Loyd
Loyd's JournalTwo November revolutions: Another Russia-Trump connection
By Andrew O'Hehir, Salon
One year ago on Nov. 8, of course, was the Election Day That Shook the World, with the flukish or fateful outcome that literally nobody expected. I won’t bother trying to dig up the news stories, but people in Donald Trump’s campaign told reporters that afternoon it would take a miracle for their candidate to win the election. Medieval theologians no doubt had a word for that kind of miracle, one in negative form, wrought by diabolical rather than divine forces. What happened on that day last November, and why it happened, are still subjects of such intense dispute that I’m tempted to say we don’t understand the outcome of the 2016 election any better than we did when we woke up the next morning in disbelief. (For some, in shock; for others, rapture.)
Ninety-nine years before the morning of Trump’s victory, on Nov. 9, 1917, came the culminating moment of the Russian Revolution, when the socialist militant faction known as the Bolsheviks captured the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg and seized state power in the name of the working class, a social group that barely existed in that country at that time. They didn’t use the term “communist” until much later; that referred only to a hypothetical future society with no social classes and no state. To make matters more confusing, their history-shaping insurrection is known as the October Revolution because of the calendrical misalignment between Russia and the West; by our reckoning it occurred in November.
There’s no way I can remotely do justice to either of those perplexing events — let alone the tenuous, tangential historical relationship between them, which has elements of echo and elements of parody — in a column cranked out in a few quiet hours on Friday evening, after a week that has included Roy Moore, Louis C.K., Kevin Spacey, the thickening cloud of the Russia investigation and the coast-to-coast Democratic sweep in what would ordinarily have been a nearly meaningless off-year election. Here’s my verdict on the Russian Revolution: Really complicated! It changed the world, all right, but not in the ways anyone expected, and its ultimate lessons about human nature and power relations were not edifying. You’re welcome!
https://www.salon.com/2017/11/11/two-november-revolutions-another-russia-trump-connection/
Read the whole thing! Great article.
'White Europe': 60,000 nationalists march on Poland's Independence Day
Source: The Guardian
Sunday 12 November 2017 01.20 EST
Tens of thousands of nationalists have marched through Warsaw to mark Poland’s independence day, throwing red smoke bombs and carrying banners with such slogans as “white Europe of brotherly nations”.
The march organised by far-right groups was one of many events marking Poland’s rebirth as a nation in 1918, overshadowing official state observances and other patriotic events.
Police estimated 60,000 people took part. Many were young men, some with their faces covered or with beer bottles in hand, but families and older Poles also participated.
Those marching chanted “God, honour, country” and “Glory to our heroes”, while a few people also shouted xenophobic phrases like “pure Poland, white Poland” and “refugees get out”.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/12/white-europe-60000-nationalists-march-on-polands-independence-day
I'm certain this has already been (sarcastically, natch) said on DU, but I shall repeat it: Thanks, Trump!
McCain slams Trump over siding with Putin on Russia meddling
Source: CNN
By Daniella Diaz, CNN
Updated 6:58 PM ET, Sat November 11, 2017
Washington (CNN) Sen. John McCain slammed President Donald Trump on Saturday for saying he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin over senior US intelligence officials when he says his country didn't interfere in the 2016 election.
"President Trump today stated that he believed Vladimir Putin is being sincere when he denies Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and reiterated that he hopes to cooperate with Russia in Syria," McCain, a strong critic of the President, said in a statement. "There's nothing 'America First' about taking the word of a KGB colonel over that of the American intelligence community. There's no 'principled realism' in cooperating with Russia to prop up the murderous Assad regime, which remains the greatest obstacle to a political solution that would bring an end to the bloodshed in Syria. Vladimir Putin does not have America's interests at heart. To believe otherwise is not only naive but also places our national security at risk."
McCain was referencing remarks Trump made while describing his relationship with Putin and the ongoing investigations into 2016 meddling on Saturday. The president seemed to indicate to reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday that he trusts Putin's denials more than the comments of former intelligence officials, like former high-ranking intelligence officials James Comey, John Brennan and James Clapper.
"I mean, give me a break, they are political hacks," Trump said. "So you look at it, I mean, you have Brennan, you have Clapper and you have Comey. Comey is proven now to be a liar and he is proven now to be a leaker. So you look at that and you have President Putin very strongly, vehemently says he had nothing to do with them."
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/11/politics/john-mccain-donald-trump-russia/index.html
John, I've almost forgiven you for running against Obama!
Trump says North Korea's Kim insulted him by calling him 'old'
Source: Reuters
NOVEMBER 11, 2017 / 10:35 PM
(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said in a tweet that North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un had insulted him by calling him “old” and said he would never call Kim “short and fat.”
Trump made the comment Sunday morning after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-trump-asia-northkorea/trump-says-north-koreas-kim-insulted-him-by-calling-him-old-idUSKBN1DC00Y?il=0
Sweet Jesus, we have Norma Desmond in the White House!!!
Protesters flood Barcelona demanding release of separatist leaders
Source: Reuters
NOVEMBER 11, 2017 / 2:15 PM / UPDATED 2 HOURS AGO
BARCELONA (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of Catalan independence supporters clogged one of Barcelona’s main avenues on Saturday to demand the release of separatist leaders held in prison for their roles in the region’s banned drive to split from Spain.
Wearing yellow ribbons on their lapels to signify support, they filled the length of the Avenue Marina that runs from the beach to Barcelona’s iconic Sagrada Familia church, while the jailed leaders’ families made speeches.
Catalonia’s two main grassroots independence groups called the march, under the slogan “Freedom for the political prisoners,” after their leaders were remanded in custody on charges of sedition last month.
The protest is seen as a test of how the independence movement’s support has fared since the Catalan government declared independence on Oct. 27, prompting Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to fire its members, dissolve the regional parliament and call new elections for December.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-spain-politics-catalona-protests/protesters-flood-barcelona-demanding-release-of-separatist-leaders-idUSKBN1DB0PW?il=0
Rajoy has badly mishandled the situation, reacting more like a Putin than a Western European leader.
10 Reasons The NFL Will Be F**KED in 5 Years
Call me a sucker, but I'll still be watching!
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