politicalevent:presidential election

Obama administration reverses course on Atlantic oil drilling | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-oil-atlantic-idUSKCN0WH1WI

The Obama administration reversed course on Tuesday on a proposal to open the southeastern Atlantic coast to drilling as an oil price slump and strong opposition in coastal communities raised doubts about the plan.

Besides market and environmental concerns, the U.S. Interior Department said it also based its decision on conflicts with competing commercial and military ocean uses.
[…]
Hillary Clinton, the front-runner in the race for the Democratic Party’s nomination to run in the Nov. 8 presidential election, has moved to the left on environment under pressure from green groups. She tweeted: “Relieved Atlantic drilling is now off the table. Time to do the next right thing and protect the Arctic, too.”

Quelques réactions à l’article de Goldberg #Obama_doctrine qui a été perçu par certains comme l’expression publique de la doctrine stratégique d’Obama pour les quelques mois restant de la fin de son mandat :
►http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/04/the-obama-doctrine/471525

A noter, par exemple un article de Patrick Cockburn dans The Independent titré « Comment Barack Obama a tourné le dos à l’Arabie saoudite et à ses alliés sunnites » manifestement content du tournant que cela semble annoncer dans la politique étrangère américaine :
▻http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/barack-obama-saudi-arabia-us-foreign-policy-syria-jihadism-isis-a6927

Commentators have missed the significance of President Barack Obama’s acerbic criticism of Saudi Arabia and Sunni states long allied to the US for fomenting sectarian hatred and seeking to lure the US into fighting regional wars on their behalf. In a series of lengthy interviews with Jeffrey Goldberg published in The Atlantic magazine, Mr Obama explains why it is not in the US’s interests to continue the tradition of the US foreign policy establishment, whose views he privately disdains, by giving automatic support to the Saudis and their allies.

Et la conclusion :

It will become clearer after November’s presidential election how far Obama’s realistic take on Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan and other US allies and his scepticism about the US foreign policy establishment will be shared by the new administration. The omens are not very good since Hillary Clinton supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003, intervention in Libya in 2011 and bombing Syria in 2013. If she wins the White House, then the Saudis and the US foreign policy establishment will breathe more easily.

Et puis une réaction pour le moins agacée, celle du prince Turki bin Faysal, en personne, ancien chef des services de renseignement saoudiens et ex-ambassadeur de l’A.S. aux USA qui proteste de sa fidélité comme allié des USA et de la lutte implacable des saoudiens contre le terrorisme et tout ça et tout ça puisqu’il a armé les « combattants de la liberté » qui luttent contre Da’ich :
▻http://www.arabnews.com/news/894826

No, Mr. Obama. We are not “free riders.” We shared with you our intelligence that prevented deadly terrorist attacks on America.
We initiated the meetings that led to the coalition that is fighting Fahish (ISIL), and we train and fund the Syrian freedom fighters, who fight the biggest terrorist, Bashar Assad and the other terrorists, Al-Nusrah and Fahish (ISIL). We offered boots on the ground to make that coalition more effective in eliminating the terrorists.
We initiated the support — military, political and humanitarian — that is helping the Yemeni people reclaim their country from the murderous militia, the Houthis, who, with the support of the Iranian leadership, tried to occupy Yemen; without calling for American forces. We established a coalition of more than thirty Muslim countries to fight all shades of terrorism in the world.
We are the biggest contributors to the humanitarian relief efforts to help refugees from Syria, Yemen and Iraq. We combat extremist ideology that attempts to hijack our religion, on all levels. We are the sole funders of the United Nations Counter-terrorism Center, which pools intelligence, political, economic, and human resources, worldwide. We buy US treasury bonds, with small interest returns, that help your country’s economy.

Avec un jeu de mots « Da’ish »/"fahish" ("obscène" ai-je trouvé, mais les arabisants me corrigeront).

Poland’s Stark Electoral Divide | GeoCurrents

▻http://www.geocurrents.info/geopolitics/elections/polands-stark-electoral-divide

Les résultats des élections présidentielles en Pologne à la lumière des frontières fantômes de l’Europe... très troublant

http://www.geocurrents.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Poland-Voting-Pre-War-Germany-Map1.png http://www.geocurrents.info/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Poland-2015-Election-Map-210x210.png

Some observers were surprised by the triumph of conservative candidate Andrzej Duda over incumbent Bronisław Komorowski in Poland’s May 2015 presidential election. Duda’s margin of victory, however, was thin: 51.5 percent of the vote against Komorowski’s 48.5 percent. As is typical of Polish elections, the results were geographically patterned in a stark manner. Duda, like most conservative candidates, won almost every country in southeastern Poland, many by a substantial margin, whereas the centrist candidate Komorowski triumphed almost everywhere in the west and north. The few areas that Duda lost in the “greater southeast” are almost all major cites, such as Łódź, Warsaw, and Kraków, as would be expected, given the general left-voting tendency of urban dwellers (I have added the names of several cities to the Wikipedia electoral map to make this pattern clear.) The northwest/southeast divide, however, is still reflected in the urban sector, as the Duda did much better in such southeastern cities as Kraków and Lublin than in such northwestern cities as Poznań and Gdańsk.

#pologne #allemagne #election #histoire

Why Democrats Need to Wake up & Realize It Is Bernie or Bust
▻http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/why-democrats-need-to-wake-up-and-realize-it-is-bernie-or-bust

I know this is going to be hard for loyal Democrats to accept. But in this article, I will explain why loyal Democrats need to wake up and realize that, in this crazy 2016 Presidential Election...

Organize or Die: Never in the History of the World Has an Election Destroyed a System of Oppression
▻http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/organize-or-die-never-in-the-history-of-the-world-has-an-election-de

Vote or Die. That’s the dichotomy rap mogul P. Diddy popularized back in 2006 in an effort to marshal the nation’s youth to the ballot box on election day. Fast forward two presidential elections...

The Truth About Child Trafficking in Senegal

In July 2009, I was in Guinea-Bissau covering the presidential elections after the murder of president Nino Vieira when I first heard stories about Guinean children who were taken to Senegal to work and beg for Koranic teachers. Many of them disappeared while playing in remote areas; others were given by their parents after false promises made by the local marabouts—religious teachers or guardians.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CblaeMeUkAAkM4R.jpg

#photographie #trafic_d'enfants #trafic_d'êtres_humains #Sénégal #traite
cc @albertocampiphoto

Noam Chomsky on the U.S. Presidential Election and the Rise of Islamophobia
▻http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/noam-chomsky-on-the-us-presidential-election-and-the-rise-of-islamop

Renowned political theorist Noam Chomsky is often cited for his criticism of the US political system. In the second of a special two-part interview, Chomsky sits down with Mehdi Hasan to discuss...

Iranian official: Republicans asked the Iranians to delay last months prisoner exchange deal
▻http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/oh-my--6

We can by no means take this as a disinterested claim. And no specific names are mentioned. But a high-ranking Iranian government official, who is an appointee of reformist President Hassan Rouhani, says that Republicans asked the Iranians to delay last months prisoner exchange deal until after the Presidential election.

The original report comes from an openly pro-regime, quasi government news agency, Tasnim News Agency. And the official is Ali Shamkani, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. (Here’s a backgrounder on Shamkani from al-Monitor.) But there seems little reason to doubt that the Shamkani quote itself is genuine.

What Would It Take To Flip States In The 2016 Election? | FiveThirtyEight
▻http://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2016-swing-the-election

Change the settings below to see how shifts in party preference and turnout by different demographic groups would affect the 2016 presidential election.

#simulation #élection #visualisation_interactive

Haiti’s Fraudulent Presidential Frontrunner Seizes Land for His Own Banana Republic
▻http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/25695-haitis-fraudulent-presidential-frontrunner-seizes-land-for-his-o

The only man running in Haiti’s fraudulent presidential election run-offson January 24, 2016, Jovenel Moïse, dispossessed as many as 800 peasants - who were legally farming - and destroyed houses and crops two years ago, say leaders of farmers’ associations in the Trou-du-Nord area. Farmers remain homeless and out of work. The land grabbed by the company Moïse founded, Agritrans, now hosts a private banana plantation.

To grow bananas for export in a hungry nation, Agritrans received at least $6 million in state loans, and possibly much more. Agritrans seized a 1,000-hectare (2,371-acre) tract from farmers, bulldozed their houses and fields, used bribes to buy local support, distorted claims of its benefit to local residents, and created a phantom organization to legitimate itself.

Should he become president, the company Moïse created would likely be a bellwether of loss of family livelihood and domestic food production.

#Haïti #crapules #terres #business_de_la_banane

Lebanon feels aftershocks of Saudi-Iran crisis - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/01/iran-saudi-arabia-repercussions-lebanon-hariri-hezbollah.html

The first possibility is that this Sunni-Shiite conflict — outside Lebanon’s borders between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and in the Lebanese arena between Hariri and Hezbollah — will lead to the rapprochement between the Christian forces. This would result in the main Christian parties (Lebanese Forces and the Free Patriotic Movement) agreeing on a single candidate for the presidency.

This would significantly tip the balance of power of the presidential elections. It should be noted that such a hypothesis has been circulated within the political and media circles in Beirut in the first 10 days of 2016. Talks have been spreading about progress in negotiations between the leaders of the two largest Christian parliamentary blocs — Free Patriotic Movement leader Gen. Michel Aoun and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea — to reach a bilateral agreement approving Aoun’s candidacy for presidency.

Read more: ▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/01/iran-saudi-arabia-repercussions-lebanon-hariri-hezbollah.html#ixzz3xDci1

Tu sais, cette théorie selon laquelle la mort d’Allouche compromet les négociations ? Alors ce matin : Syrie : évacuation de 450 combattants et civils de trois localités
▻http://www.bfmtv.com/international/syrie-evacuation-de-450-combattants-et-civils-de-trois-localites-939704.html

Plus de 450 combattants et civils, dont des blessés, ont commencé à être évacués lundi de trois localités syriennes, en vertu d’un rare accord passé entre le régime de Damas et la rébellion sous l’égide de l’ONU, a annoncé une ONG.

What next for #Venezuela?
▻http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international/262581-what-next-for-venezuela

So the Venezuelan political system, with all its flaws, is much more democratic than the conventional wisdom has maintained. Now, what about the future? If the opposition gets a two-thirds majority of seats (112 or more), it would have important powers, such as the ability to remove Supreme Court judges, censure the vice president and call an assembly to propose changes to the constitution.

However, the opposition has more than 20 political parties and many divisions. It is possible that the government will be able to get some opposition legislators to vote with it in the National Assembly, so that it can continue governing until the next presidential election in 2018.

If that is the case, from the government’s standpoint, the election will not have changed much. The key issue for its continued political survival will still be the economy. There is triple-digit inflation, widespread shortages of consumer goods, a recession, low oil prices, non-working price controls and a dysfunctional exchange rate system that is at the heart of the country’s economic mess. This is obviously why the government lost the National Assembly. So, as before the election, if the government does not fix this mess, the Chavistas will lose power; if they do fix it, they will probably do OK.

Opposition leaders will still face the same choice they have faced for the past 16 years: Do they want to participate in the political system, or simply vanquish their enemies, the Chavistas? From 1999 to 2003, they had what opposition leader Teodoro Petkoff called a “strategy of military takeover,” including the 2002 U.S.-backed military coup and the 2002–2003 oil strike. But in the past decade, they have repeatedly gone back and forth between insurrectionary and electoral strategies. In 2013, they lost the presidential elections and refused the accept the results, taking to the streets with violent demonstrations; and last year, a part of the opposition led by Leopoldo López and María Corina Machado also opted for violent street demonstrations aimed at “La Salida” — or “the exit” — of the government.

The opposition’s victory could give the more moderate elements a leg up on their extremist partners to move the country toward a more normal, less polarized political process. The government now clearly has a new incentive to do the same. That would certainly be the best for the country, which faces serious challenges ahead in fixing the economy.

The year of the girl child in #Tanzania?
▻http://africasacountry.com/2015/10/the-year-of-the-girl-child-in-tanzania

October 11 is International Day of the Girl Child, and October 25 Tanzania will run Presidential and Parliamentary elections. The presidential elections, in particular, will or will not be the.....

#FRONT_PAGE #Girls_Rights #Politics #Women's_Rights

Special Series on 2016 Presidential Election: Donald Trump
▻http://blog.palestine-studies.org/2015/09/09/special-series-on-2016-presidential-election-donald-trump

Why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thought it would be worthwhile to film an endorsement from Donald Trump is anyone’s guess. Back in January 2013, the Donald praised “Bibi” in a Hebrew-subtitled appeal to Israeli voters: “Vote for Benjamin. Terrific guy. Terrific leader. Great for Israel.” Source: Palestine Square

Belarusian president frees six political prisoners ahead of election | News | DW.COM | 23.08.2015
▻http://www.dw.com/en/belarusian-president-frees-six-political-prisoners-ahead-of-election/a-18666605

http://www.dw.com/image/0,,18153981_302,00.jpg

The president’s press service said late on Saturday that the surprise move have been motivated by humane principles.
Among the six political prisoners was Nikolai Statkevich who was imprisoned alongside nine other opposition leadersafter running against Lukashenko in the 2010 Belarus’ presidential election.
In May 2011 he was given a six-year jail sentence on a charge of organizing mass street protests against Lukashenko’s re-election at the time.
Another of the freed opponents, Mikola Rubsev, had been arrested in the same 2010 protests while wearing a t-shirt calling for Lukashenko to go.
The other four men were accused of belonging to an anarchist group that clashed with the local KGB - the successor of the Soviet secret police.

The WikiLebanon Files (Part VI): Garbage Crises and the Lebanese Civil War
▻http://moulahazat.com/2015/07/25/the-wikilebanon-files-part-vi-garbage-crises-and-the-lebanese-civil-war

As Beirut drowns in its own garbage and corruption, I’m publishing four 40-year-old U.S. diplomatic cables mentioning similar garbage crises the country suffered from during the chaotic days of the Lebanese civil war.

Ironically enough, the last two cables date from May 1976 and talk about the presidential election’s deadlock as well as the garbage crisis. 2015 much?

#cablegate #wikileaks

Palestinian leadership faces foggy future - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/07/palestine-israel-peace-talks-fail-future-leadership.html#

Succession discussions were the main feature of an article written by analyst Hani Masri, who heads the Masarat think tank in Ramallah. In his column in As-Safir on July 7 — republished in numerous Palestinian publications — Masri makes a strong argument that Fatah, and even the PLO, can no longer speak as representatives of the majority of Palestinians. And without a named vice president, Masri notes that the situation can either be calmly resolved through existing legal organizations or possibly burst into chaos that can envelop the entire Palestinian community. In conclusion, Masri calls for an internal Palestinian discussion to agree on some basic mechanisms that can avoid further chaos in Palestine.

That the presidential succession has returned as a strong issue is a sign of uncertainty about the future among Palestinians. Without a clear executable agreement that includes parliamentary and presidential elections with Hamas and some kind of understanding within the ruling Fatah movement, the writing on the wall is very worrisome. The recent success of nonviolent activities by Palestinians abroad, such as the boycott, divestment and sanctions activities, might lead some to argue that the time is right to give up on the limited powers of presidency under occupation and return to the days where the real power is in the hands of the PLO leadership outside the occupied territories.

Read more: ▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/07/palestine-israel-peace-talks-fail-future-leadership.html#ixzz3fVGWVNul

The Electoral Farce
▻http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/the-electoral-farce

I intend to devote no more time to the upcoming presidential elections than walking to my local polling station on Election Day, voting for a third-party candidate, most likely the Green Party...

Meet the Jewish billionaires shaping the 2016 presidential election
▻http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-features/1.658520

A quick look at the list of top political donors for 2014 reveals a striking fact: At least a third of the most generous 50 mega-givers were Jewish. In fact, contributions from Jewish billionaires and multi-millionaires dominated the top 10 spots on the list.

Obama: Like Israelis, Palestinians have right to be free on their land | By Haaretz| May 22, 2015
▻http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/1.657739

In a speech at Adas Israel synagogue in Washington, president reaffirms ’unshakeable’ commitment to Israel’s security, but says two-state solution is the way to safeguard it.
(...)

Obama’s visit comes a day after he gave an extensive interview to The Atlantic, in which he talked about the new Israeli government, his relations with the American Jewish community and U.S. support for Israel.

Obama told Jeffrey Goldberg that despite the confrontations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the past number of years, most of the American Jewish community still voted for him in the 2012 presidential election.

“What I also think is that there has been a very concerted effort on the part of some political forces to equate being pro-Israel, and hence being supportive of the Jewish people, with a rubber stamp on a particular set of policies coming out of the Israeli government,” he said. “So if you are questioning settlement policy, that indicates you’re anti-Israeli, or that indicates you’re anti-Jewish. If you express compassion or empathy towards Palestinian youth, who are dealing with checkpoints or restrictions on their ability to travel, then you are suspect in terms of your support of Israel. If you are willing to get into public disagreements with the Israeli government, then the notion is that you are being anti-Israel, and by extension, anti-Jewish. I completely reject that.”

Make the Rich Panic
▻http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/make-the-rich-panic

It does not matter to the corporate rich who wins the presidential election. It does not matter who is elected to Congress. The rich have the power. They throw money at their favorites the way...

Kazakhs find uneven playing field in Russia’s trading bloc - BBC News
▻http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32403837

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/media/images/82470000/jpg/_82470037_82470036.jpg

Kazakhstan is holding a snap presidential election, with the state of the economy posing a major challenge to the incumbent, Nursultan Nazarbayev. As the country deals with the impact of the global economic crisis, its efforts at economic integration with Russia are proving particularly difficult.

At the beginning of this year Russia and Kazakhstan, together with Belarus, launched the Eurasian Economic Union with great fanfare. But already this integration project, which is supposed to open borders and ensure free movement of goods, is facing restrictions and import bans.

#kazakhstan #russie #union_douanière

#Nigeria Shuts Land, Sea Borders Before Presidential Election

(Bloomberg) — Nigeria announced the closing of its land and sea borders at midnight Wednesday as its security forces prepare for presidential and legislative elections on March 28.

▻http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-25/nigeria-shuts-land-sea-borders-before-presidential-election
#élections #frontière

A French Requiem

On January 7, the literary event everyone was expecting did not occur. Indeed, the long-awaited publication of Michel Houellebecq’s latest novel, Soumission—which envisions, in 2022, the second round of a French presidential election opposing Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Front, and Mohammed Ben Abbès, head of the Muslim Brotherhood—was overshadowed by the attack on the satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Instead of the fictional “civil war between Muslim immigrants and Western Europe natives” imagined in Houellebecq’s novel, two jihadists affiliated with Al Qaeda had killed twelve people including five famous cartoonists.

http://www.dissentmagazine.org/wp-content/files_mf/1423328242fassincharliemarchephotogreuphie666.jpg