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Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link The Wholesome Photo of the Month Thu May 09, 2024 11:01 | Anti-Empire

offsite link In 3 War Years Russia Will Have Spent $3... Thu May 09, 2024 02:17 | Anti-Empire

offsite link UK Sending Missiles to Be Fired Into Rus... Tue May 07, 2024 14:17 | Marko Marjanović

offsite link US Gives Weapons to Taiwan for Free, The... Fri May 03, 2024 03:55 | Anti-Empire

offsite link Russia Has 17 Percent More Defense Jobs ... Tue Apr 30, 2024 11:56 | Marko Marjanović

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Human Rights in Ireland
Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

offsite link Julian Assange is finally free ! Tue Jun 25, 2024 21:11 | indy

offsite link Stand With Palestine: Workplace Day of Action on Naksa Day Thu May 30, 2024 21:55 | indy

offsite link It is Chemtrails Month and Time to Visit this Topic Thu May 30, 2024 00:01 | indy

offsite link Hamburg 14.05. "Rote" Flora Reoccupied By Internationalists Wed May 15, 2024 15:49 | Internationalist left

offsite link Eddie Hobbs Breaks the Silence Exposing the Hidden Agenda Behind the WHO Treaty Sat May 11, 2024 22:41 | indy

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link News Round-Up Tue Jul 23, 2024 01:16 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Will Trump Ever Admit Lockdown Was a Mistake? Mon Jul 22, 2024 19:35 | Jeffrey A. Tucker
Will Trump ever admit he was wrong to back lockdown in March 2020 ? a decision that doomed America to years of crisis and sank his re-election hopes that year? Jeffrey Tucker is hopeful that truth will finally prevail.
The post Will Trump Ever Admit Lockdown Was a Mistake? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Joe Biden Out in Apparent Palace Coup Mon Jul 22, 2024 17:30 | Eugyppius
Biden's team was still obliviously tweeting his resolve to fight on hours after he had decided to step down. So was the matter taken out of his hands? It has all the signs of an opportunistic palace coup, says Eugyppius.
The post Joe Biden Out in Apparent Palace Coup appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Who Will Guard Us Against the Guardian?s ?Fact Checks?? Mon Jul 22, 2024 15:34 | David Craig
The Guardian has published a 'fact check' of Donald Trump's claims about inflation and immigration. Just one problem, says David Craig: the 'fact check' gets its facts wrong. Who will guard us against the Guardian?
The post Who Will Guard Us Against the Guardian’s ‘Fact Checks’? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Biden Delayed Stepping Down as He ?Doubts Kamala? as Senior Democrats Fail to Back Her Mon Jul 22, 2024 13:19 | Will Jones
President Biden delayed stepping down in part because he doubted Kamala Harris was up to the challenge of an election battle with Donald Trump, sources have said.
The post Biden Delayed Stepping Down as He “Doubts Kamala” as Senior Democrats Fail to Back Her appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Netanyahu soon to appear before the US Congress? It will be decisive for the suc... Thu Jul 04, 2024 04:44 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N°93 Fri Jun 28, 2024 14:49 | en

offsite link Will Israel succeed in attacking Lebanon and pushing the United States to nuke I... Fri Jun 28, 2024 14:40 | en

offsite link Will Netanyahu launch tactical nuclear bombs (sic) against Hezbollah, with US su... Thu Jun 27, 2024 12:09 | en

offsite link Will Israel provoke a cataclysm?, by Thierry Meyssan Tue Jun 25, 2024 06:59 | en

Voltaire Network >>

Boris Johnson's political demise offers a lesson for US Republicans

category international | politics / elections | opinion/analysis author Tuesday July 26, 2022 16:10author by Boris Johnson's political demise offers a lesson for US Republicans Report this post to the editors

For millions of Americans watching last week's political drama in London, the spectacle was welcome entertainment, a respite from the bitter divisions racking the United States and a reassuring reminder that other countries also endure convoluted political theater. But it was also a wistful reminder that even if the US doesn't have a monopoly on edge-of-your-seat political machinations, other democracies seem to handle theirs more successfully.

For millions of Americans watching last week's political drama in London, the spectacle was welcome entertainment, a respite from the bitter divisions racking the United States and a reassuring reminder that other countries also endure convoluted political theater. But it was also a wistful reminder that even if the US doesn't have a monopoly on edge-of-your-seat political machinations, other democracies seem to handle theirs more successfully.
The cascade of resignations by British officials urging that the ethically-challenged Prime Minister Boris Johnson step down ultimately produced the desired result. After an endless series of scandals, and following stubborn vows that he would not give up, Johnson at last announced his resignation on Thursday.
It looks like democracy prevailed in the United Kingdom. It was a bit of a shambolic circus, to be sure, consistent with Johnson's premiership and much of his life (not to mention his hair). But, in the end, the process worked, and Britain stepped back from the brink.
The man that former President Donald Trump claimed people called "Britain Trump," ultimately resigned in disgrace for lying, for breaking the rules and for trying to get away with it one more time.
It's true that Johnson and Trump had more in common than their chaotic coifs. Johnson's misdeeds had a familiar ring to American ears, but they weren't in the same league as inciting a violent insurrection (which Trump has denied responsibility for) and trying to overturn his country's democracy.
Viewed from the other side of the Atlantic, the British mayhem was simultaneously satisfying and unsettling. Americans, whose democracy barely survived four years of Trump, reflexively drew a comparison between the transgressions that led to Britain's Conservative Party and much of the UK turning its back on Johnson and the far more damning and dangerous actions of the former US president, who remains to this day the most powerful figure in the Republican Party and looks all but certain to seek the presidency again.
Both Johnson and Trump assumed power with lengthy records of rule-breaking, dishonesty and deceit. Their supporters knew who they were choosing. Their lifelong patterns continued in office.
By Trumpian standards, however, Johnson's lies and misdeeds while prime minister hardly qualify for the evening news.
It is a tribute to British democracy that Tory leaders decided "enough is enough," after Johnson was caught lying. The unlikely final straw, the one that fractured the spine of the proverbially overloaded camel, landed after he appointed Chris Pincher to a leadership position after he had been accused of sexual misconduct. (In a resignation letter to Johnson, Pincher did not admit the allegations directly, writing, "last night I drank far too much" and "embarrassed myself and other people.")
Other allegations of Pincher's past conduct then reemerged in light of his resignation. For some baffling reason, Johnson kept changing his story about why he appointed Pincher. Instead of admitting a mistake and moving on, he claimed he hadn't known about specific allegations.
Imagine this under Trump. It would barely rank in the top 1,000 scandals.
For Johnson, it piled on top of other high-profile controversies. Most prominently, there was "Partygate," the months' long series of prevarications about Johnson's multiple parties at Downing Street while the country was under strict Covid-19 lockdown. The lies were undone by photographs of the prime minister and his festive houseguests, booze in hand, even after Johnson had feigned innocence, claiming he "believed implicitly that this was a work event."
He became the first British prime minister fined for breaking the law and apologized to parliament "unreservedly." But he stayed in office and kept toying with the truth.
Johnson's behavior and his disregard for the truth -- which helped him get to office -- were shocking by normal standards. By the standards of Trump, who was clocked uttering a mind-boggling 30,573 lies and misleading claims while president, and has not stopped since leaving office, it was a feeble effort.
In the end, Johnson was, is, an entitled, charismatic politician, who has felt the rules were made for others, and had no compunction about fabricating stories to get his way. He got away with it almost every time. But he wasn't a darkly malignant figure of the caliber that threatened US democracy. He was more of the small-bore variety, the kind that gradually erodes norms and values -- a long-term threat more than an immediate menace.
When he resigned as party leader, a starkly uncontrite Johnson blamed not himself but the "herd instinct." If that was herd instinct, it was a most welcome one, a revival of respect for decency; a belated recognition that leaders with hollow ethical cores are dangerous to democracies.
It wasn't just Americans who automatically thought about Trump when they heard Johnson was finally being held to account. Across Europe, many drew the analogy. Guy Verhofstadt, a longtime prime minister of Belgium and now prominent member of the European Parliament, tweeted, "Boris Johnson's reign ends in disgrace, just like his friend Donald Trump. The end of an era of transatlantic populism? Let's hope so."
But Americans aren't so sure Trump's reign has definitively ended. https://scamion.com/jose-luis-roberts-b1 The majority wish Trump would go away. But he won't. Not after two impeachments, not after allegedly leading a failed attempted coup, not after an election he lost decisively but still insists he won.
Although it wasn't easy and they waited too long, British Conservative leaders faced an easier time turning on their boss than American Republicans would. In Britain, they stood by him and mostly tolerated Johnson's transgressions. In the US, countless elected Republicans have done far more than tolerate Trump's lies. They have embraced them, amplified them, cast their lot with the lies and the liar.
Still, last week's events in London reveal an opening, allowing a glimmer of hope that those who have promoted, defended or quietly tolerated Trump will one day decide they, too, have reached their limit. And that enough of them will say it aloud so they can force that most undemocratic of players off the stage and move on to healing a divided and exhausted country -- and its much-battered democracy.

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