Notwithstanding a full week of attacks from his rivals, and notwithstanding over $38 million worth of attack ads leveled against him, The Donald scored a huge win in Mississippi.
He also crushed Kasich, Cruz and Rubio in Michigan, America’s blue collar heartland. Then in the early morning, he also won in Obama’s supposed American birthplace, Hawaii. “Book em, Donald!”
In Mississippi, Trump beat Cruz among evangelicals (that’s Cruz’s firewall) and among those GOP voters who are anti-government, the latter by a two-to-one margin. In Michigan, Trump destroyed Kasich, his nearest opponent, and won the vast support of both men and women, GOP and Democrats, who have lost their jobs due to globalization and international trade deals.
In other words, the Reagan Democrats — those Democrats who crossed party lines to vote in Republican Ronald Reagan — are coming back to the GOP fold for the first time in decades, due to Donald Trump railing against free trade deals.
And folks, this is one of the major reasons for Trump’s unbelievable success to date. On every campaign stop, Trump has been hammering against free trade.
Contrary to the ignorant pundits in the mainstream media, Trump is winning, not because he is appealing to the base instincts of the American electorate. He is winningbecause he understands and is articulating the anger of millions of white and black Americans, who have lost their jobs and their homes to unfair international trade deals, which they believe have closed American factories and exported these jobs out of the United States.
Trump is winning on substance — on the economy and the economic injustice that a majority of Americans are experiencing.
Trump is also killing it in the media. He truly enjoys the spotlight and he is loving this campaign. And the more his critics attack him and blow millions of dollars in negative ads, the stronger he gets.
CNN analyst Van Jones has compared Trump to an X-Man villain, Sebastian Shaw: The harder you hit that character, the stronger he becomes.
In response to that political buffoon, Mittens Romney, questioning Trump’s business acumen, Trump flipped the proverbial finger at all his detractors. Trump taunted them by holding his election night victory news conference at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida — and catered it with Trump Wines, Trump Water and Trump Steaks.
We still haven’t seen the depths of stupidity to which Marco Rubio and the GOP elites (Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Bill Kristol, Mitt Romney and Karl Rove) will descend as they cut off their noses, limbs and manhood to spite themselves and their own GOP party — all to stop The Donald.
At this stage of the political game, I don’t think Donald Trump can even stop Donald Trump and his date with destiny: A duel to the death with Hurricane Hillary, the Arkansas Hellcat.
Recently, political analyst Ed Kilgore of the New York magazine argued that it is not Trump and his massive ego that’s threatening a takeover of the GOP — it is Rubio, and the politically tone-deaf GOP establishment who support his failing campaign.
The more Rubio loses, the louder he argues that he is the true voice of the GOP party and its elites. But to date he has lost badly in almost every important GOP primary by huge margins to Trump and Cruz, and is even 15 percent behind in the most recent Florida poll — his own home state! So who is the con man now?
And yet, Rubio and the elites are threatening to take the fight to stop Trump to the convention floor.
In other words, against the obvious democratic will of the people, they want to stop Trump in some brokered, behind closed doors sleazy deal.
Can these so-called GOP experts and fat cat politicos be any more stupid?
These idiots have just handed Trump an even greater cause:
The popular will of the people against the slimy back room machinations of power-hungry Washington insiders!
Bernie Sanders is right: There is a revolution going on.
It is the revolution of the people against the political elites. Trump is the agent of this change. Establishment figures will be drowned under this tsunami of anger.
This includes Hillary, the archetypal Washington insider, because the majority of the American people don’t give a shite that Hillary will be the first female president.
You heard it here first. Trump is going to ride this wave of anger and revolution right into the Trump White House.
Poor Marco Rubio. Just when he thought he got his mojo back after landing a few solid blows against Trump in the last debate, he was blindsided by none other then the Jersey Brawler, Republican Governor Chris Christie, who came out swinging for his new BFF, the Trumpster.
Christie, as former presidential candidate, is one member of the Republican establishment who is leaping aboard the Trump Super Train that’s hurtling out of the station, bound for overwhelming victory in the southern states on Super Tuesday.
According to Christie, he threw his support behind Trump because he viewed Trump as a strong leader, the only one who could take on the probable Democratic nominee, Hellfire Hillary Clinton, the Arkansas Krusher.
As Christie astutely noted, the Clintons don’t want to see the Trumpster in the ring. They “do not know the playbook of Donald Trump because he is rewriting the playbook.”
Conventional wisdom was that in order to win in these complicated Republican primaries, a candidate needed thousands of volunteers in the trenches, getting out the vote, a tactic known as a ground game.
Also in the past, successful candidates required the support of local Republican bigwigs and grand poobahs, plus tons of moolah from special interests, to make huge negative advertising buys.
Trump had neither a ground game nor the support of local GOP notables. Also, Trump’s campaign is mostly self-financed, so he does not owe favours to any filthy special interest groups.
Nonetheless, Trump smoked the competition in the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries and he is going to run roughshod over his opponents in the southern conservative states on Super Tuesday.
The Donald has become the master of the traditional media as well as social media.
His anti-establishment message is resonating with young and old, male and female, white and of color, blue collar workers, professionals and business people.
Accordingly, Republican majority leader Kevin McCarthy from California is now on side, together with a growing number of no-name Congressional Republicans.
Even Nikki Haley, Republican Governor of South Carolina, and a public supporter of Rubio, has publicly admitted that if The Donald is the Republican nominee, she will be able to work with him.
And therein lies Trump’s trump card: Winning. In politics, winning is everything.
Poor Marco Rubio doesn’t get it. He is still coming across as a weak, frightened and clueless little Bambi, caught in Trump’s oncoming headlights.
Rubio’s latest fallback position is that even if The Donald wins the nomination, Republicans will not vote for him. Basically, Rubio is saying: I may be a loser, but I am a preferred loser. So vote for me anyways.
Of course, Republicans will vote for Trump in the general election, likely in greater numbers than they voted for the boring and uninspiring Mitt Romney during the last presidential rodeo.
Republicans, like Democrats, are in politics to win, not to hand over victory to their arch enemy — in this case, the hated Clintons — without a fight.
Remember, Republicans are mad as hell at the Obama Democrats. They do not want a white female clone of Obama, in the guise of the Hillary.
Tim Miller, Jeb Bush’s former spokesman, lit up Twitter with cutting comments. “Like Trump, Chris Christie is a pathetic, corrupt man with a tiny ego. I’m sure they bonded discussing their insecurities over a big meal,” he tweeted.
Bush strategist David Kochel also laced into Christie. “New lesson kids: sometimes, the best option for the fat kid is to just hand his lunch money over to the bully! #TrumpChristie2016,” he said on Twitter.”
Recall that Miller and Kochel were part of the Jeb Bush campaign brain trust that blew through $130 million with nothing to show for all that hard-earned American cheddar. These two so-called political pros were part of the most expensive and worst campaign in primary history, a political debacle of Titanic proportions.
If I was either one of those bozos, I would be hiding my head in shame, probably on some obscure beach in Ibiza. The last thing I would be opining on would be the political acumen of any politician.
But these old political hacks are like their candidate: A pathetic, sore and clueless loser who had no business playing with the big boys and girls.
I predict that when Hillary comes up against the hard-charging and disruptive Trump juggernaut, she too will suffer the same political fate as the sorry Jeb Bush.
To date Trump has won in northeast New Hampshire, South Carolina, and now the wild west of Nevada. His support is clearly national and he is attracting all segments of society, not just angry old men and women.
Trump even captured 45% of Hispanic vote in the Nevada caucus, notwithstanding his strong anti-immigrant position.
(He also did very well in midwest Iowa, coming a strong second to Cruz.)
In his victory speech last night, The Trump confirmed what I have been stating for weeks. Trump is winning the old, the young, the highly educated and as Trump so characteristically called them, “the poorly educated.” To which he ad libbed, “I love the poorly educated. They are the smartest and the most loyal.” That is pure Trumpism. Brilliant. Honest.
And that is why Trump is winning. He is connecting with people, like no one else in the Republican or Democratic races. Because Trump is being Trump. Profane, crude, blunt, brash, controversial. Anti-establishment. And the American people love him.
Sixty per cent of people polled in Nevada support a candidate who is not part of the political establishment.
I suspect that is true of Democrats and independents as well in America.
American people are sick and tired of both the Democratic and Republican establishments.
They are equally sick and tired of the very tired and disappointing Obama presidency. A president who is now being mocked and ridiculed in Europe, Asia, the Mideast and around the world for being a spineless wimp. For “leading from behind”. For failing to step up when Syria’s Assad crossed Obama’s “red line”, and for cutting and running in Benghazi and leaving Americans to be tortured and slaughtered. And for alienating America’s closest allies: Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Japan and Israel and its Mideast allies, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Obama has also diminished America and Americans in the eyes of its enemies; Russia, Iran and China, by Obama’s inactivity, his indifference and his overall weakness and spinelessness.
And who has the politically tone-deaf Hillary Clinton aligned herself with, but the failed and failing Obama presidency.
Hillary Clinton epitomizes the American political establishment. The old, decaying and dying sclerotic status quo.
There is a revolution stirring in American politics. The angry American people are mad as hell and they are not taking it any more. And by electing Trump president they want to send a message to Hillary that will be heard around the world:
Get the frack out of Washington and politics, you tired, old, lying, corrupt, political hack!
Donald Trump. Photo: screenshot Facebook Donald Trump
New Hampshire voters handed stunning victories to the two outsiders: Trump and Sanders.
Donald Trump won 36% of the GOP vote, followed by Kasich at 16%, and then the three also-ran Amigos- Canadian-born Cruz, Bush Jr. and Robatic Rubio- all at 11%.
On the Democratic side, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders humiliated Hillary Clinton by defeating her 60% to 39%.
I love the fact that the majority of so-called political experts and pundits on both the left and right in both the US and Canada- are stumped and stupefied over the success of the Trumpster and the raging septuagenarian socialistic Sanders, the junior senator from small town-state Vermont. These elitist lame stream commentators and analysts and even the long time political Democratic and GOP hacks are positively verklempt over the unpredictable political success of these two characters.
Trump’s reality TV show run for the presidency was supposed to have fizzled months ago. The experts had the GOP coalescing behind the heavily-funded and favored Jeb Bush or the younger and more immigrant-friendly, youthful and telegenic Marco Rubio.
But the Jebster, the silver spoon-fed Waspy preppie since birth, the apple of Papa George’s eye, was ironically, just not and will never be ready for prime time. In the debates, the Jebster came across as boring, weak and indecisive, burdened down by his tight-assed New England upbringing and his brother George’s shoot from the hip, overly militaristic and economically unsustainable, deficit-ridden Texas cowboy presidency.
Rubio is just a poor man’s middle of the road Cuban Mitt Romney. Caught in the vortex of the Hobbesian GOP’s highly primal primary politics. Which is short, brutish, no holds-barred, and down and dirty. One day Rubio is for legitimizing the illegal immigrants. The next day, bowing to the anti-immigrant GOP right wing, he is for deporting most of them out of the country. In the most recent publicly televised New Hampshire debate, Rubio shot himself in both feet as he robotically repeated his talking points, twice in one pathetic response much to the distress of his followers.
The problem for Rubio, Cruz, Christie and all the other pretenders to the GOP throne, is that none of these political dudes appear comfortable in their own skin. They all appear, weak, indecisive. Tacking one way, then the other, as the always shifting political winds.
Very much like the now reviled and weakened President Barack Obama. President Barry started with such “hope” and promise. But he has been exposed as the weakest, the most obsequious and the sorriest US president in the last century. He talks and talks and talks. But on the world stage, he carries a very limp stick.
Barry, the leader of the most powerful country in the world, is openly mocked by the thuggish Putin, Arab oil sheiks, and Iranian mullahs. To whom Prez Barry continually prostrates himself. Kissing their rings and their behinds. Constantly seeking their approval as he unsuccessfully sought, throughout his life, the approval of his distant Kenyan father, who had abandoned him at an early age.
Obama will be forever be associated with the pussy-whipped slogan, “leading from behind”.
His disappearing “red line in the Mideast sand on Syria”, was the final straw that broke the camel’s back. To mix Mideast metaphors.
From that time forth, Putin jumped in and overshadowed him. The Iranian mullahs mocked him. And Barry’s key allies in Europe, the Mideast (Israel), Asia ( Japan) and South Asia ( India) began distancing themselves from him and America.
The result- a horrible and embarrassing near fatal blow to America’s confidence and national self-esteem, both domestically and internationally.
On the domestic front, the economy has benefited the wealthy on Wall Street in New York in the east and the Silicon internet-based bazillionaires on the west coast. But the large American middle class of Middle America- not so much. And angry Middle Americans blame Obama and the political elites from both parties for their financially stagnant lives.
The pussy-whipping of Obama, both literally at home and abroad and American middle class economic stagnation are the major reasons for the rise of Trump and Sanders.
As the brilliant Ross Douthat , argued recently in Sunday’s New York Times, Americans- young, old, white, male, female and of color, want America to be great again. They are tired of settling for mediocrity. Of just getting by. They want to prosper. They want a better financial and economic future for themselves and their children. They want to have a shot at what Trump has- and is promising. A stronger and more competitive America. Which is not afraid to compete and beat China, Japan and Germany on the economic front. And is not afraid to stand up for American values both at home and abroad. And to exercise its military power and will against its enemies, ie Russia and Iran.
As for the Democrats. Sanders genuinely believes that government can be a force for good and can uplift all Americans, beyond mediocrity to greatness. Sanders has captured the youth vote, (both women and men) with his call for massive change. For a revolution. Free public college tuition. Universal, single-payer, publicly-run, affordable, government-controlled health care. The Canadian model.
And like Trump, Sanders has attacked the Wall Street and Silicon elites who appear to be prospering at the expense of hard-working average Americans.
The big story in New Hampshire and in these primaries in general, is that the under 45 year old Democratic men and women are flocking to Sanders and have abandoned the Hillary. And for many good reasons.
These young and middle-aged Democrats see Clinton as “Yesterday’s Woman”. A tired, old and fat congenital liar and prevaricator. Scandals, lies and deceptions are embedded in her DNA. “Whitewater, Benghazi, destruction of her national security/private emails, Slick Willy selling access to Secretary of State Hillary, for millions of dollars- Hillary sucking Wall Street’s teat- the list goes on and on and on- with no end in sight. Until Sanders drives a stake in the primaries- once and for all- through Clinton’s cold-hearted chest.
Young Democratic women also see Clinton as no advocate for women or women’s rights. Instead theyview her as a power-hungry Lady Macbeth, tainted by the blood of publicly humiliating and destroying scores of vulnerable and innocent women preyed on by her sexual predator of her husband.
I predict a Trump/Sanders fight to the death. And a Trump White House in 2017.
Posts are contributed by third parties. The opinions, facts and any other content in them are presented solely by the authors, and CIJnews assumes no responsibility for them.
New Hampshire voters handed stunning victories to the two outsiders: Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
Donald Trump won 36% of the GOP vote, followed by Kasich at 16%. Then the three also-ran amigos: Canadian-born Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush and robotic Mario Rubio, all at 11%.
On the Democratic side, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders humiliated Hillary Clinton by defeating her 60% to 39%.
I love the fact that the majority of so-called political experts and pundits on both the left and right in the US and Canada are stumped by the success of the Trumpster and the raging septuagenarian socialistic Sanders, the junior senator from small town-state Vermont.
Trump’s reality TV show run for the presidency was supposed to have fizzled months ago. The experts had the GOP coalescing behind the heavily-funded and favored Jeb Bushm or the more immigrant-friendly, youthful and telegenic Marco Rubio.
Except, unlike Trump, none of these other candidates appear comfortable in their own skins.
Jebster will never be ready for prime time. In the debates, he came across as boring and indecisive, burdened by his tight-assed New England upbringing and the collective memory of his brother George’s shoot from the hip, overly militaristic and economically unsustainable presidency.
Meanwhile, Rubio is just a poor man’s middle of the road Cuban Mitt Romney, caught in the vortex of the GOP’s highly primal primary politics. In the most recent New Hampshire debate, Rubio shot himself in both feet as he robotically repeated his talking points. One day Rubio is all for legitimizing the illegal immigrants. The next day, bowing to the anti-immigrant GOP right wing, he is all for deporting them.
In this sense, he and the other Republican contenders are much like the now reviled President Barack Obama.
President Barry started with such “hope” and promise. But he has been exposed as the sorriest US president in the last century. He talks and talks and talks. But on the world stage, he carries a very limp stick.
Barry, the leader of the most powerful country in the world, is openly mocked by the thuggish Putin, Arab oil sheiks and Iranian mullahs, to whom he continually prostrates himself. He constantly seeks their approval, just as he unsuccessfully sought, throughout his life, the approval of his distant Kenyan father, who had abandoned him at an early age.
Obama will be forever associated with the pussy-whipped slogan, “leading from behind.” His disappearing “red line in the Mideast sand on Syria,” was the final straw that broke the camel’s back (to mix Mideast metaphors.)
From that time forth, Putin jumped in and overshadowed him. The Iranian mullahs mocked him. And Barry’s key allies in Europe, the Mideast (Israel), Asia (Japan) and South Asia (India) began distancing themselves from him and America.
The result?
An embarrassing near-fatal blow to America’s confidence and national self-esteem, both domestically and internationally.
On the domestic front, the economy has benefited the wealthy on Wall Street and Silicon Valley — but the middle class of Middle America? Not so much. And these angry Americans blame Obama and the political elites from both parties for their financially stagnant lives.
All this accounts for the rise of both Trump and Sanders.
Americans — young, old, white, male, female and of color — want America to be great again. They are tired of settling for mediocrity. Of just getting by. They want to prosper. They want a better financial and economic future for themselves and their children. They want to have a shot at what Trump has — and is promising.
They want to live in a stronger and more competitive America which is not afraid to beat China, Japan and Germany on the economic front. A nation that is not afraid to stand up for American values both at home and abroad, one that will exercise its military power against its enemies.
As for the Democrats, Sanders genuinely believes that government can be a force for good and can uplift all Americans, beyond mediocrity to greatness. Sanders has captured the youth vote (both male and female) with his call for massive change. For a revolution: Free public college tuition. Universal, single-payer, publicly-run, affordable, government-controlled health care. That is, The Canadian model.
And like Trump, Sanders has attacked the Wall Street and Silicon Valley elites who appear to be prospering at the expense of hard-working average Americans.
The big story in New Hampshire and in these primaries in general is that Democratic men and women under 45 are flocking to Sanders and have abandoned the Hillary, and for many good reasons.
These young and middle-aged Democrats see Clinton as “yesterday’s woman,” a tired, old, fat congenital liar and prevaricator. Scandals, lies and deceptions are embedded in her DNA: Whitewater; Benghazi; the destruction of her national security/private emails; Slick Willy selling access to Secretary of State Hillary for millions — the list goes on.
Young Democratic women also see Clinton as no advocate for women’s rights. Instead they view her as a power-hungry Lady Macbeth who humiliated and destroyed scores of vulnerable women who’d been preyed upon by her sexual predator of her husband.
I love the fact that the majority of so-called political experts andpundits on both the left and right in both the US and Canada- are stumped and stupefied over the success of the Trumpster and the raging septuagenarian socialistic Sanders, the junior senator from small town-state Vermont.
These elitist lame stream commentators and analysts and even the long time political Democratic and GOP hacks are positively verklempt (speechless, overwrought with emotion) over the unpredictable political success of these two characters.
Trump’s amateur reality TV show run for the presidency was supposed to have fizzled months ago. The experts had the GOP coalescing behind the heavily-funded and favored Jeb Bush or the younger and more immigrant-friendly, youthful and telegenic Marco Rubio.
But the Jebster, the silver spoon-fed Waspy preppie since birth, the apple of Papa George’s eye, was ironically, just not and will never be ready for prime time. In the debates, the Jebster came across as boring, weak and indecisive, burdened down by his tight-assed New England upbringing and his brother George’s shoot from the hip,overly militaristic and economically unsustainable, deficit-ridden Texas cowboy presidency.
Rubio is just a poor man’s middle of the road Cuban Mitt Romney. Caught in the vortex of the Hobbesian GOP’s highly primal primary politics. Which is short, brutish, no holds-barred, and down and dirty. One day Rubio is for legitimizing illegal immigrants. The next day, bowing to the anti-immigrant GOP right wing, he is for deporting most of them out of the country.
The problem for Rubio, Cruz, Christie and all the other pretenders to the GOP throne, is that none of these political dudes appear comfortable in their own skin. They all appear, weak, indecisive. Tacking one way, then the other, as the always shifting political winds.
Very much like the now reviled and weakened President Barack Obama. President Barry started with such “hope” and promise. But he has been exposed as the weakest, the most obsequious and the sorriest US president in the last century. He talks and talks and talks. But on the world stage, he carries a very limp stick.
Barry, the leader of the most powerful country in the world, is openly mocked by the thuggish Putin, Arab oil sheiks, and Iranian mullahs. To whom Prez Barry continually prostrates himself. Kissing their rings and their behinds. Constantly seeking their approval as he unsuccessfully sought, throughout his life, the approval of his distant Kenyan father, who had abandoned him at an early age.
Obama will be forever be associated with the pussy-whipped slogan, “leading from behind”.
His disappearing “red line in the Mideast sand on Syria”, was the final straw that broke the camel’s back. To mix Mideast metaphors.
From that time forth, Putin jumped in and overshadowed him. The Iranian mullahs mocked him. And Barry’s key allies in Europe, the Mideast (Israel), Asia ( Japan) and South Asia ( India) began distancing themselves from him and America.
The result- a horrible and embarrassing near fatal blow to America’s confidence and national self-esteem, both domestically and internationally.
The pussy-whipping of Obama, both literally at home and abroad, is the reason for the rise of Trump and Sanders.
As the brilliant Ross Douthat , argues in Sunday’s New York Times, (click here) Americans- young, old, white, male, female and of color, want American to be great again. They are tired of settling for mediocrity. Of just getting by. They want to prosper. They want a better future for themselves and their children. They want to have a shot at what Trump has- and is offering.
As for the Democrats. Sanders genuinely believes that government can be a force for good and can uplift all Americans, beyond mediocrity to greatness.
For the Democrats, Sanders is the change agent. Hillary Clinton is “Yesterday’s Woman”. A congenital liar and prevaricator. Scandals, lies and deceptions are embedded in her DNA. “Whitewater, Benghazi, destruction of her national security/private emails, Slick Willy selling access to Secretary of State Hillary, for millions of dollars- the list goes on and on and on- with no end in sight. Until Sanders drives a stake in the primaries- once and for all- through Clinton’s cold-hearted chest.
Clinton is no advocate for women or women’s rights. She is a power-hungry Lady Macbeth, tainted by the blood of publicly humiliating and destroying scores of vulnerable women preyed on by her sexual predator of her husband.
I predict a Trump/Sanders fight to the death. And a Trump White House in 2017.
Posts are contributed by third parties. The opinions, facts and any other content in them are presented solely by the authors, and CIJnews assumes no responsibility for them.
This early election call by Conservative Prime Minister Harper caught Liberal Justin Trudeau with his pants down.
But more seriously for NDP Leader Mulcair, this early election call has left Mulcair and his party easily exposed to being attacked by both the federal Liberals and Conservatives as being a federal party sympathetic to anti-Semitism because the party’s key supporters – such unions as the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE-Ontario) – are hateful anti-Semites.
In this federal campaign Mulcair will try to present himself as a fair-minded, competent prime minister in waiting. But he leads a party riddled with crazy, hateful whack jobs. Many of whom are virulently anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.
Let me explain.
Recall Prime Minister Harper, in an historic speech in Israel, publicly denounced a new strain of anti-Semitism that is spreading throughout the Canadian body politic. Specifically, Harper labeled supporters and advocates of the anti-Israel BDS movement and the pernicious concept of “Israel apartheid” as anti-Semites.
As Harper so eloquently stated in his “Fire and Water” Israeli speech:
But, in much of the western world, the old hatred has been translated into more sophisticated language for use in polite society.
People who would never say they hate and blame the Jews for their own failings or the problems of the world, instead declare their hatred of Israel and blame the only Jewish state for the problems of the Middle East.
As once Jewish businesses were boycotted, some civil-society leaders today call for a boycott of Israel. On some campuses, intellectualized arguments against Israeli policies thinly mask the underlying realities, such as the shunning of Israeli academics and the harassment of Jewish students.
Most disgracefully of all, some openly call Israel an apartheid state…
It is nothing short of sickening.
Harper was not breaking new ground in his denunciation of the new anti-Semitism.
Harper was publicly espousing the EU’s working definition of anti-Semitism specifically, the EU’s Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (EUMC – superseded in 2007 by the Fundamental Rights Agency.) In 2005, the EUMC definition of anti-Semitism included the following examples:
Denying the Jewish people the right to self-determination, e.g. by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavor;
Applying double standards by requiring of Israel a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation;
In addition, then Liberal MP and former Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, on behalf of the Federal Liberal party, further expanded on the new anti-Semitism which included political anti-Semitism – denial of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination; de-legitimization of Israel as a state (flowing from Israel apartheid rationale); attributions to Israel of all the world’s evils – and economic anti-Semitism – BDS movements and the extraterritorialapplication of restrictive covenants against countries trading with Israel.
Similarly, on March 1, 2010, in an open letter, Michael Ignatieff, then leader of the Federal Liberal Party, also echoed the above sentiments that describing Israel as an “apartheid state” and supporting the BDS movement against it, amount to anti-Semitism.
“On university campuses across the country this week, Israeli Apartheid Week will once again attempt to demonize and undermine the legitimacy of the Jewish state. It is part of a global campaign of calls for divestment, boycotts and proclamations, and it should be condemned unequivocally and absolutely.
Apartheid is defined, in international law, as a crime against humanity. Israeli Apartheid Week is a deliberate attempt to portray the Jewish state as criminal……
Let us be clear: criticism of Israeli government policy is legitimate. Wholesale condemnation of the State of Israel and the Jewish people is not legitimate. Not now, not ever.”
In addition, in 2010 the Ontario legislature with the support of all three parties unanimously condemned Israeli Apartheid Week in Ontario as “odious, hateful and inappropriate, in the case of Israel.
In sum, we have at least two major federal parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives in Ottawa and three Ontario provincial parties which consider support for “Israeli apartheid and the BDS movement” at least odious and hateful, and in some cases anti-Semitic.
Note that Mulcair and the federal NDP party have failed to equally denounce Israeli Apartheid and the BDS movement because some of the NDP’s most ardent supporters, for example, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, whom Tom Mulcair and his Ontario lieutenant Olivia Chow have publicly supported, are front and centre in the Canadian anti-Israeli “Israeli Apartheid” organization and the infamous Canadian anti-Israeli BDS movement.
In 2008 CUPW passed a resolution that the union will work “with Palestinian solidarity and human rights organizations to develop an educational campaign about the apartheid nature of the Israeli state and the political and economic support of Canada for these practices.”
The CUPW resolution also called on Israel to recognize the Palestinian people’s “right to return to their homes as stipulated in UN Resolution 194” – a demand by Palestinian negotiators that would virtually erase the Jewish state.”
Other groups that are pro Israeli Apartheid and the BDS movement, and supporters of Tom Mulcair, Olivia Chow and the NDP include the Canadian Union of Public Employees-Ontario and rabble.ca, an influential Canadian left wing online journal. Rabble.ca is published by Kim Elliott, the spouse of former NDP Deputy Leader Libby Davies who in June 2010 expressed support for the boycott, sanctions and divestment campaign against Israel. Ms. Davies is a former NDP colleague of Ms. Chow and Tom Mulcair.
It is noteworthy that in his 2009 autobiography, former Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove wrote that he was “all for” union leaders taking up activist causes, but criticized union leaders who had taken the Israel file too far:
“Now and then, someone in the labour movement makes a wrong turn or fires a salvo at the wrong target, which casts a pall over the entire movement,” he wrote. “One thing you can’t do as head of a union is to allow the most vocal, and usually most radical, minority to dominate your thinking on issues or the decision-making process.”
Olivia Chow represented the Toronto federal riding of Trinity-Spadina from 2006-2014. For many years, during that period, the University of Toronto, in her riding, hosted and celebrated the hateful Israeli Apartheid Week. Not once during that time did Chow ever publicly denounce either “Israeli Apartheid” or the anti-Israeli BDS movement.
During the 2014 Toronto mayoral race, Chow publicly supported the noxious, anti-Semitic Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) right to participate in the 2014 Toronto Pride parade, notwithstanding the principled and vehement opposition of her opponents John Tory and Doug Ford.
I am not suggesting that either Tom Mulcair or Ms. Chow is anti-Semitic or that either espouses anti-Semitic views or that either even agrees with the anti-Semitic views of the groups which support them and whom they support.
But during this federal election, it is now time for Tom Mulcair and Ms. Chow to take responsibility for their silence and to publicly denounce unequivocally the anti-Semitic positions of some of their supporters, as former CAW president Hargrove did.
Or Mr. Mulcair and Ms. Chow and the whole federal NDP Party run the risk of being tarred with the same odious brush.
I have been reading the Toronto Globe and Mail, religiously, for over 40 years.
At one time, the Globe was considered very highly as Canada’s national paper, “The New York Times (NYT) of the North”.
Note this was during the golden newspaper years of “The Pentagon Papers” and “Watergate” when the Washington Post and NYT were the “go to” media for objective, unbiased reporting and analytical and critical commentary.And the Globe was not far behind.
But today, the Globe- a mere shadow of its former glory.
I must confess. I still enjoy reading some Globe’s columnists. Liz Renzetti’s Saturday column is always sharp and funny. Ian Brown still writes beautifully.
Margaret Wente still impresses me with her courageous anti-liberal writing. And Liam Lacey’s film reviews are consistently bang on.
I also miss the excellent political reporting of Karen Howlett, former Queen’s Park senior reporter, who was always tough, but fair and never pulled any punches- with any politician regardless of political or ideological background.
But the same cannot be said for the current crop of Globe urban reporters and columnists- especially those involved with the almost year long Toronto mayoral election.
Globe’s professionalism
Okay. I get it. The Globe and its staff were so turned off by the personal problems of Mayor Rob Ford ( the crack smoking, the alcoholism, the inappropriate language while inebriated) that it parked its journalistic integrity at the door, when it came to reporting on Rob Ford.
I do not agree with this position. It reflects badly on the Globe’s professionalism.
But what I further do not understand is why has the Globe failed to hold to account the other candidates- Olivia Chow and John Tory.
From practically the moment Chow entered the race in March, 2014, her campaign was in trouble.
Although Chow had name recognition and was known as popular Jack Layton’s spouse, Chow also carried a ton of political baggage. She was feared as an extreme “tax and spend” lefty, way to the left of David Miller and closer to the scary John Sewell.
Many Toronto voters had never forgiven her for living in a subsidized three bedroom co-op unit while her family income exceeded $120, 000. Chow also had a negative reputation for having one of the highest office and personal expense budgets of all Ontario federal politicians.
Right out of the box, she insulted and alienated a majority of the Toronto voters in the vote-rich suburbs of Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough with her proposal to terminate the very popular and fully funded Scarborough subway for a third-rate bus and LRT solution.
Her first debate was a disaster. She was clearly defeated by Rob Ford. Chow came across in that debate as inarticulate, uninformed, confused and unintelligent.
I believe that Chow never recovered from that disastrous performance and her campaign went downhill from there.
But as to the Globe reporters, they ignored all of Chow’s negative baggage and they ignored her poor debating style, her uninspiring speeches and her unpopular policies.
Instead, it appeared the Globe reporters and analysts tried to prop up Chow for months with biased and uncritical “puff” pieces as indicated herein. (Here, Here, and Here)
It took the Globe about 7 months (September, 2014) to publicly admit that Chow’s election was in serious trouble.
But consistent with its anti-Ford bias, the Globe then turned to propping up and implicitly promoting John Tory, by once again failing to do its journalistic job and critically holding Tory to account.
For example, the Globe failed to take Tory to task for his classless personal attack on Doug Ford on the very day Doug announced that his brother Rob had cancer, was withdrawing and Doug was taking his place in the campaign.
Secondly, the Globe failed to properly call into question the gaps in John Tory’s business career- ie his many years of being on the board of directors of Charter Communications which went into bankruptcy.
The Globe also failed to question how John Tory with very little media experience could be hired as CEO of Rogers Media by family friend, Ted Rogers.
Recall Ted Rogers was first a lawyer at the firm founded by John Tory’s father and uncle, Torys. And then Ted Rogers and Rogers Communications became a major client of the same firm.
In this instance, the Globe failed miserably to ask and answer the musical question, “If John Tory’s last name was “Smith”, would John “Smith” have had any business career?”
The Globe’s crack investigative team also failed to delve into John Tory’s involvement with Rogers’ publicly disastrous “negative option billing scheme, during Tory’s time at Rogers Media.
In fact, I recall Tory was hired in 1995, one month after this negative option billing policy was introduced at Rogers Cable. And I remember distinctly that John Tory was given the task of managing consumer opposition to this Rogers’ policy, where consumers were additionally billed for services to which they had not consented.
Instead of critically analyzing Tory’s business career, the Globe instead hit a new journalistic low with its recent so-called expose of Doug Ford’s business experience at his family firm, Deco Labels.
Crack investigative journalist Robyn Doolittle, ( remember her from the Rob Ford crack video expose) thought she made a journalistic scoop by revealing that Doug Ford’s attempt to set up New Jersey branch met with failure.
Conversely, she proved that Doug Ford was a superior businessman to Tory, because Doolittle’s article instead revealed that Doug Ford single-handedly turned a non-existent Chicago office into a successful operation, purely as a result of his own efforts.
Ironically, other large Canadian companies, unlike Deco Labels-Chicago- failed to succeed in the United States ( ie Royal Bank, Canadian Tire and Peoples Credit Jewelers, to name a few). So the fact that Deco Labels- New Jersey failed, does not detract from Doug Ford’s success in the tough American market.
In sum, how the mighty Globe has fallen.
The Globe’s failure to hold Fords’ opponents to account during this mayoral election has called into question its journalistic integrity and objectivity.
Time will tell whether the Globe will ever recapture its journalistic reputation.
Mitch Wolfe: The Playful Contrarian 