How not to defeat Donald Trump #9

Berdon Trumpders (Courtesy of Haaretz )

You be the judge, of course, but in this recent interview Bernie Sanders legitimizes, not Donald Trump exactly, but the populist reasons for people supporting Donald Trump: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eKIujCBibA

How not to defeat Donald Trump #8

The California protests (Courtesy of Shadi Rahimi)

In perhaps the most counter-productive political movement in living history, the anti-Trump forces in America, from Jeb Bush to Bernie Sanders, inadvertently keep making the case for a Trump-style populist insurrection. At some point a conspiracy theory is going to be made out of this: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-gays-for-trump-crowd-gathers-at-costa-mesa-rally-20160428-story.html  

Islamists vs Freedomists in Diyarbakir

HDP Co-Presidents Figen Yüksekdağ and Selahattin Demirtaş

Not all Kurds are freedomists because freedom is an ideology and not an ethnicity: http://www.voanews.com/content/turkish-kurd-islamist-rally-stokes-tension/3307373.html?

Jane Kelly on the Deobandis in the UK

A bio of Aliyah Saleem, mentioned in Kelly's article: https://www.asian-voice.com/News/Ex-Muslim-female-remembers-time-at-Islamic-school

Here is Jane Kelly's article in the Salisbury Review: http://salisburyreview.com/2016/04/muslim-version-freemasons/

The Identity Politics of Naz Shah

Courtesy of Guido Fawkes 

Will the British Labor Party expel her? Here is the BBC report: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-36142529

My educational unit on Holocaust Inversion is here: http://darylmccann.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/holocaust-denial-inversion-education.html

Greenie Clive Hamilton has a freedomist moment

Courtesy of www.quotaionsof.com

I sometimes wonder if the new political landscape might be turning into freedomist vs. authoritarian rather than left vs. right: http://theconversation.com/why-was-stephen-fry-fried-on-twitter-54961 

Boris Johnson is a freedomist

George II, Boris Johnson great, great grandfather

Boris Johnson will never be the king of England but British PM is another matter. See his op ed responding to the clueless Barack Obama: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/24/do-bremainers-really-think-voters-will-be-cowed-by-the-likes-of/

How not to defeat Donald Trump #7

Governor Kasich taking his Ohio primary win all the way to Cleveland

The well-connected Governor Kasich, in a time other than the Year of the People, might have been a strong candidate for the presidency, but now he is something else: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/26/us/politics/ted-cruz-john-kasich-donald-trump.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

Something is rotten in the state of Germany

(Courtesy of the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey) 

Angela Merkel does the bidding of Turkey's Muslim Brotherhood regime: http://www.newsweek.com/erdogan-merkel-eu-turkey-poem-comedian-criminal-448248

This is the link to the Spectator's President Erdogan Insulting Poetry Competition: http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/04/send-us-your-entries-for-our-president-erdogan-insulting-poetry-competition/

To give you some inspiration, here are a few articles I have written on this Muslim Brotherhood chap:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-03/mccann-turkeys-secular-experiment-in-modernity-is-under-threat/6907416

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2015/10/sins-sultan-erdogan/

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-15/mccann-how-the-turkish-president-is-burning-down-his-own-house/7246740

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2013/06/modern-turkey-s-last-stand/

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2015/01-02/battle-modernity-borders-kurdistan/

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-19/mccann-the-failure-of-our-strategy-against-militant-jihadism/7097998

How not to defeat Donald Trump #6

Soon the Democratic Party's spin doctors will be defending the Koch Brothers! 

The Koch Brothers are suggesting they might spend $900 million this presidential election season supporting Democrat Hillary Clinton against the (mostly) self-funding Republican frontrunner who has based his campaign on not accepting money from "the donor class", which includes characters like, well, the Koch Brothers: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-electon-koch-idUSKCN0XL01J     

How not to defeat Donald Trump #5

This is Scott Adams, who is no supporter of Donald Trump, on the persuasive appeal of The Donald: http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-election/donald-trump-will-win-in-a-landslide-says-dilbert-creator-scott-adams
Trump, according to Adams, has reconfigured Identity Politics to his advantage and will go on to outplay Hillary Clinton's version of Identity Politics. I am not entirely convinced, which does not mean Adams is wrong.  

The Islamic State journeys to Europe

Courtesy of the Washington Post

Could the globalists amongst us please read this article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-europes-migrant-crisis-became-an-opportunity-for-isis/2016/04/21/ec8a7231-062d-4185-bb27-cc7295d35415_story.html

Doubt thou the stars are fire

Here are stories about Prince (1958-2016) from Rip it Up magazine: http://ripitup.com.au/music/best-stories-ever-told-prince#.VxrTNSN95eU

Camille Paglia speaks with Ella Whelan of Spiked!

Camille  Paglia in conversation with Ella Whelan  

A fine interview: http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/lena-dunham-is-a-big-pile-of-pudding/18252#.Vxi9XSN95eX

Paglia is Democratic Party supporter through and through but this is her in March adopting a slightly less dismissive line of Donald Trump than previously: http://www.salon.com/2016/03/10/i_was_wrong_about_donald_trump_camille_paglia_on_the_gop_front_runners_refreshing_candor_and_his_impetuousness_too/

This, I just found, is Paglia later in March writing about the main presidential candidates: http://www.salon.com/2016/03/24/camille_paglia_this_is_why_trumps_winning_and_why_i_wont_vote_for_hillary/

And here, while we are at it, is Paglia today on the Cult of Hillary Clinton: http://www.salon.com/2016/04/21/enough_with_the_hillary_cult_her_admirers_ignore_reality_dream_of_worshipping_a_queen/

How not to defeat Donald Trump #4

Courtesy of Politico

The foolishness of Ted Cruz's political stratagem can now be measured: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/04/anti-trump-ads-backfire-213819

Protecting the Saudis

Here is an interesting article on Saudi Arabia in the New York Daily News: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/lupica-obama-stand-saudi-arabia-article-1.2604801

A Right-Left Populist Coalition?

There are unprecedented ruminations and rumblings in America during this Year of the People: http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/04/16/exclusive-leading-progressive-activist-considers-potential-emergence-third-party-right-left-populist-coalition-dustin-stocktonexclusive-leading-progressive-activist-consider/

Again, I have written about this for the ABC's Drum twice: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-11/mccann-american-voters-have-gone-rogue/7158840 and http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-18/mccann-who-is-to-blame-for-donald-trump/7256858

Saudi Arabia is an ally in the War of Freedom (but on which side?)

President Obama, like his predecessor, protects the Wahhabis: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/16/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-warns-ofeconomic-fallout-if-congress-passes-9-11-bill.html?action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&module=Trending&version=Full&region=Marginalia&pgtype=article

In the Year of the People - Berdon Trumpders

Berdon Trumpders 

In the Year of the People only two politicians have really "got it". Read how Donald Trump plays the GOP Colorado debacle to his advantage: http://www.wsj.com/articles/let-me-ask-america-a-question-1460675882

Meanwhile, see how Bernie Sanders outplays Hilary Clinton: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/hillary-clinton-may-win-new-york-votes-but-not-new-york-hearts-a6981261.html

John Gray on the Islamic State & Millenialist Psychosis

Courtesy of Lapham Quarterly

Here is the link to John Gray's majestic piece: http://www.laphamsquarterly.org/disaster/anomaly-barbarism

This is a is a link to my own article on this subject: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2011/12/the-millennial-psychosis/

And another: https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2015/09/hold-front-page-nazism-isis/

How not to defeat Donald Trump #3

Former Weather Underground "activist" Phil Ayers playing to the camera at 11 March 2016 anti-Trump rally in Chicago


When the lunar-left come out against Donald Trump that is a win for the Trump Campaign. It happened in Chicago and then again in Arizona, and now of course in New York. If you disagree with the notion that Phil Ayers belongs to the lunar-left you might read this: https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2013/07-08/the-terrorist-delusions-of-robert-redford/ 

How not to defeat Donald Trump #2

The GOP fiasco in Colorado is just another reason why members of the anti-Trump brigade are actually helping Donald Trump's campaign. Here is one American blogger - who has had pro-Cruz sympathies as far as I can tell - venting his spleen: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/04/10/the-republican-party-of-colorado-sends-america-a-message/


America, as I have written elsewhere, is experiencing a populist revolution. To appear - in any way - anti-people in the Year of the People seems like a case of political suicide.

The liberation of Palmyra from different perspectives

Palmyra has been liberated from the Islamic State for some two weeks now. It is fascinating to look at the different versions of what that means. Russia's Sputnik agency is furious that the Western media has downplayed the significance of this development. (Interestingly, this link shows that Sputnik has now been banned in the Islamic Republic of Turkey.)


John Darlington, writing in Apollo magazine, argues that the Islamic State destroyed Greco-Roman and Persian historical treasures for ideological reasons.


Here, on the other hand, is Lindsey Hilsun of the UK's Channel 4, asserting on the ABC's PM programme that the Islamic State's intentions in Palmyra were primarily mercenary rather than ideological - and that most of the damage in Syria is perpetrated by Syrian and Russian airforces.      

How not to defeat Donald Trump #1

What "tough q", my friend?

Members of the anti-Trump brigade, conservative and progressive alike, are proving to be truly clueless. They have no idea what populist wave "The Donald" is riding. A journalist's risible accusation against Corey Lewandowski will now make Team Trump stronger: http://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-campaign-manager-corey-lewandowski-prosecuted-alleged-incident/story?id=38377739 Too bad the said journalist could not have asked an intelligent question at the press conference prior to the "alleged battery" rather than engage in this kind of malarky. In fact, is there a journalist in America capable of confronting Trump with an intelligent question - sorry, with a "tough q"?

And consider this: http://gotnews.com/washington-posts-ben-terris-shake-corey-lewandowskis-hand-witnessing-alleged-assault/

We might finish with this: http://video.foxnews.com/v/4846656496001/trump-campaign-manager-speaks-out-after-charges-dropped/?intcmp=hpvid1#sp=show-clips
           

Opulence Meets Paranoia

King Salman bin Abdulaziz is met by Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Courtesy of the Guardian newspaper)

"Quietist" Salafism says hello to activist Salafism: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/12/saudi-king-salman-bin-abdulaziz-begins-visit-turkey

When does the West begin to defend itself against Erdogan's Islamo-fascism?

Turkey's Erdogan is a Muslim Brotherhood-associated thug but few leaders in the West are ready to protect us from him: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GERMANY_TURKEY_ERDOGAN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-04-06-16-07-02

The "Blood of the Martyrs" is on Erdogan

Destroying his country to save it

Over the years many Turkish citizens have supported Erdogan as the "strong man" who would sort things out. Tragically, they have miscalculated entirely: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/04/turkey-clashes-pkk-erdogan-kurdish-war-impasse.html?#

The April 2016 edition of Quadrant is now out!

Quadrant

Violent apocalyptic millennialism and Palmyra

The Temple of Baalshamin in Palmyra before its destruction in August 2015 by the Khmer Rouge...I mean, the Islamic State

An Australian Greens parliamentarian, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, once referred to the Islamic State at The Other. In short, the Islamic State should not be "demonised" as "terrorists": http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=CHAMBER;id=chamber%2Fhansards%2F49cdeae9-b762-449e-9e05-7239b8940f5f%2F0090;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansards%2F49cdeae9-b762-449e-9e05-7239b8940f5f%2F0142%22

This article from The Guardian tells a very different story: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/01/isis-destruction-of-palmyra-antiquities-revealed-in-new-pictures

And then there is this: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-02/palmyra-mass-grave-islamic-state-victims-found-syria-army-source/7294904