In 1996, he became Israel‘s first directly elected prime minister after an early election following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.
Archiv: power
‘The EU is Germany writ large’
As Britain prepares for Brexit, what will happen to the EU that we leave behind? To understand the EU and its direction of travel, you have to understand Germany – the bloc’s richest, most populous and most powerful nation. Sir Paul Lever has worked in the Foreign Office and the European Commission, he was the British ambassador to Germany between 1997 and 2003, and is author of Berlin Rules: Europe and the German Way. spiked caught up with him for a chat.
A very brief lesson in how power works
What the left wants to talk about: …
What the left ends up talking about: …
Congresswoman Barbara Lee Introduces AUMF Repeal Legislation
Congresswoman Lee was the only member of Congress to oppose the 2001 AUMF. At the time, Congresswoman Lee wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle that the authorization “was a blank check to the president.”
According to the Congressional Research Service, the 2001 AUMF has been used to justify US military action at least 41 times in 19 countries.
The full text of the legislation is available here. The bill has 46 original cosponsors.
New legislation could effectively end war in Afghanistan
(5.3.2019) Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) discuss new legislation they introduced that would effectively end the US war in Afghanistan. #CNN #News
This week, I am introducing legislation to end a war that should have ended long ago, the war in Afghanistan. The United States has been fighting the War on Terror since October of 2001 and it has cost 6 trillion dollars.
Lawmakers: End Afghanistan War, Give Every GWOT Vet a $2,500 Bonus
If passed, the AFGHAN Service Act would also permanently end America‘s involvement in Afghanistan and overturn the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, said the lawmakers, who serve on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
„It is time to declare the victory we achieved long ago, bring them home, and put America‘s needs first,“ Paul said.
Senator @RandPaul (R-KY) has introduced a new bill calling on US #Congress to repeal the 2001 #AUMF and finally cast a vote to officially end the #WarInAfghanistan and bring all of our troops home. #Afghanistan #DoD #EndlessWar
The 2019 AFGHAN Service Act
(c) REPEAL OF AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF MILITARY FORCE
—The Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40) is repealed effective on the earlier of —
(1) the date that is 395 days after the date of the enactment of this joint resolution: or
(2) the date on which the Secretary of Defense certifies that all United States Armed Forces involved in operations or military actions in Afghanistan (as described in subsection (a)(1)(A)) have departed from Afghanistan.
Tim Kaine and the war on zombie wars
On Wednesday, Kaine was the lead Democrat on a new bill that would repeal the authorizations for the 1991 Gulf War and the 2002 war against Iraq.
“It just creates a challenge, and for a president to think, ‘Hmm, if I want to bypass Congress, how can I do it?’” Kaine said of antiquated military authorizations that technically remain law.
Iran, Turkey agree on water cooperation
Iran and Turkey have agreed to create joint committees for water affair and other related cooperation on power resources.
Iran‘s Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian held a meeting with Turkey‘s Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli in Ankara, Trend reports citing ILNA.
How to Beat a Manipulator
(17.8.2018) There’s no need to be ashamed of being conned. Realizing that you’ve been, or are being, conned will naturally bring up feelings of embarrassment, but it’s never your fault that someone’s taken you for a ride. Get clear: conning someone is the crime; being conned is being a victim of that crime. That’s how the law sees it in fraud cases. Manipulators would love you to think that it’s your fault for allowing yourself to be manipulated, but that’s just another manipulation isn’t it?
Manipulators use one of our most astounding, useful, and beautiful human characteristics when they con us—empathy. Our innately trusting nature is the reason why we’ve been able to collaborate on large scales to create and innovate in extraordinary ways unseen anywhere else in the animal kingdom.
Kremlin stays mum on comments by Blair-era MI6 chief ‘regretting helping Putin win power’
(1.10.2018) The Times’ Monday issue published an interview with Richard Dearlove, then chief of the Secret Intelligence Service in 1999-2004, who said he regretted that he had helped organize Tony Blair’s visit to Russia’s St. Petersburg where he attended a premier at the Mariinsky Theatre alongside Vladimir Putin just a few weeks before the presidential polls in Russia.
HOLD THE FRONT PAGE. THE REPORTERS ARE MISSING
Although journalism was always a loose extension of establishment power, something has changed in recent years. Dissent tolerated when I joined a national newspaper in Britain in the 1960s has regressed to a metaphoric underground as liberal capitalism moves towards a form of corporate dictatorship. This is a seismic shift, with journalists policing the new „groupthink“, as Parry called it, dispensing its myths and distractions, pursuing its enemies.
Kavanaugh Is Sworn In After Close Confirmation Vote in Senate
The Kavanaugh confirmation, playing out against the backdrop of a midterm election where control of Congress is at stake, gave Republicans what they believe is momentum to ensure that they keep their slim Senate majority.
Republicans are now painting Democrats and their activist allies as angry mobs. Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, delivered a speech on Saturday assailing what he called “mob rule,” while the majority leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, told reporters that “the virtual mob that has assaulted all of us in this process has turned our base on fire.”
Collins and Manchin Will Vote for Kavanaugh, Ensuring His Confirmation
A final vote is expected late Saturday afternoon.
Judge Kavanaugh’s ascent to the nation’s highest court is a huge victory for President Trump, Senate Republicans and their conservative allies, who have mounted a decades-long campaign to remake the Supreme Court in their image. He will replace the court’s swing vote, the retired Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, with a committed conservative who is likely to push the court to the right for decades.
Kavanaugh nomination: Murkowski no, Flake yes for Saturday‘s final vote
Flake said he will back Kavanaugh unless something changes. Asked how he will vote, he said „yes, unless something big were to change. I don‘t see what would.“ The Arizona Republican had forced a one-week delay and an extended FBI investigation into Kavanaugh.
GOP defeats Dem filibuster, keeps Kavanaugh on track
The 51-49 vote saw one defection from each party, canceling each other out and giving the judge enough leeway to clear the procedural hurdle. A final confirmation vote now looms on Saturday, and that remains in doubt.
Glad the FBI will now look into the allegations regarding Judge Kavanaugh before the Senate takes a vote. This should‘ve been done already, but better late than never. The American people deserve better from our leaders.
What‘s really going on in the viral picture of women grimacing during Kavanaugh‘s angry defense
An image from Brett Kavanaugh‘s testimony as he denied sexually assaulting Christine Blasey Ford went viral.
The image shows several women behind Kavanaugh scowling as he became visibly angry during his hearing on Thursday.
Many saw it as a wider symbol of how women were reacting to Kavanaugh and to the visible emotion Ford displayed during her testimony earlier in the day.
But people sitting behind Kavanaugh were his friends, family, and allies.
Anderson Cooper: This is what a U-turn looks like
President Donald Trump ordered a limited, week-long FBI probe of the allegations against his Supreme Court pick, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, at the request of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Friday. It was a 180-degree turn from his previous statements about making such a move.
We Are Living Nineteen Eighty-Four
In Orwell’s world of 1984 Oceania, there is no longer a sense of due process, free inquiry, rules of evidence and cross examination, much less a presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Instead, regimented ideology — the supremacy of state power to control all aspects of one’s life to enforce a fossilized idea of mandated quality — warps everything from the use of language to private life.
Senator Diane Feinstein and the other Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee had long sought to destroy the Brett Kavanaugh nomination. Much of their paradoxical furor over his nomination arises from the boomeranging of their own past political blunders, …
Thursday‘s hearing should be canceled in light of a disturbing new allegation of sexual misconduct against Brett Kavanaugh. The FBI must investigate ALL allegations.
(23.9.2018)
Requiring an FBI investigation of a 36 year old allegation (without specific references to time or location) before Professor Ford will appear before the Judiciary Committee is not about finding the truth, but delaying the process till after the midterm elections
Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court Confirmation Is Now the Ultimate Test of Political Power in 2018
(20.9.2018) Both parties have every incentive to fight to the finish: Democrats see an opportunity to galvanize their already furious base, while Republicans, who’d hoped to put a big election-eve win on the board, fear discouraging theirs.
The Supreme Court: Every seat „a chess piece in the struggle for power“
(23.9.2018) Totenberg broke the Anita Hill story, and is covering the replay.
„This is an election year, after all,“ Totenberg said. „Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats want to look insensitive. But it is a very political proceeding. A great deal of what we see on camera will be, and has been, role-playing.“
In The New York Times last week, Hill wrote that the Senate Judiciary Committee appears to have „learned little from the Thomas hearing, much less the more recent #MeToo movement.“
New Book Warns Of The Supreme Court‘s Power
(2.9.2018) With the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh pending, NPR‘s Michel Martin interviews David A. Kaplan about his new book, The Most Dangerous Branch: Inside the Supreme Court‘s Assault on the Constitution.
Trump to Invite Putin to Washington, Blindsiding His Intelligence Chief
(19.7.2018) President Trump plans to invite President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to visit Washington in the fall, the White House said Thursday — an invitation that stunned the nation’s top intelligence official, who said he was still groping for details of what the two leaders had discussed in their encounter this week in Helsinki, Finland.
“Say that again,” the director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, replied when Andrea Mitchell of NBC broke the news while interviewing him at a security conference in Aspen, Colo.
Surprise, surprise! Juncker team helping to devolve EU powers recommends ‚MORE Europe‘
A task force set up Jean-Claude Juncker designed to explore the possibility of handing back powers to the European Union’s member states is about to make a dramatic U-turn and recommend more European integration is required.
Italian President’s Loyalty to the Euro Creates Chaos
But in deliberately forcing a new election over the euro, which a majority of Italians say they support, the usually careful and measured Mr. Mattarella expressly put an explosive issue with the potential of transforming Europe front and center. And by using his constitutional powers to block the new government in order to protect Italian savings accounts from increasingly wary markets, he also handed the gifted and gleefully hostile populist parties the talking point of a lifetime before the elections.
How much power does the Italian president actually have?
It is on this basis that Di Maio has raised the possibility of impeaching Mattarella for treason — something that would require an absolute majority in both chambers of parliament in a joint session.
Who Are We at War With? That’s Classified
(26.7.2013) President Obama has repeatedly said the U.S. is targeting Al Qaeda and “associated forces.” But the government won’t say who those forces are.
As Senate plans war powers debate, one liberal Democrat seeks stronger constraints on White House
Merkley’s proposal, detailed to The Washington Post in advance of its release, has several key differences from the Corker-Kaine measure unveiled last month that helped break a deadlock in the debate over war powers on Capitol Hill.
One is that Merkley explicitly writes in a three-year time limit, or a “sunset,” until the war authorization expires and lawmakers are forced to revisit the issue.