elections

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authoritarian regimes, Donald Trump, elections, International Law, Latin America, Rule of Law, Russia, Soviet Union, State Department, State Department Legal Adviser, U.N. Charter, U.N. Security Council, U.S. Intervention, U.S. Military, United States, use of force, Venezuela, Venezuela January 25, 2019

Trump Steers Dangerous Course in Venezuela

Developing (uncorrected draft)   Donald Trump has set the United States on a dangerous course in its policy toward Venezuela. The Trump administration seems to…

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Crimea, Dimming Vision of World Affairs, Donald Trump, elections, European Union, History, International Law, Russia, sanctions, State Department Legal Adviser, Trump and Putin, U.N. Charter, Ukraine, use of force, Vladimir Putin June 8, 2018

Trump promotes Putin at G-7: Payoff for intervention in U.S. elections

OUR VALUES: Truth Integrity Decency Character Facts Science Law Freedom
Vladimir Putin launched a massive attack on the American electoral system in 2016, to help elect Donald J. Trump
as President of the United States. Among his goals were that of getting the U.S. and European sanctions lifted.
Since then Trump has taken a number of actions favorable to Moscow, and failed to take actions he should have in opposition to Russian aggression.

Now, at the G-7 in Montreal on June 8, 2018, he has proposed reādmitting Russia to the G-7 group of leading economic powers. Russia was expelled from the group (then known as the G-8) following its invasions of the Ukraine.
We may now expect Donald Trump, who has once again shown his pro-Russian colors, to further Putin’s agenda by seeking to relax U.S. and European sanctions against Russia.
When Trump or Putin speaks of abandoning “the old liberal international order”, it should be clear, they are arguing for abandoning the international legal order based on the U.N. Charter and the prohibition of the international use of force.

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"that spark of the divine", Africa, CIA, Dictatorship, elections, extrajudicial execution, extraordinary rendering, extraordinary rendition, human rights, Intelligence, internal supporters of human rights, International Law, Latin America, Nobel Peace Prize, religious belief, Rule of Law, Torture, U.S. Constitution, U.S. Intervention January 15, 2018

REPRISE: Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.

Originally Posted By: The Observer January 18, 2016 Today is Martin Luther King day in the United States, a national holiday. It is a good…

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Donald Trump, elections, Russia, sanctions, Trump and Putin, U.S. Congress, U.S. news coverage July 26, 2017

Trump supporters, in and out of Congress, are undermining democracy and the rule of law

It pains one to say it, but Trump supporters, in and out of Congress, are undermining democracy and the rule of law.

Our “authoritarian clown” has sucked all of the oxygen out of public life, seduced perhaps 40% of the population, and wrapped himself inside and around our brains to such an extent that we can hardly think of anything else. The media, and particularly the cable media, are thriving on the Schadenfreude of their viewers as the latter watch in disbelief each day as each new outrage and each new revelation about the president’s unbelievably coarse and often apparently unlawful actions occur.

“Trump did this today,” or “Trump is going to do that,” and so goes the refrain.

But spectators are not free of moral blame. You can’t just watch his actions and decry them. Something must be done to stop him.

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Crimea, Crimes Against Humanity, Donald Trump, elections, History, International Law, Russia, sanctions, Trump and Putin, Trump-Putin meeting, U.S. Congress, use of force, Vladimir Putin July 7, 2017

“It is an honor to be with you”: Trump and Putin at G-20 in Hamburg

Trump’s statement in the presence of Putin before going into their meeting says it all: “It is an honor to be with you.”

For Trump, it is an honor to meet the military aggressor who invaded the Crimea and the eastern Ukraine in 2014….
For Trump, it is an honor to meet the leader of a country which committed barbarous war crimes in Syria, bombing hospitals and civilian infrastructure in Aleppo, for example.
There is no statute of limitations for military aggression.
The U.S. will not improve relations with Russia by trying to appease the aggressor, Vladimir Putin.
Trump has been, and remains, the first pro-Russian president of the United States at least since 1917….

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Donald Trump, elections, European Union, History, human rights, NATO, propaganda, State Department, United States May 24, 2017

The Normalization of the Unforgivable — Trump and an America which is already half lost

With Donald Trump, we have been witnessing the normalization of the unforgiveable.

The rise of an authoritarian leader in the United States, who through outrageous lies, thuggish behavior, and the assistance of a large-scale Russian intervention in the 2016 elections, became President, would be great material for a movie but in fact be unbelievable, unless of course it actually happened.

During his campaign in 2016, the transition, and now his four months in office, Donald Trump has erased the boundaries of the impermissible, the unthinkable, and the very concept of the truth itself.

Now, in 2017, we can for perhaps the first time in many decades understand what happened after 1932 with the rise of the National Socialist Parry and its leader in Germany.
…
Each day they chip away a little more at our concepts of the truth, of decency, and of the bulwarks against authoritarian behaviors that exist in a democracy.
We are desensitized. The outrage is drained from our souls. We begin to make excuses for Trump and his rhinoceri.
We begin to acquiesce.