Elephant

Tuesday June 16, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday June 16, 2020

Don’t be fooled into thinking Republicans are split over Trump

Breaking news: Republicans might finally be willing to break with President Donald Trump. Following the president’s performance with Covid-19 as well as his response to the Black Lives Matters protests there have been a number of stories speculating about whether the GOP will finally come undone.

April 23, 2020

The drama is greatly exaggerated. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski told reporters that she is “struggling” to figure out how to vote in November … When Colin Powell announced that he would support Joe Biden and former president George W. Bush revealed he would not support Trump, the New York Times reporters a “growing number” of Republicans were debating how far to go. 

The speculation about internal handwringing and possible “turning points” within the GOP never ends. It’s the drama that never happens, but one the press loves to keep following.

It needs to stop. The notion that there is a major fissure between the Republicans and President Trump simply masks the character of the modern party. Republicans nominated and elected Donald Trump to be President four years ago. They have stood by him, and done so even in the toughest of times. Nothing, even his “fine people” remarks after a 2017 white supremacist marchin Charlottesville or his recent hardline response to mass marches over George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police, shakes this. 

February 7, 2020

When we look at President Trump we see the modern party before our very eyes. Stories about internal division mask this basic reality and suggest that there are greater options outside the Democratic Party than actually exist.

When Trump decries those who want to bring down Confederate monuments and treats the job of governance as if it is a third rate reality show, he represents the party. When he invokes former president Richard Nixon and conservative Democrats George Wallace and Frank Rizzo while screaming about “law and order” as a response to civil rights protests, or tweets out “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” he speaks for the GOP.

The story of the Trump presidency has been a story about how comfortably he sits within his party. Throughout his term, polls have shown remarkably solid support for the President within the Republican electorate, regardless of his actions. By and large, congressional Republicans have stood by him at every turn, protecting him from investigations and continuing to vote the party line on most issues. Of course, some such as Maine Sen. Susan Collins hem and haw, but that’s the sum total of their profiles in courage. 

The saga of Sen. Mitt Romney captures where the party has gone. After launching the #nevertrump “movement” in 2016, Romney ended up going along with the President in the early years. Recently, he has received kudos for standing up to Trump that, while being well deserved, actually reveals how low the bar has moved. When Senator Romney was the only Republican to vote for conviction during the President’s impeachment trial for using foreign policy to help his re-election bid, it said more about what the rest of his party now considered to be acceptable than it did about Romney. When it was a headline to see Romney march with civil rights protesters against police brutality, the moment showed how far the GOP has distanced itself from this basic call for social justice.

The most realistic assessments of the President have come from George Conway, a genuine conservative married to the President’s adviser, Kellyanne Conway, knows Trump well. Conway has started the Lincoln Project, launching blistering ads about the President and the entire party. He has consistently blasted former colleagues who suggest that they can distance themselves from the person in the Oval Office.

These are platitudes meant to disguise the choice voters actually face in November, between a party that has gone all in with Trumpism and another that has not. Every American is free to decide which choice they prefer for the next four years, but nobody should be under the illusion that a different option is on the table. (CNN) 

Thank you Thomas Nast for your enduring symbol of the U.S. Republican Party or Grand Old Party

November 7, 1998
January 20, 1999
February 24, 2000
August 3, 2000
November 4, 2000
May 25, 2001
February 8, 2008
November 14, 2014
October 12, 2016
March 3, 2016
September 28, 2018

 

 

Friday February 7, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday February 7, 2020

Is Donald Trump America’s new normal?

November 16, 2019

The political fates are fickle. This was supposed to be Donald Trump’s worst week as America’s president, but it’s turned into his best.

This was supposed to be the week his impeachment trial exposed him as unfit to hold the highest office in the land, the week his abysmal record in the Oval office came back to haunt him and the week his Democratic opponents proved they’re ready to take him on in November’s presidential election.

None of it happened. The Democrats, who invested so much political capital into impeaching Trump, need to come up with Plan B. Their Plan A was a flop and the Democrats are stumbling just when they should be hitting their stride.

If you think Trump’s presidency has been an unmitigated disaster for the planet — and we know the vast majority of Canadians do — you should be worried by all this. Very worried.

October 10, 2019

Instead of signalling the death of his erratic presidency, Trump’s impeachment trial breathed new life into it. There was clear proof he pressured a foreign country — Ukraine — to discredit one of his potential political rivals — Joe Biden. We know he called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last July. We know Trump was withholding $391 million (U.S.) in military aid to Ukraine, too.

Despite the damning evidence against him, it was always going to be an uphill struggle to convince two-thirds of the Senate, which is dominated by Trump’s own Republicans, to convict him. Trump’s acquittal was predicted. But because the Republicans blocked the testimony of key witnesses, the trial was a sham that discredited a once noble house of Congress.

As for the great American public, it largely tuned out from the televised tedium. No wonder Trump gloated. The latest Gallup poll gives him a 49 per cent approval rating from Americans, his highest score since being elected. And on Tuesday, the day before his Senate acquittal, Trump had the opportunity to sing his own praises in his annual State of the Union address, claiming undeserved responsibility for what he calls the “Great American comeback.”

November 2, 2019

Clearly the prevailing winds are at Trump’s back. What’s more troubling is they’re blowing in the faces of the Democrats. They were thoroughly embarrassed by the technical glitches that delayed the results from their Iowa caucuses Monday.

Far more seriously, the party is badly split, uncertain whether its path to victory runs through the moderate centre or the progressive left of the U.S. political spectrum. Nor would we recommend betting your house on an election win for any of the Democrats’ current crop of candidates, including the self-proclaimed democratic socialist Bernie Sanders or the leaden, former vice-president Biden.

As we look at an America and cherished American institutions that increasingly seem unrecognizable, we wonder if three years of Trump have succeeded in deadening the nation’s senses to the divisions and disruptions he has sewn at home and around the world. If you live with a clown long enough, maybe you’re comfortable in a circus.

Of course, we’re commenting partly on the events of one week. The election remains nine months away and Trump’s presidency could still end in a train-wreck. But Trump became president in 2016 with less than half of the popular vote and could do so again.

It will be up to American voters to rid their country and the world of this president. It will be up to the Democrats to choose a candidate who can convince the country to do this. Today, sadly, neither of these things is at all certain. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

Friday September 28, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday September 28, 2018

8 takeaways from the Brett Kavanaugh-Christine Blasey Ford hearings

The eyes of the country are on a small hearing room on Capitol Hill Thursday, where Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who has accused him of sexually assaulting her when they were both teenagers, are testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Trivia from the south

I’m watching right alongside you — and the nation. The testimony so far has been gripping — and the whole hearing, featuring both Ford and Kavanaugh, will be worth watching to get a full picture.

But several moments and themes have already stood out. Below you’ll find a contemporaneous set of takeaways that I think are worth taking note of as I watch the hearings live. Again, these takeaways are in the order of the actual hearing.

1. Ford is credible

2. The manner of questioning is, um, not great

3. Grassley’s tin ear

4. Hatch’s ‘attractive’ gaffe

5. Mitchell’s swings and misses

6. The silence of Senate Republicans

7. Kavanaugh’s angry and emotional opening statement

8. No one is more outraged than Lindsey Graham

(Continued: CNN) 

 

Tuesday August 14, 2018

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday August 14, 2018

Hamilton chamber continues to prepare for LRT construction

The Hamilton Chamber of Commerce is launching another series of seminars to prepare businesses for light rail transit (LRT) construction.

April 7, 2018

The four-part series starts on Thursday evening with a session called “Countdown to Construction.”

Chamber President Keanin Loomis says it is planning on the basis that the $1 billion, provincially-funded project will proceed as scheduled, despite ongoing political questions.

The funding commitment was made by Ontario’s former Liberal government.

There has been much speculation in recent months about whether the 14-kilometre LRT line between McMaster University and Eastgate Square will proceed under Premier Doug Ford’s new PC government.

Loomis, a steadfast supporter of Hamilton LRT, notes that “if everything goes right, as I expect it will, we’re going to be facing construction next year.”

The construction is expected to happen over a period of about five years and Loomis recognizes there will be disruptions for businesses along the corridor, but he remains confident they will be “temporary” and “manageable.”

Metrolinx, based on the project’s latest timelines, is expected to award the contract to build Hamilton’s LRT in 2019. (Source: Global News) 

 

SaveSave

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday, August 17, 2017

Chapter 19 may be a NAFTA deal breaker for Canada

A lot of Canadian softwood lumber exporters will tell you Chapter 19 is an instrumental part of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

July 17, 2017

Softwood lumber is the longest and bitterest of Canada-U.S. trade disputes. Small wonder then that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has cautioned that removing Chapter 19 from the trade pact would be a deal breaker in the upcoming renewal talks between Canada, the United States and Mexico.

Chapter 19 is a mechanism NAFTA members can use to review the fairness of anti-dumping and countervailing duties. The U.S. has a long history of slapping such duties on Canadian softwood lumber shipments, and Canada has taken advantage of Chapter 19 to reverse those actions.

A Chapter 19 panel decides each case according to the domestic laws of the country that imposed the duties. So a Chapter 19 panel does not override a country’s domestic laws, but serves as a check on how each country is applying its own rules.

June 7, 2017

“There is absolutely no doubt that it acts as a check on some of the more abusive, arbitrary and discriminatory actions of the regulators on both sides of the border,” said Milos Barutciski, co-head of the international trade and investment law practice at Bennett Jones LLP in Toronto.

Softwood lumber has long been a flash-point in Canada-U.S. trade relations, and Canada has turned to Chapter 19, both under the original Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement and subsequently under NAFTA, to address what it sees as the unfair imposition of duties.

August 27, 2005

The U.S. lumber industry argues that the tariffs are necessary because provincial governments unfairly subsidize Canadian producers who log on crown land. Canadian companies argue the tariffs are improper because they pay provincial governments market rates for that timber.

“Chapter 19 has been a very important piece in every softwood lumber dispute since the original FTA was signed,” Barutciski said. (Source: Financial Post)