Emmanuel Macron

A Turning Point In International Relations: The French Presidential Election Today

Ronald 1 Comment

Today’s French Presidential election pits Emmanuel Macron, who has been President for the past five years, against Far Right candidate Marine Le Pen, who is closely associated with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It seems clear that this is a turning point in international relations, as Le Pen would be likely to support Putin, and even, likely, take France out of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), fatally weakening that defense alliance, and affecting US foreign policy.

The Russia-Ukraine War and what NATO and the United States do about it, is hanging in the balance.

And if Le Pen won, it could be a sign of the danger of Donald Trump or someone of his stripe being a major challenge to Joe Biden or whoever the Democrats would run for President in 2024, along with the possible effect on the Midterm Congressional and Gubernatorial elections of 2022.

Emmanuel Macron is not perfect, but no one is, but we all need to hold our breath and hope he wins for the future of international relations and US foreign policy!

Donald Trump Goes Off The Rails After Massive Repudiation By Voters On Election Day

Ronald 18 Comments

Donald Trump went off the rails more than usual after the massive repudiation by the voters on Election Day.

It seems impossible for Donald Trump to behave in words or actions during any 24 hour cycle.

After Tuesday’s results, Trump has done the following:

Sent thousands of military personnel to the US Mexico border, claiming wrongfully that Central American migrants, mostly women and children escaping violence and personal threats are carrying leprosy and smallpox, but not providing decent living conditions for soldiers waiting for a “caravan” which is not really such, and is no danger to the American national security, and wasting an estimated $200 to $300 million in the process.

Insulted several black women journalists at the press conference on Wednesday, including the renowned April Ryan.

Engaged in degrading behavior toward Jim Acosta of CNN, and suspended his right to participate in future press conferences, and his Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders created a fake video to try to demonstrate that Acosta was aggressive with a female Presidential aide.

Fired Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, and hired a flawed, biased Matthew Whitaker as Acting Attorney General, instead of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a move to destroy the Robert Mueller investigation.

Went to the commemoration of the centennial of the end of the First World War, and insulted veterans by not going to a cemetery outside of Paris because of the rain, and then went to a Paris ceremony separately, and left early from the events of the weekend to return home.

Promoted nationalism, which caused the First World War and the Second World War, and was repudiated by French President Emmanuel Macron, who called for a European Army to protect the continent from possible threats in the future, including Russia, China, and, get this, the United States under Donald Trump.

Condemned California for the horrendous forest fires that have devastated that state, and threatened to cut federal funding to deal with that issue, showing no understanding of nature and science.

Trump has insulted our European allies, veterans, firefighters, and our journalists who report the truth to keep us free and democratic.

Trump has displayed ever further his total lack of knowledge and understanding of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, diplomacy, history and science.

He has also shown yet again that he is a misogynist, a racist, a nativist, a super nationalist xenophobe, a threat to American democracy and the rule of law.

One Hundred Years Since End Of The First World War: Nothing Learned From Sacrifices Of That War, And Danger Of Another World War

Ronald 3 Comments

It has been precisely one hundred years, a full century, since the “Great War”, the First World War, ended on November 11, 1918. About 18 million military and civilians died in that war, as well as about 125,000 Americans, the second highest loss of life in America after the Civil War, and until the Second World War surpassed it, at least doubling the American loss of life in the First World War.

What Woodrow Wilson called “the war to end all wars” did anything but that, leading within a generation to the Second World War, followed by many other regional wars, and the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union from 1945-1991.

Now we have the age of world wide terrorism, and growing danger of another world war, and Donald Trump is in the midst of creating the conditions that would lead to this third World War.

America and the world have not learned from the sacrifices a century ago, as politics, religion, and egotism continue to cause conflict, and we are now moving closer to authoritarianism in the world than we have seen since the end of the Cold War a quarter century ago.

And Trump has disgraced the commemoration in France this weekend by failing to travel to a cemetery that contains many Americans and others who sacrificed for our nation a century ago.

And his promotion of extreme nationalism over patriotism has been rebuked appropriately by French President Emmanuel Macron.

This is a President who has not yet gone to a combat zone, as every other President has done, and is working to privatize the Department of Veterans Affairs, which would be a true disaster, and hopefully will be stopped by the 116th Congress, with a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.

Election Day 2018—Karma Is Due For Donald Trump, And The Future Of American Democracy Is At Stake!

Ronald 15 Comments

So now America has arrived at Election Day 2018, a time when Karma is due for Donald Trump, and the future of American democracy is at stake.

America has never been at a time of crisis as we are now, since the Great Depression and Pearl Harbor.

We have a mentally unhinged President, whose lackeys keep on serving him, and whose party has rejected their responsibility to keep the President in tow.

We have a group of Republican politicians who have besmirched the reputation and principles represented historically by Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and many past Republican Senators, Congressmen, and Governors, who promoted the end of slavery, the growth of corporate regulation and social justice, and acceptance of the best aspects of the New Deal and international alliances in the war against totalitarian government.

But now, the Republican Party represents the acceptance of totalitarianism, and rejection of international alliances against evil, and domestically of basic principles of social justice and common decency.

If the Democrats do not win control of at least the House of Representatives, and hopefully also the Senate, today, and if they do not take control of a majority of state governments, then the future is gloomy, and will be intolerable for millions of decent, hard working Americans, and particularly so for women, racial minorities, Jews, the disabled, and gays and lesbians.

The Constitution and Bill of Rights are endangered by a man who “loves” Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin and other dictators, and rejects the friendship and alliance of Justin Trudeau, Angela Merkel, Theresa May, Emmanuel Macron, and other leaders of democracies around the world.

Even if one is not traditionally “religious”, today is a time for prayer for the survival of the Republic we created nearly two and a half centuries ago, and now endangered by a mad man with no ethics, morals, or scruples!

Bob Corker And Jeff Flake Both Retiring, Should Use Their Influence On The Senate Foreign Relations Committee To Quell Donald Trump

Ronald 4 Comments

Two Republican Senators have decided not to run for reelection, and both have been critics of Donald Trump.

Bob Corker of Tennessee is the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, and Jeff Flake of Arizona is on the committee.

Both have no reason to cooperate with Donald Trump, now after this horrific week of foreign policy. We have witnessed the trashing of NATO and the European Union, and criticism of leaders of major allies, including Angela Merkel of Germany, Theresa May of Great Britain, Emmanuel Macron of France, and Justin Trudeau of Canada by Trump. At the same time, we have seen the praise and secret diplomacy of Trump with Vladimir Putin, causing an uproar, and now Trump’s invitation to Putin to come to the White House in the fall, possibly before the midterm elections, or alternately to witness the military parade ordered by Trump for Veterans Day, to be celebrated Saturday November 10 in Washington DC.

Corker and Flake, along with others, should denounce the Putin invitation and the wasted money on an unnecessary military parade, so that Donald Trump’s ego is further glorified.

The two Senators should do everything possible to make life for Trump more difficult, and should refuse to move forward on any policy, foreign or domestic, where their votes are needed to make a majority.

Both should order more subpoenas to require administration cabinet members to testify under oath, and make clear that they have declared war on the corrupt Presidency of Donald Trump!

Their leadership could make a difference in so many ways, and encourage more Senators on the Republican side to join them and the ill Senator John McCain of Arizona, and the principled Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, who has been a never ending critic of Donald Trump, and could face retribution when he faces his own reelection in 2020.

Of course, it is possible to imagine that Bob Corker, Jeff Flake, and Ben Sasse could end up challenging Trump for the Republican Presidential nomination of 2020 against Trump, or Vice President Mike Pence, were he to become President later in this term.

Trump-Putin Summit Clear Indication Of Treason, And Danger To Pursuit Of The Entire Truth Of The 2016 Presidential Election

Ronald 23 Comments

Watching the Trump-Putin Summit Press Conference in Helsinki, Finland, brings confirmation that the 45th President of the United States has committed, and continues to commit treason, favoring the Russian Federation over the national security interests of the United States.

Putin won just by the fact that Trump agreed to meet him, with Russia having a weak economy and suffering from economic sanctions put upon his nation by the international community after the invasion of the Crimean area of Ukraine in 2014.

Putin leads a country which has a very small Gross National Product, and has nuclear weapons that are a fraction of what the United States has, and yet Trump makes “friends” and “trusts” Putin, while denouncing Theresa May, Emmanuel Macron, Angela Merkel, and Justin Trudeau.

Trump calls the European Union our “foe”, and has set out to destroy the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and continues to denounce the Robert Mueller investigation of Russian collusion in the Presidential Election of 2016.

Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and even Red Scare demagogue Senator Joseph McCarthy are rolling over in their graves.

If any member of the Trump Administration cares more for his nation than his job, he or she should resign enmasse now, or be seen as complicit in “high crimes and misdemeanors”, specifically treason.

Vice President Mike Pence should confer with the Cabinet Officers, and invoke the 25th Amendment Section 4 immediately, or be also declared a traitor to America, with the only way to save his reputation being showing leadership in this greatest moment of threat to our Republic since the Civil War.

For Trump to decide to trust Putin over the national security, diplomatic, and intelligence community is a total outrage. Putin and his team are rejoicing how they have managed to compromise and manipulate a man who should never have been President in the first place, and only won due to Russian collusion.

Putin is responsible for downing of passenger jets; murdering journalists; poisoning and assassinating people in their homes on foreign soil; killing with radiation and military grade nerve agents; and sponsoring far right white supremacist groups on two continents.

It is time for mass marches all over the nation every weekend demanding the resignation, or arrest of the traitor in the White House, no better than Benedict Arnold in the American Revolution, as he has undermined our nation’s defenses against future manipulation of our democracy by Russia, which is sure to happen again.

And the Mueller investigation MUST continue unimpeded, or else the Constitution and Bill of Rights are in shreds! Thirty five indictments, six guilty pleas (including the National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and the Trump Campaign Chair Paul Manafort), and one conviction are just the tip of the iceberg!

If the American people do not come out in droves and kick the Republicans out of control of Congress, then the American people will deserve what they get, a move toward a Fascist, totalitarian government manipulated by Vladimir Putin!

The President of the United States is supposed to make sure that the laws are faithfully executed, and promote the rule of law. Donald Trump has totally failed at this responsibility in favor of being a “friend” of a Russian oligarch. He needs to be brought to justice, and sentenced to life in prison for his crimes—-Russian collusion, obstruction of justice, abuse of power, violation of the Emoluments Clause, and crimes by his cabinet officers, the most egregious of any President in American history!

Donald Trump Represents A Major Threat To World Peace And Stability, With His Repudiation Of G-7 Allies, And Bromance With Authoritarians!

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WE have just lived through the most insane, crazy moment in international diplomacy in our lifetime!

We have witnessed the President of the United States act like a petulant child, denounce our long term allies, refuse to sign a joint statement of the actions of the G-7 summit, and see our President personally insult and denounce our longest alliance and friendship with our Canadian neighbors and its leader, Justin Trudeau.

We have seen Angela Merkel of Germany become the leader of the Free World Democracies.

We have seen Emmanuel Macron of France give up on the personal niceties of an earlier “touchy feely” set of meetings with our President.

We have seen Theresa May of Great Britain totally exasperated with an American President on the level of no such similar event in the past century.

We have seen Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe very concerned at the potential abandonment of his nation’s interests in the upcoming negotiations of our President with North Korea.

We have seen our President express more closeness and camaraderie with Russia’s Vladimir Putin than with our past three Presidents (Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama), as he throws them effectively “under the bus’, and particularly blaming Barack Obama for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which led to the G-8 summit becoming the G-7 Summit, and a future possibly of a G-6 summit without the United States.

We have a President, Donald Trump, representing a major threat to world peace and stability with his repudiation of G-7 Allies, and a “Bromance” with Authoritarian leaders beyond just Vladimir Putin.

When will this nightmare end, and Donald Trump be removed from power, before he does permanent damage to our nation and the world?

Or is it already too late?

The Need For A Real “Newer” Generation Of Leadership, Age 47 To 60 In Election Year 2020!

Ronald 1 Comment

With the victory of Emmanuel Macron as President of France, it draws attention to the need for a real “newer” generation of leadership in America to move the nation forward in 2020 and beyond.

So although age alone should not decide who should be President, or Presidential candidates, there is an argument for a big drop in age of the next President, similar to what happened when Dwight D. Eisenhower left office at age 70 in 1961, and was replaced by 43 year old John F. Kennedy.

The same situation arose when George H. W. Bush left office at age 68 in 1993, and was replaced by 46 year old Bill Clinton.

So if age is an issue, then the following are those potential Democratic Presidential candidates who should be in the forefront:

Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, age 47 in 2020.

Los Angeles, California Mayor Eric Garcetti, age 49 in 2020.

Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, age 51 in 2020.

Future California Governor (heavily favored in 2018) Gavin Newsom, age 53 in 2020.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, age 54 in 2020.

Senator Kamala Harris of California, age 56 in 2020.

Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, 60 in 2020.

With Donald Trump, if still in office in 2020 being 74, this would mean a drop in age of 27 down to 14 years if any of the above seven named possible nominees were to emerge as the next President.

This group includes three women (Gillibrand, Harris, Klobuchar); two African Americans (Booker and Harris who is multi racial); one Jewish and Mexican American (Garcetti); and two White Anglos Males (Murphy and Newsom). We would have three California contenders (Garcetti, Newsom, Harris); three from the NY, NJ, Connecticut metropolitan area (Gillibrand, Booker, Murphy); and one from the Midwest (Klobuchar). Two will be in their 40s (Murphy, Garcetti); four in their 50s (Booker, Newsom, Gillibrand, Harris); and one just 60 years old at that time (Klobuchar).

If this blogger were to forecast his sense of what “may” happen, I would think the ones to watch are Murphy, Garcetti, Newsom, and Klubuchar, but just an educated guess!