President Donald Trump: even with majority in both houses, it is not going to be an easy ride

 

It the run towards the elections was not an easy ride, the first half of President Donald Trump is not going to be an easy ride either.

Having a majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives is no guarantee of support when new projects reach both houses and full support will be needed to implement any piece of legislation.

Commentators of all political colours make all sorts of forecasts about the direction of travel of the new administration. Every statement made leads to speculation.

The reality is that from day one it is going to be a one day at a time business. Few could predict that COVID would be so fundamental in both national and international politics.

No one has the crystal ball to foresee what new crise will be in the horizon. At this point in time the one war that will lead to the big war could start anywhere. Political crisis in both Germany and France are just beginning and these are two major European players. It remains to be determined what will be the impact of massive political changes in both Germany and France. Bans could be the trigger of major events. Attempts to incarcerate Marine Le Pen in France could badly backfire. Attempts to ban AfD in Germany could literally destroy democracy in Germany. So who will be the players? Soonafter President Donald Trump is officially inaugurated as American President, there will be Federal Elections in Germany.

Car manufacturing is vital for the German economy and right now there are not just news about closures in Germany, but also closures in Europe when AUDI moves its operations to Brazil. Scania, Volkswagen and in the near future also AUDI will be based in Brazil. This will be of course good news for Brasilian workers, but not very good news for EU workers - at a time when Germany represents more than 24 per cent of the European Union economy. 

London Elections: Labour won, but... big advances for other political parties

 

Although Sadiq Khan won another term as Mayor, there have been major changes in London's political environment.

Greens, Lib Dems and Reform are winning spaces. People who used to vote Labour are now switching allegiances and turning out to vote Green.

The turnout, compared to previous elections, was lower and 6 out of 10 registered voters did not vote.

What will happen in a General Election? The results announced in May are only half of the picture due to a lower turnout. What will happen in a General Election?

This is just the end of the beginning. How will the two major political parties deal with discontent and division in their ranks? Will their be yet another leadership contest in the Conservative Party? Is this the reason why the planned October General Election might actually be run earlier than expected? The month of July has been mentioned. Will there be any more defections from now until the date of the General Election?

When it comes to geopolitical agendas, the Secretary for Defense, Grant Shapps MP, made a grandiose announcement in terms of investment in Defense, investment that he might not be able to deliver if as many predict the Conservative government comes to an end at the next General Election. By then, a winning Labour Party will be under pressure to deliver on many other priorities not to be drowned by a series of industrial disputes. For Labour voters and trade unions, national issues have a lot more weight than geopolitical issues. Health, Education and Transport - to name three key areas - are much more relevant than militaristic issues.

Who wins in France and who wins in the USA also matters. With Macron out of the way, Marine Le Pen could take the reins and it remains to be seen who will be the winner in the USA in November. If Biden wins in November, could he last another four years? Lets look at those chosen as VicePresidential Candidates.

Marine Le Pen speaks about the nightmare in France

Marine Le Pen speaks after the recent events in France costing more than one billion Euros of public and private property damaged and looted that caused the death of public officials with widespread violence across the capital city and across France. 

Marine Le Pen: Il y a une Culture Française

André Malraux - Ministre des Affaires Culturelles

Marine Le Pen: Il y a une Culture Française.

Il y a une culture française malgré les efforts de certain politiciens de gauche qui prétendent qu'il n'y a pas une culture française.

Regardons une page officielle qui nous raconte comment et pourquoi le Ministère des Affaires Culturelles a été né.

Malgré quelques tentatives vite interrompues durant les régimes précédents, le Ministère des Affaires Culturelles est véritablement né en France avec la Cinquième République. Le General de Gaulle conseille en effect à son Premier Ministre Michel Debré de proposer  un ministère à André Malraux:

"Il vous sera utile de garder Malraux. Taillez pour lui un ministère, par example, un regroupement de services que vous pourrez appeler 'Affaires Culturelles'. Malraux donnera du relief à votre gouvernement."

Malraux accepte. Par cette création, actée le 3 fébrier 1959, d'un ministère de plein exercise, le général envoie un signe fort aux Français à savoir que pour lui le rayonnement mondial de la France doit passer aussi par le rayonnement de la culture.

Le décret fondateur du 24 juillet 1959, rédigé par Malraux lui-même, donne à ce ministère la "mission de rendre accessibles les oeuvres capitales de l'humanité, et d'abord de la France, au plus grand nombre possible de Français, d'assurer la plus vaste audience à notre patrimoine culturel et de favoriser la création de l'art et de l'esprit qui l'enrichisse".

Oui, Monsieur Macron, il y une culture française, une identité française, même si nous trouvons ceux qui veulent l'ignorer, l'effacer, la détruire.   

Britain: Is it right to ban or persecute individuals because of their political beliefs?

In the 1930s and 1940s, Jews were banned from many professions and declared undesirable.

The Second World War came and went and we find ourselves seeing things that we were made to think were part of a long gone past.

Having said that, in Britain, members of certain political parties are very much banned like Jews were banned in the 1930s and 1940s. Moreover, to complete the picture, Jews are still banned in many countries across the world.

People can still be banned because of their political beliefs, their race and their religion and therefore we should open our eyes wide open to realities that have not gone away and are still very much part of everyday life.

When Jo Cox MP was killed, the attention was focused on the fact that a Member of Parliament had been killed by somebody that believed or fantasised about certain ideas or symbols. What was not said is that Jo Cox MP was campaigning in what could be described as an extension of bans and blacklisting of followers of perfectly legal political organisations simply because she did not agree with the said political organisations.

Her campaign seems to be continued by Helen Goodman MP, also along the same lines, with the aim of isolating, persecuting and blacklisting individuals who have committed no crime. What can be classified as a campaign to isolate, persecute or blacklist is supported also by political parties like UKIP that explicitly forbids any former members of certain political organisations from trying to join UKIP.

Today, we refer to the United Kingdom, but in Germany there have been attempts to ban political parties. Chancellor Angela Merkel and others have had the intent to ban NPD Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutshlands and are constantly harassing other political organisations like Alternative für Deutschland - all legal parties.

In one recent event, the highest court in Germany those seeking to ban NPD that it would be illegal to ban NPD merely on the grounds that those seeking to ban NPD don't agree with NPD.

The European Parliament is  being used as a tool to try and ban or damage Front National led by Marine Le Pen and the European Parliament has just taken away Marine Le Pen's right to immunity based on the fact that she is a Member of the European Parliament and has done so openly prejudicing the outcome of French Presidential Elections due to take place in May 2017.

There is an underlying current of people who believe that they are entitled to ban individuals or political parties because they don't agree with their ideas.