emphasized:

If we only oppose the AfD and its racist politics but do nothing against the shift to the right in the middle of society—namely against what the CDU, FDP (Free Democratic Party) and SPD (Social Democratic Party) are propagating—then I think we have understood nothing about how right-wing politics finds its way into the “normal” party structures. If we exclude this from the debates and do not mention it, then we have a very poor chance of positioning ourselves as a society against the shift to the right.

Bahar with her poster: "Question for 23.8 million people: Will they deport us with Flixbus or Ryanair?"

At the demonstration in Berlin, Katharina told the WSWS that she sees a clear link between the government’s refugee policy and the rise of the AfD:

Here, hatred is blatantly directed against refugees and foreigners, and the problem is actually with politics. The government is partly to blame for the fact that these people have to flee.

She also criticized FFF for its solidarity with Israel, saying:

I find it difficult. One of the co-organisers is FFF, who have now distanced themselves sharply from Greta Thunberg. She correctly said that there is no climate justice on occupied land. Nevertheless, I think it is important to be represented here today. That does not mean that I now support every organizer. But I’m fully behind the reason why we’re standing here. But I can’t fight for climate justice and support genocide at the same time. It doesn’t go together.

She said she was convinced that it is necessary to confront the government to stop the far right:

Many people want to take a step back because they know that the German government supports Israel. Some dare not say anything against it. That’s where you should actually stand behind Greta in the organization.

Socialist Equality Party (Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei—SGP) representatives distributed thousands of copies of the statement “How can the far-right Alternative for Germany be beaten?” at demonstrations throughout the country, explaining how fascism develops out of capitalism. The statement declares:

The AfD is not a foreign body in an otherwise healthy organism but the worst symptom of a thoroughly sick system. Just like 90 years ago, the deepening capitalist crisis is once again leading to fascism and war.

The SGP is fighting to carry the struggle against the return of fascism into the working class and to arm it with a socialist program. To this end, the statement asserts:

It is important to develop these growing protests into an international movement against capitalism itself. Only if the power of the banks and corporations is broken and the basis for war and inequality is removed can the development towards dictatorship be stopped. This requires a struggle against the government and its pseudo-left appendages, which paralyse the struggles and defend capitalism.

https://www.wsws.org/asset/2aa5e799-e8bc-49b5-a580-de2cb6b3ade3?rendition=image1280

https://www.wsws.org/asset/9c0dccc5-f8f4-4601-bcf4-b36194a7cf9f?rendition=image1280

https://www.wsws.org/asset/a74150e7-1bc7-4a7b-9e76-fcd8afd5cb53?rendition=image1280

https://www.wsws.org/asset/bbea8c6a-97c8-4f49-89d7-a63e3bfee804?rendition=image1280
 

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