Putin And Russia

English: AGRA. Vladimir and Lyudmila Putin visiting the Taj Mahal. Русский: АГРА. Владимир и Людмила Путины во время посещения мавзолея Тадж-Махал. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Vladimir Putin with his mother, Maria Ivanovna Putina, in July 1958. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Vladimir Putin at school age (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Russia has seen three fundamental political paradigms in just the past 150 years. There was the Tsar, then the Lenin monarchy, and now a Putin monarchy. But the country's geopolitical pull has remained constant. Even if Russia were to become a western style democracy, I believe that pull will stay, likely even expand. My point being, we can't blame Putin for Russia's geopolitical pull. It is the country exuding the force.

No two democracy is alike. America is not like Canada is not like Britain is not like France is not like Germany, and so on. Which means perhaps countries are like fingerprints. Each country is going to end up with a slightly unique political system and culture. Russia is not waiting to photocopy any other country politically. Maybe Russia is a little too different.

I believe in democracy and human rights like no American I have ever met. I believe democracy is good for every country. And I am not exactly America inspired. Although it is obvious that America is the loudest example today. The world's first republic was birthed by the Buddha. We also recently found out Iraqis came up with calculus over a thousand years before Newton.

I do want to see a more western Europe style democracy in Russia. I very much want Russia to become a more robust economy. I want Russia to do double digit growth rates. But I don't believe in military intervention. Except in Russia's case that is not even an option. The species should survive.

My prescription would be the deepest possible engagement with the country. If you want a western Europe style democracy in Russia, you want  the deepest possible engagement with the country. That is the best option, that is the only option. Which means sanctions are a bad idea, and not sustainable over the long term. I understand the circumstances that brought them about. But at some point down the line they will have to be rolled back.

One mistake America made early on was while it expanded NATO right to Russia's borders, it did not at the same time respectfully engage Russia. Russia joining NATO might be an outlandish thought, but America could have offered to carry out joint naval exercises in the Pacific, for example. This is one more thing we can blame on Bush. (The list is long.) Looks like not only W messed up the War On Terror, he rekindled the Cold War too.

The Russia India friendship does not have a parallel. This is not like the friendship between America and England. India and Russia are not shared cultures. There are no shared languages. There is not even a shared border. It is almost like a friendship between two human beings, only it is between two peoples. It is not a military alliance. And business is not the primary motive. It is just friendship.

For Putin Assad Is Himself
Putin
Russia's Ego Is Geopolitical

US News (2)

Michael Bloomberg Will Never Be the Next U.S. President
If he runs, the former New York City mayor will hand the election over to Republicans

Once again, Mr. Bloomberg seems to be channeling his inner Frank Sinatra and musing that if he can make it there—in the Big Apple—he can make it anywhere. ......

If Mr. Bloomberg does launch an independent run for the White House, he’ll be attempting to do what nobody has done since George Washington: win the presidency without the backing of a major political party.

........... the former mayor does have something going for him that past independent candidates have not: a billion dollars. Reports indicate Mr. Bloomberg says he is willing to sink at least that much money into mounting a run, if he decides to go. .........

Mr. Bloomberg has as much of a chance of winning 270 electoral votes as the proverbial camel has of passing through the eye of a needle.

....... Conservatives don’t trust Mr. Trump, who has demonstrated that he is not particularly doctrinaire about political issues ..... Among Democratic regulars, there is scarcely more love for Mr. Sanders, who seeks the nomination of a party he never joined and has consistently criticized throughout his career as an independent politician and admitted socialist. ....... it could well be that Mr. Bloomberg, backed by his bundles of billions, might be able to siphon off moderates from both left and right. But winning the election—that’s a whole different deal, one complicated considerably by that most American anachronism, the Electoral College. ......

With the exception of Maine and Nebraska, the candidate who receives the largest number of votes wins each state’s entire cache of electors

....... Bottom line: if Michael Bloomberg runs for president as an independent this year and achieves a significant percentage of the votes, the end result is a Republican victory. ..... the last billionaire to mount an independent presidential run, H. Ross Perot, failed to win a single electoral vote in 1992 despite earning more than 19 percent of the national popular vote. ...... Mr. Perot’s percentage of the popular vote marked the best showing by an independent or third-party candidate since former President Theodore Roosevelt, denied the Republican nomination in his 1912 comeback attempt, formed his own party (the Progressive or “Bull Moose” Party) and won 27 percent of the national vote. Mr. Roosevelt won eight states that year—something no independent or third-party candidate has ever matched—but the only tangible effect of his candidacy was to split the Republican Party’s votes and deny a second term to President William Howard Taft, as Democrat Woodrow Wilson won the presidency with a mere 41 percent of the national popular vote. ........ The institutional advantages enjoyed by the Democratic and Republican parties make it exceptionally difficult for a third-party or independent candidate to win any states at all. The last third-party candidate to win any states was the segregationist Alabama governor George C. Wallace, who took five Southern states in 1968 for a total of 46 electoral votes. ........ what he doesn’t have is the ability to win any states in which gun-rights supporters hold sway. ....... He starts the race with at least 206 electoral votes off the table. ....... That would leave Mr. Bloomberg battling the Democratic nominee for electors in the solidly Democratic “blue states” and in the swingy “purple states” that tend to swing back and forth between Democrats and Republicans. In 2012, these states accounted for 332 electoral votes. The ultimate effect would be the dilution of left-wing and center-left votes in these states between Mr. Bloomberg and the Democrats, thus enabling the Republican candidate to win the “purple states” and even a boatload of states that normally go Democratic. ........

no independent or third-party candidate has ever won more than 88 electoral votes—less than one-third of the total currently required to win the presidency.

....... The other, far more unlikely, outcome is that he wins a handful of states and prevents any candidate from receiving the required 270 electoral-vote majority, thereby leaving the election to be decided by the House of Representatives for the first time since 1824.

Donald Trump won’t participate in debate over feud with Fox News

“There are powerful forces that are really controlling our lives,” Gilmore said. “The biggest one is the organized establishment media. And I just noticed, just now, you gave Carly Fiorina two one-minute answers in a row.” ..... All of the low-polling candidate have been overshadowed by Trump, the bombastic billionaire who rose to the top of the GOP field with promises to erect a giant wall on the border with Mexico and to bar Muslim foreigners from entering the country. ..... But they may never have been as overshadowed as they were tonight. That’s because, just as their early-evening debate begins, Trump will be holding a press availability elsewhere in Iowa, stirring speculation that he might change his mind and attend the main debate, which is set to begin at 9 p.m. ....... But the timing of Trump’s event could still leave him time to make an appearance,

and still be able to make the debate – or make a spectacle that would overshadow it.

........ So far, Fox hasn’t blinked. Trump hasn’t either. ..... As of Thursday morning, Kelly was still set to moderate the debate. And Trump had scheduled his own “special event for veterans” rally, to be held elsewhere in Des Moines on the same evening. Trump will be joined by a pair of long-shot candidates, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, after they participate in the 7 p.m. “undercard” GOP debate. ....... “Fox is playing games,” Trump said in a news conference Wednesday. “They can’t toy with me like they toy with everybody else. Let them have the debate. Let’s see how they do with the ratings.” ........

a race dominated by the reality-TV-trained showman.

..... could allow Trump to dominate the debate without even having to show up. If networks show his rally before, or even during, the formal debate, Trump could steal the moment again. ....

A few days ago on Twitter, Gilmore compared himself to, yes, a toe.

How Trump Will Foil The Desperation Prayer Of Democrats, Liberals

For the first time in its history, the United States has had four, and arguably five, consecutive terms of unsuccessful federal government, from administrations and Congresses of both parties.

The last Clinton term under-reacted to the original terrorist incidents at the Khobar Towers (1996), the Nairobi and Dar es Salaam embassies (1998) and the USS Cole (also 1998); and stoked up the housing bubble through the Community Reinvestment Act and executive orders to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to invest massively in sub-prime mortgages. ......... Two-thirds of Americans, in all polls, feel the country is headed in the wrong direction ....... It is a corrupt and vulgar system and virtually all Americans know it, and everyone above the age of 40 has seen an alarming decline in the quality of candidates for high, and especially national, office since the Reagan years. ...... The presidencies between Polk and Lincoln (Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan sharing three terms) were inadequate, and so were those between Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt (Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover, though Coolidge retains his apologists), but none of these presidents was re-elected after a full term, and neither talent drought was as profound or extended as the 20 years of misgovernment the United States is reeling from now.In the circumstances,

it is little wonder that the country is looking elsewhere than the ranks of its elected officials to find a possible president.

.......... Viewed from that perspective, the rise of Donald Trump is not so surprising, and he is not running as a spoiler, as Ross Perot did against George H. W. Bush did in 1992, nor as an aggrieved Theodore Roosevelt did in 1912 against William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson. He has the populist aptitudes of the old Progressive party because of his often outlandish Archie Bunker–esque political incorrectness,

but he is more credible than Archie because his views emanate not from a blue-collar reactionary, but from an accomplished billionaire as well as a successful television personality.

........... Mr. Trump is financing himself ..... there is no point merely to ejecting the incumbents ...... They have tried turning the rascals out many times in the last 30 years and they just get worse rascals. ....... The liberal press establishment is frenzied in its animosity to Donald Trump, and their hysteria is becoming more vociferous and desperate

as he utters clangorous violations of the normal parameters of political discourse.

The echo chamber explodes, the commentariat foams at the mouth, but he seems to pay no penalty in the polls. I think there are two explanations for this: Donald doesn’t really say such outrageous things as his opponents spinningly impute to him; and vast sections of the population are more bitterly disappointed and angry at the deterioration of their country and the misinformation of the mainstream media than the subjects of that resentment can imagine. .......... Mr. Trump’s durability now scares them. Last week, the New York Times accused Mr. Trump of being on “the brink of fascism.” ....... On health care, he seeks the repeal of Obamacare, the shattering of the insurance cartel, and the provision of universal health care, with health-savings accounts and with, presumably, where necessary, the according of discretionary tax credits. He is for gradual, extensive legalization of drugs with some of the proceeds of savings available to drug education and treatment. ......... thinks climate change is a hoax, and cap-and-trade both insane and hypocritical. ....... He would disband the Department of Education and distribute its funds to the states, and leave legalization of specific drugs, like the rules over same-sex marriage, to the states. ...... He would abolish super PACs, lift limits on individual contributions to candidates, and ban soft money. ...... his tax plan is a moderate reduction in income taxes and a steeper reduction in the corporate rates;

he seeks, effectively, to turn the national debt into a sinking fund, cutting expenses beneath revenues and steadily shrinking the deficit.

....... Germany, he believes, can sort out Ukraine with the Russians, who are welcome to Syria, and let Russia destroy ISIS. .......

his policy positions, though vague in places, and subject to being moved around in response to his apparently spontaneous aperçus and reminiscences, are not especially radical or provocative.

....... The Trump effect appears to rest on his talent for shocking conventional opinion, and on his extreme contempt for the conventional wisdom, the degraded political modus operandi, and the snipers’ gallery of the biased and lazy senior media. He still leads the polls of those for whom people absolutely will not vote, and I suspect that

in the end the elected Republican politicians will stand on each other’s shoulders and deny him the nomination

, while making profound concessions to his policy preferences.......... is striking very close to the heart of the American problem: the corrupt, dysfunctional political system and the dishonest press. ..... it all started to go horribly wrong with Watergate, when one of the most successful administrations in the country’s history was torn apart for no remotely adequate reason and the mendacious assassins in the liberal media have been awarding themselves prizes and commendations for 40 years since. ......... I suspect the Bush-Clinton era, which had its moments, is ending, and that whatever happens next year, Donald Trump will have played an important role in it........ To adapt George Wallace’s old phrase, he has shaken the American political system “by the eyeteeth,” and it will be better for it.

Donald Trump’s Hostile Takeover of the G.O.P.

What, in the frantic year leading up to the nomination of a Presidential candidate, look like mass movements that are on the cusp of taking over a party often turn out to be nothing more than gyrations in the polls, even if they are extended ones, or the inflation of one noisy slice of the electorate that gets disproportionate media attention. .......

The history of Presidential primaries is the history of small and exciting movements that quickly get snuffed out.

...... For a moment in the 2012 campaign cycle it seemed like Michele Bachmann was going to remake the G.O.P into a vehicle for the religious right, but she never made it past Iowa ...... On the Republican side, you have to go back to Senator Barry Goldwater’s nomination, in 1964, to find a Republican who captured a party against the will of the party’s élites. ......

Donald Trump’s attempt at a hostile takeover of the G.O.P. is astonishing in its breadth. He is not just competing against a large field of candidates for votes in the primaries; he is at war with nearly every power center in the Republican Party—and he is winning.

...... the rise of a movement on the right that dislikes Republican leaders almost as much as it dislikes the President. ....... his pattern of insulting women with terms like “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals.” After the debate, Trump seemed to make Kelly’s point by attacking her in a vulgar way. .......

Fox News has long been considered the most influential news organization for conservatives.

........ Castellanos called Fox “the most powerful Republican institution in contemporary American politics” and “the stage on which Republicans play.” ...... “Most Republican candidates kneel before it, supplicants hoping to sip airtime from its chalice.” ........ Similarly, Trump has been attacking, and been attacked by, the main organs of conservative opinion—National Review and The Weekly Standard—which were previously considered the enforcers of conservative ideology and institutions to be flattered rather than condemned. ......

And, of course, Trump has his nearly six million Twitter followers, which he has sometimes described as better than owning his own newspaper.

...... Trump is also at war with his Party’s more interventionist foreign-policy establishment, and he often attacks the biggest donors in the G.O.P. ......

Trump would undoubtedly welcome the support of any of the establishment figures he now ridicules. Like an inept high-school boy trying to win the affections of a girl, he sometimes seems to mock people in order to get their attention.

..... Nobody has voted yet, and what looks now like an unstoppable movement may in a few weeks or months seem more like a passing fad. .... Trump, at the moment, rather than trying to ingratiate himself with the power brokers of his adopted Party, is trying to destroy them. What’s astonishing is that it’s working.

A Saudi Prince Burns Donald Trump

With his battle with Megyn Kelly and Fox News still raging, Donald Trump got into another spat on Thursday—this time with an ultra-wealthy Saudi prince who helped him out, financially, twice in the nineteen-nineties, when some of Trump’s businesses were struggling. ......... the Prince isn’t the sort of fellow to sit back and ignore such antics. On Thursday afternoon, he posted a tweet of his own, in English, which read, “Trump:You base your statements on photoshopped pics?I bailed you out twice;a 3rd time,maybe?” ........ this isn’t the first time that bin Talal, who is a nephew of the late King Abdullah, has tangled with Trump on Twitter. .......

In December, after Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, the Prince tweeted, “You are a disgrace not only to the GOP but to all America. Withdraw from the U.S presidential race as you will never win.”

Trump fired back: “Dopey Prince @Alwaleed_Talal wants to control our U.S. politicians with daddy’s money. Can’t do it when I get elected. #Trump2016.” ........ According to Forbes magazine, he is the richest individual in the Arab world, with a net worth of more than seventeen billion dollars.

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Donald Trump Has A Massive Debt Problem

English: Celebrity Apprentice star Dennis Rodman and Donald Trump (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nobody knows he doesn't. Maybe even he is refusing to open up the Excel files with all the numbers. But I am guessing. If you have managed to offend everyone, up to and including the British, especially the British, I mean the British want to ban this guy from their island, chances are, yes, you are a racist, and a sexist, but chances are, that means you have a massive debt problem. It's not just China. It's also Donald Trump.

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Trump claims his net worth is 11 billion dollars. Magazines claim it is more like four billion. Maybe he is confusing the numbers. His net worth is four billion, and his debt is 11 billion. He has been learning the casino business. There are various forms of capitalism. One is casino capitalism.

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Isn't it time for a Rubio/Bush/Christie/Kasich unity ticket to go up against Trump and Cruz in the primaries?

— Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) January 25, 2016

The Home Run Has To Be A Constitutional Amendment, Abe Lincoln Style

An Open Letter To Barack Obama

You may think ageing is a natural process. If that is so, why are you ageing faster than mere mortals? You may think your unique position of power is adding to the stress. But you do work out in the mornings, don’t you? As for the position of power, as soon as you leave office, the first realization that is going to strike you is, this government runs on its own.

The white man taught you to pump iron. Pumping iron is good. But that leaves so much of the territory untouched. Like the joints, and the mind. Pick up yoga. Call up Modi. Ask him for a demo session next time he is in town. He is always too happy to oblige. Putin beat you to it by the way. He has already talked to Modi about yoga.

Guess who Michelle Obama’s vegetable garden is for. Eat.

I recommend two books for you on Amazon. If you can afford only one, buy the green one. As soon you “retire,” you should work on getting back your 2008 looks. It is possible. This is a nasty job you have. Or you could start right away. Certain things are not to be postponed for later. Like breathing.

And Amitabh Bachchan colors his hair. The most recognized face on the planet colors his hair (not face). It is not such a bad idea. He does it for his fans.

Mr. Obama Comes To Africa

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo during a meeting with Lula da Silva, President of Brasil (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Barack Obama In Kenya
FDR = Keynesian, Barack Obama = Kenyan

What President Obama didn’t see on his trip to Africa

it is unlikely he saw many Africans engaged in modern, high productivity jobs at all. ..... Ethiopia and Kenya, the two countries on this visit, are among the region’s least successful countries in converting economic growth into employment growth. .... One of the enduring “stylized facts” of economic development is that in poorer countries like Ethiopia and Kenya workers generally move from agriculture to higher productivity sectors. This is good for growth and for the workers themselves. In Asia, where poverty has fallen most rapidly over the past quarter century, millions of households have been drawn out of poverty through the rapid expansion of industry. In Africa structural transformation of this type has contributed very little to growth and poverty reduction. As recently as the turn of the 21st century a growing share of African workers found themselves trapped in low productivity, low-wage employment. ....... Four out of five workers leaving agriculture are finding or creating jobs in services such as trade and distribution. These jobs are not the high-tech service jobs celebrated during President Obama’s visit to Kenya. This is movement from low-productivity to marginally higher-productivity employment in markets, on sidewalks, and in food stalls. ..... about 80 percent of Africa’s workers are employed in either agriculture or services. ...... output per worker in manufacturing across Africa is more than six times that in agriculture. Despite the potential that industry offers, it has not been part of the African success story. In 2012, the average share of manufacturing in GDP in sub-Saharan Africa was about 10 percent, unchanged from the 1970s. .........

In Cambodia and Vietnam—two emerging Asian economies that as recently as a decade ago were very similar to Ethiopia and Kenya in terms of income, infrastructure, and human capital—manufacturing has grown to 20 and 24 percent of GDP, respectively.

....... “creating the transparency, and the rule of law, and the ease of doing business, and the anti-corruption agenda that creates a platform for people to succeed.” .......

However, they are also the easy answers of the aid industry.

...... the sad fact that donors—the United States among them—have not been willing to address

the more fundamental constraints to Africa’s industrial development: simple but costly things like infrastructure and skills or politically difficult things like expanding preferential market access.

....... the failure to extend the African Growth and Opportunity Act to most agricultural products were notably absent from the president’s published remarks. ..... Africans, especially the young seeking good jobs, deserve something more from the U.S. president than cheerleading and conventional wisdom.

The Five Worst Leaders In Africa

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, President of Equatorial Guinea ..... Equatorial Guinea is one of the continent’s largest producers of oil and has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, but this doesn’t necessarily translate into prosperity for its people. The country ranks very poorly in the United Nations human development index; the vast majority of Equatorial Guineans hardly have access to clean drinking water. ......... José Eduardo dos Santos, President of Angola ...... Angola is extremely resource-rich. ....... the second-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa and the seventh-largest supplier to the United States. Angola also has massive diamond deposits and occupies an enviable position as the world’s fourth largest producer of rough diamonds. ........ 68% of the country’s total population lives below the poverty line of $1.7 a day, while 28% live on less than 30 cents. ......... Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe ....... GDP growth in 2011 was over 7% and the Southern African state has experienced single-digit inflation since 2009. .... Mugabe’s government has also recorded significant achievements in education as a result of extensive teacher training and school expansion projects: At over 80%, the country has one of the highest literacy rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. ........ Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate is the highest in sub-Saharan Africa: it’s over 60%. ....... King Mswati III, King of Swaziland .... nearly 70 percent of the country’s citizens live on less than $1 a day and 40 percent are unemployed. ...... Omar Al-Bashir, President of Sudan

What Obama Didn't Say in His African Union Address

in his controversial speech, Obama addressed corruption, democracy, and civil rights, yet there was still a lot left unsaid. ...... we have to remember that President Obama is the head of the U.S. empire. .... But all three of their policies have been devastating for the African continent. If we look at President Clinton, he championed a so-called new breed of African leaders, where we focus on Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda, where we see Rwanda and Uganda invaded Congo and triggered the deadliest conflict since World War II where an estimated 6 million people lost their lives, and the people in the Central Africa still live in a deathtrap, and U.S. policy is playing a key role in that. ....... President Bush egged on the Ethiopians to invade Somalia in 2006, which set back stability in that region that was being developed by the Islam [Accords]. And of course we know with President Obama, he led, along with Sarkozy and NATO, the bombing of Libya and the regime change in Libya that has devastated a country and has had deleterious impact on neighboring countries. ...... Especially if we can, we look into the manner in which the United States has supported so-called presidents for life on the African continent. Probably most prominently and classically is after the U.S. overthrew Patrice Lumumba in 1960, it supported President Mobutu for over three decades. And it was only with the backing of the United States that Mobutu was able to remain in power, and he destroyed the country and ran it into the ground. ....... What we see on the African continent is almost, in his speeches, it's almost like the international version of you know, pull your pants up. Do your homework, and this respectability politics that he pushes domestically, or he has pushed domestically, he pushes on the international level as well. ....... the U.S. role in stifling democracy and stifling the development and the plundering of the African continent, if he was to acknowledge that and then get into some of the policy issues, I think then his proclamations would be a bit more credible, let's say. ....... So we have as a part of his entourage and his administration individuals who have been cozy with quote-unquote friendly tyrants on the African continent. ...... So we see where the United States and the administration and the Congress, they've been cozy with some pretty nasty characters who repressed their people, who restrict the rights of their population. ...... And they continue to do that, because we only have to look at Uganda today with Yoweri Museveni, who's been in office for some 20-odd years. And he's a key ally for the United States. ........... So many Africans have told me, we don't want just aid, we want trade that fuels progress. ..... it really depends whether you're talking about coming from a neoliberal framework, from the idea of the Washington consensus formed for Africa, or whether you're talking about the kind of trade we see in Latin America that is lifting all boats, so to speak. .......

since President Obama's been in office, 2008, trade with Africa has declined by half. I believe we went from about $142 billion to $73 billion. Compared to China, for example, our trade between China and Africa is three times that of the United States. It's valued at around $222 billion.

...... are we talking about trade that benefits the elites in Africa and the elites in the West, where you have some $65-70 billion of illicit outflow of capital from the African continent as a result of the plundering of the continent by its local elites and foreign corporations coming from the West.

Africa to Obama: Mind your own business

United States President Barack Obama is the most admired foreign leader in Africa because he has ancestral roots in our continent. .... we African elites have internalised the ideology of our conquerors that presents us as inferior, inadequate, and incapable of self-government. ..... behind Obama's seeming concern for our good lies the social contempt he holds us in. ..... Why doesn't Obama openly admonish leaders of Western Europe whenever he visits their countries? Is it because they govern better? .... There is a lot of corruption and widespread human rights abuses (especially of migrant minorities) in Western Europe - not to mention the brutality, genocides, forced labour, and racism that characterised their governance of Africa during colonial rule. ...... Humanitarian Imperialism, the US and Western Europe behave like a mafia godfather who, as he grows old, decides to defend law and order and begins to attack his lesser colleagues in crime, preaching brotherly love and the sanctity of human life - all the while holding onto his ill-gotten wealth and the income it generates........

In the US, a black person is killed by the highly militarised police force every 28 hours .

..... Scores of black people in the US are stopped and searched every minute for no other reason than the colour of their skin. ..... Blacks constitute 12-13 percent of the US population but 43 percent of its prison population. Although there are only 33 million blacks in the US, there are one million (nearly four percent) of them in jail. ...... the incarceration rate of blacks in the US is 10 times that of blacks in apartheid South Africa. .... The New Jim Crow, there are double the number of blacks in jail than in college. .....

There are more black people in jail today than were enslaved in 1850; and more blacks are disenfranchised today than in 1875

, when the 15th amendment prohibiting discrimination in voting rights based on race was passed. ....... In Obama's hometown of Chicago, the total population of black males with a felony record is 80 percent of the adult black male workforce. ..... The 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa Obama admonishes have a combined population of 961 million and their total prison population is 830,000. ...... If sub-Saharan Africa jailed its people at the same rate as the US jails its black population, we would have 38.4 million people in jail. ..... mass surveillance programmes that allow the federal government to eavesdrop on almost every communication of American citizens and allies ...... The corruption of Washington and Wall Street - where corporate profits are privatised and losses nationalised - goes without saying. ...... Invading sovereign nations and toppling their governments while leaving chaos in their wake, the large scale use of drones which kill innocent civilians in Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan are the kind of crimes the US commits. ..... Obama's choice to lecture Africa is a product of the social contempt he and his countrymen and women have for black people. ...... Many African leaders do not treat their people with the cruel contempt with which the US treats its black citizens. ...... True some of our leaders use the police against their political rivals. But the US uses its police daily against innocent poor black people who are not even contesting for political power from the white financial, industrial, and military aristocracy that rules that country. ...... Africans fight for more freedom, democracy, and clean government daily...... And in these struggles, the US has consistently sided with our oppressors......... Steven Biko, a hero of the anti-apartheid struggle, said that the greatest weapon in the hands of an oppressor is never his guns and armies, but the mind of the oppressed. ..... Like all imperial powers before it, the US seeks to dominate the world in order to exploit it. This is how it sustains her greedy consumption.

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Barack Obama In Kenya

Obama's 'homecoming' to Kenya highlights economic boom

Better stocktaking methods and new software have helped cut delivery times to supermarkets from two weeks to two days and sales have grown by 50 percent ..... Obama's visit reveals Washington's desire to fix ties with Kenya - East Africa's top economy and a partner in the fight against religious radicals - after they slumped while President Uhuru Kenyatta faced international charges of crimes against humanity. ....... Obama also faces pressure from rights organisations to use his popularity to address Kenya's problems with corruption, media freedom, and the battle against militants from Somalia's al-Shabab group, who have spilled blood in a shopping mall, a university campus among other targets. ...... bullish about Kenya's economy, which grew by 4.9 percent in the first quarter of 2015. It is one of the world's fastest-growing markets and part of a long-term expansion across sub-Saharan Africa that is building a middle class of new consumers. ...... "The UN projects that over 1.8 billion children will be born in the next 35 years across Africa. That's a huge market that's available for anybody serving the baby industry, everything from diapers to baby food. There is lots of opportunity" ....... technology start-up firms in its western suburbs seek to build on such successes as the mobile phone money transfer system, M-Pesa. The innovation hub along Ngong Road has been dubbed Silicon Savannah. ...... "You can feel the confidence in Nairobi these days, a sense of swagger and bravado on the part of Kenyan elites" ........ "A sense that Kenya, for the first time since independence, really does have its destiny in its own hands and does have options in terms of who it chooses to partner with internationally" ...... The US president has an 80 percent approval rating there and is lauded as "our son" ..... he will not visit his ancestral village Kogelo, the site of his father's grave, amid al-Shabab security concerns. ....... Obama appears dismayed that he will be tied to his security detail and motorcade, rather than be free to meet with distant relatives, such as his step-grandmother Sarah Onyango Obama ...... visiting Kenya as a private citizen is probably more meaningful to me than visiting as president because I can actually get outside of a hotel room or a conference centre ....... Upon arrival, he will meet his Kenyan counterpart, Kenyatta, whose presidential bid Washington lobbied against because, at the time of the election in March 2013, he faced International Criminal Court charges over his role in the 2007-08 post-election violence. ........ The court dropped all charges against Kenyatta in December. ...... Kenya's economic boom is part of a wave of modernisation and entrepreneurship that is sweeping sub-Saharan Africa and challenging deep-rooted prejudices that the continent is forever blighted by poverty, war, disease, and corruption. ........ "The pundit's pendulum will not always swing from Afro-pocalpyse to Afro-optimism" ........ "There will essentially be a mixed bag of billionaires emerging at the same time as we see people risking their lives to reach Europe across the Mediterranean. They will exist side by side, in much the same way we as see the super-rich and a homeless population in Washington DC"

US holds summit with African heads of state

Afua Prempeh says she will never wash her frock again. She was hugged by Michelle Obama during a feel-good event for young African go-getters in Washington last week, and Prempeh does not want the US first lady's impressions to be rinsed away. ...... the allure that the Obamas retain in Africa, despite their waning approval ratings at home. The couple's charisma, together with President Barack Obama's Kenyan lineage, will be used to full effect at the first US-Africa Leaders Summit ...... "I'm still recovering from the excitement of hugging Michelle," says Prempeh, 28, a Ghanaian environmentalist who won a six-week study tour in Florida. ...... "The Obamas are a symbol of hope, that people can look beyond the colour of my skin or the fact that I'm a woman." .......... a continent where Europe and China are bigger traders. ...... Almost 50 African heads of state plan to attend Monday's three-day summit on business, security and governance. The four dozen presidential motorcades circling downtown Washington could cause traffic gridlock reminiscent of Nairobi, Lagos or Johannesburg. ...... European Union trade volumes with Africa hit $200bn in 2013. China's rocketed from $10bn in 2000 to more than $170bn in 2013. In recent years, US-Africa trade has stagnated at about $60bn. ........

Africa's population could eclipse China and India with two billion people in 2050, consisting of one quarter of the world's working-age population.

....... A bigger US footprint in Africa is far cheaper than pivoting to Asia ......... a small bit of effort now could mean better market access and closer economic ties in 25 years, when Africa will be better positioned to buy the goods and services that America is best at producing." ...... The US may lag in trade, but it has more African diplomatic posts than any other country and is stealthily expanding its military presence. Last month's revelations of US secret military advisers in Somalia added to the list of known hotspots where US trainers, spies, drones, and commandoes operate. ...... Visiting leaders cannot trumpet their feats in the plenary speeches of typical multi-lateral events. Worse still, they won't have one-on-one time with Obama, unlike the guaranteed presidential face time at Beijing's triennial Africa meets. ........ Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Omar al-Bashir of Sudan were not invited. ...... Kenya's president Uhuru Kenyatta appeared on the guest list because he cooperated with the International Criminal Court over his role in the ethnic bloodletting of 2007-08. ...... Adebayo Alonge, 27, said it will be tough to use the skills he gained at Yale University to grow his business distributing low-cost drugs across Nigeria's countryside.

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Obama, My Man

Officially Great

The Trump's Trump Card

Remember when Condoleezza Rice got confused between Iraq and Iran on national television? To her credit (god bless her soul), she corrected herself before the sentence was over. But there are about 50 million Republicans who never did. And these are all people with voting rights. I worry for democracy in America.

Donald Trump entering the race is like the fox has entered the hen house. There was already a dearth of ideas among Republican candidates. Now this dude is going to suck up the remaining little oxygen. It is not possible to hold an intelligent policy conversation with this guy. Did you notice what he said about Mexicans? He sounds like Hillary 2016's Hispanic vote consolidation exercise, Hillary's own internal Hispanic voter outreach program.

"I beat the Chinese all the time!"
- Donald Trump

This quote is going to be the high point of his run. And he thinks he is beating the Chinese "all the time" because "I just sold an apartment to somebody from China." Is there something about the apartment the buyer needed to know? I defend the Donald's right to free speech. What would America be without a few microphones?

For every nonsensical remark you think Trump is making, there are about a million people out there who are lapping it up like it were gospel truth. Do not take this guy for granted. I am saying that to the Republicans in the race.

Friends Of Hillary: On Both Sides?

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