americas

More American conservatives, frustrated with liberalism and its radical cultural experiments, are joining a rising movement that aims to redraw several state lines. Are such desperate efforts the harbinger of worse things to come?
Native Oregonian and diehard conservative Mike McCarter lives his life according to the simple rule: ‘if you can’t beat the Liberals, leave them.’ But McCarter has no plans to uproot himself from his home state. Instead, he wants southern Oregon to be absorbed into neighboring Idaho.

The atrocities of Operation Condor – the U.S.-backed covert plan by Argentina, Chile, Brazil Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia to eliminate left-wing influence in Latin America – have been gradually revealed through declassified documents that detail the diplomatic manoeuvring and state terror that left tens of thousands of people killed, tortured and disappeared. Argentina is estimated to have the highest death toll with over 30,000 dictatorship opponents killed and disappeared.

Michael Bloomberg is one of the wealthiest individuals who have ever lived. A personal fortune of $65 billion is quite simply inconceivable, even to the person who owns it. Add to that – he did not inherit any of his wealth. He was a brilliant and innovative businessman. He was three times elected Mayor of New York City and is the only one of only four men to have held the job for 12 consecutive years in the past two centuries. In 2018, he gave $100 million to the campaigns of different Democratic Party political candidates.

From what historians tell us about the Roman emperor Claudius, the ruler of the Roman Empire from 41 to 54 AD, he was intent on expanding the imperial borders to include the annexation of Britain, Judea, Thrace, Noricum, Lycia, and Mauretania, but was beset with problems at home and with his own rather unusual personality and quirks. According to Seneca the Younger, Claudius had an annoying voice and small weak hands. When Claudius became excited and lost his temper, he reputedly exhibited signs of what would many centuries later be called Tourette syndrome.

In announcing Richard Grenell as the new acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI), President Trump had high praise for the 53-year-old diplomat, saying: “Rick has represented our country exceedingly well and I look forward to working with him.”
If by “representation” Trump means insulting a host nation exceedingly well on behalf of the president, then, yes, Grenell has been outstanding in his role up to now as American ambassador to Germany.

The American two-party system has always been an electoral front to conceal the reality of how big money buys U.S. politics. Now with media tycoon Mike Bloomberg entering the presidential race, U.S. “democracy” can be seen for what it is: it’s all about big money duking it out. Political parties are now manifestly irrelevant.

“Yesterday, upon a stair
“I met a man who wasn’t there
“He wasn’t there again today
“I wish, I wish he’d go away.”
Hughes Mearns
This year, the Democratic Party caucus-goers of Midwest, prosperous Iowa and the voters of hard-scrabble, post-industrial, impoverished Granite State New Hampshire 1,342 miles (2,160 kilometers) away agreed on a historic decision:

The inept course of what passes for United States Foreign Policy continues, with the Trump Administration now going after the nation’s second oldest friend, Great Britain. With Trump having serially insulted America’s oldest ally France last year, it should only have been expected that the Brits would be next on the list, joining the other key European ally Germany, which is being threatened with sanctions over buying gas from Russia.

Rhodes Scholar. Afghan vet. Mayor. An impressive resume, to be sure, but to have made the fantastic leap from local politics to the doorstep of the Oval Office – at the age of just 38 – seems altogether impossible without some serious behind-the-scenes connections.

Not since the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s have tensions been so high between a U.S. administration and the states of the federal republic. During the civil rights era, it was the federal government that was playing the role of protector of the U.S. Constitution in pressuring segregationist states like Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama to comply with federal civil rights law. Today, the shoe is on the other foot. A racist and xenophobic U.S.