You never kept your promises, Obama. You let your country down. You didn’t close Gitmo; you failed to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; you pandered to the corporations with your TPTPs and TTIPs. You promised ‘medical coverage for all’ and gave a handout to the insurance companies; you bailed out the banks with taxpayer’s money then allowed them ‘business as usual’; you failed to punish corruption by the wealthy; most of the jobs you managed to create were poorly paid, service jobs, that forced well qualified Americans into menial employment; you failed to restrain the military-industrial complex and allowed it to expand twenty-fold under your presidency; you became the ‘assassination-president’ who rained down terror from the skies on innocent human beings, while expanding the number of wars America is presently engaged in (there are currently U.S. Special Ops in 70% of the world’s nations!). Your parting gift to your political opponents – a vacant Supreme Court post you’ve left open for them to fill…
Here’s the result of your eight years at the top, Mister Obama…
…because – NO, YOU DIDN’T!
Posted on - Comments Off on Election USA, Brexit Britain, And A Possible Scottish Saviour
Today is election day in the United States of America.
Sparrow Chat has refrained from commenting recently on the candidates hoping to occupy the White House. It matters not one jot who eventually succeeds, both are equally bad for the people of America, and the rest of the world. Trump is a narcissist, who sees the presidency as the final pinnacle of all out power; Clinton is a corporate pawn enmeshed in the power-politics of big business. The people’s needs are not a part of either candidate’s remit.
The next occupant of the White House will merely be a mirror of the declining democratic society in the U.S.A. and the upsurge of corporate/military control (Eisenhower’s infamous ‘military-industrial complex’). As such, there’s little room for further logical analysis or comment.
There are few politicians in the world today worthy of praise, but one cannot overlook the Scottish Parliament’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who is fighting both for her country (Scotland) and its people, over the concerted efforts of the British Prime minister and her cohorts to extricate the U.K. from the European Union.
It may not be generally realised outside Britain, but the vast majority of its people’s representatives (MPs) from both parties have always been in favour of remaining in the E.U.. The referendum decision to leave (Brexit), by the slim margin of 52% to 48% was a people’s decision based not on the merits, or otherwise, of its E.U. membership but as a protest vote against a British government that had long supported the wealthy and powerful, leaving the middle classes to flounder financially.
If this sounds a note of familiarity, it’s because the British government is following to the letter the antics of an American Congress steeped in corruption, allied to the lobbyists of the corporations, and hellbent on steam-rollering its way out of democracy and into the Super-capitalist corporate state.
For Theresa May and close colleagues like Liam Fox, David Davies, (and not to forget the newly appointed Lord Chancellor, Liz Truss, who is the third consecutive politician with no legal qualifications whatever, to hold office as head of the Ministry of Justice and Secretary of State for Justice!), Brexit has come as a welcome opening to further follow the U.S.A. down the slippery road to corporate control. Freed from the shackles of European legislation we can expect trade deals galore that, like the Trans Pacific Trade Partnership, will be heavily weighted in favour of big business.
Nicola Sturgeon, it seems, is not happy to oblige. Her Scottish people voted in favour of remaining in the E.U. by a whopping 62% to 38%, way more than the slim wedge of majority votes that decided the U.K.’s future. She’s already threatened another Scottish referendum for independence from the U.K. if the British (or should we say, “English”) parliament tries to force unacceptable measures on Scotland over Brexit. Sparrow Chat would be fully supportive of an independent Scotland. The, then, English/Welsh government would find itself much weaker without Scotland’s economy.
Given the recent ruling in the High Court preventing May from triggering Article 50 without a parliamentary vote, and May’s quick decision to appeal that decision in the Supreme Court, Nicola Sturgeon has seized the opportunity to demand that The Lord Advocate, Scotland’s most senior law officer, be heard in the case:
The Scottish government had legal representatives observing the case, and later said it was considering whether to become directly involved when the appeal is heard.
Confirming that it would seek to intervene, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she believed Scotland should be treated as an “equal partner” in the United Kingdom.
If the Supreme Court was to allow the Scottish government’s intervention and ruled against the UK government, it could mean there would have to be a vote on Article 50 in Holyrood as well as in Westminster.
Ms Sturgeon stressed that she was not attempting to veto the process of England and Wales leaving the EU. But she said the “democratic wishes of the people of Scotland and the national parliament of Scotland cannot be brushed aside as if they do not matter”…
…Ms Sturgeon has pledged to do all she can to protect Scotland’s place in Europe, and to maintain its membership of the single market. [1]
It would seem there’s at least one politician left on the world stage who is still prepared to represent the people, and not the huge conglomeration of big businesses lobbying U.S. and U.K. politicians for a major portion of a democratic process they’re determined to destroy.
As the voting for the 45th President of the United States finally draws to a close today we’re left with only one certainty: after this election the American people will not find in their new president someone who has the slightest interest in their welfare, or those of the generations who follow them, although in keeping with the present incumbent, a silver tongue and persuasive manner may well kid them into believing otherwise.
If there’s one thing we can thank Twitter for it’s how well it highlights just how many morons, loonies, and general hatemongers are out there, waiting to pounce on anyone who dares to hold opposing views to them.
But, can they be blamed, when certain public peddlers of lies and vitriol, which have the effrontery to still call themselves ‘newspapers’, emblazon their front pages with this sort of rubbish:
This was the front page output of two of these porno-pushers following a judgement by the U.K. High Court stating that Article 50, to commence withdrawal from the E.U., could only be triggered with the consent of parliament.
From the BBC:
Meanwhile, Gina Miller, the investment manager and philanthropist who led the legal campaign, has said she plans to report online trolls to police after receiving rape and death threats.
She told BBC Radio 5 live that other abuse included people telling her “I’m not even human, I’m a primate, I belong in a kitchen – that’s the nicest of some of them. It is unbelievable.
“I am really cross at the politicians and the media who are whipping this up because they are the ones inciting racism and violence and acrimony.”
These so-called “trolls”, who use their anonymity to vent hatred and spread fear, aren’t just a small band of right-wing, fascist, nutters. They’re a large section of the general populace who are incapable of thinking for themselves, or holding any opinion other than those they’ve gleaned from the gutter press, or the shadier parts of the internet.
That these people exist in such large numbers proves beyond doubt the ineffectuality of referenda as a method of determining a correct course of action in any political situation. This is why we elect political representatives to make these decisions for us. David Cameron’s decision not to allow the British parliament to decide whether the U.K. should remain in the E.U., was tantamount to Pontius Pilate washing his hands and letting the people decide the fate of Jesus of Nazareth – and we all know how that turned out!
The British parliament must realise that there are Brits so badly educated, so immature, and so politically ignorant, that they can’t be trusted to make any properly thought out decision on the future of the nation. It was their votes that swung the Brexit decision.
If Theresa May had any backbone at all she would allow a free vote in parliament and let MPs decide whether the result of the “advisory referendum” should be adhered to, or whether it was in Britain’s best interests to remain a part of the European Community.
Sadly, that won’t happen because May and her cronies have other, hidden, agendas. But given the collapse of the U.K. currency, forecasts of 4% inflation by next year, rising prices across the board, and numerous other negative factors in the pipeline, the ‘best interests’ question has already been fully answered.
