history

Saturday June 18, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday June 18, 2022

Hence, Mike Pence

The fate of a sycophant is never a happy one.

July 21, 2020

At first, you think that fawning over the boss is a good way to move forward. But when you are dealing with a narcissist — and narcissists are the ones who like to be surrounded by sycophants — you can never be unctuous enough.

Narcissists are Grand Canyons of need. The more they are flattered, the more their appetite for flattery grows.

That is the hard, almost fatal, lesson Pence learned on Jan. 6, when he finally stood up to Donald Trump after Trump asked for one teensy favor: Help destroy American democracy and all we stand for.

Two new photos shown at a hearing of the House committee investigating Jan. 6 tell a shocking story — one of the most incredible in our nation’s history.

August 15, 2017

In one, Karen Pence is protectively pulling a gold-fringed curtain shut in the vice president’s ceremonial office in the Capitol, off the Senate floor, as Pence — sitting beneath a large gilt mirror — stares off into space, probably wondering where it all went wrong.

We learned this week that when the vice president fled down the stairs, followed by an Air Force officer carrying the nuclear launch codes, the marauding mob was a few feet from him.

In a second picture, taken after Pence was brought to a secure location in an underground garage, his daughter Charlotte is anxiously watching him. He is holding a phone to his ear as he stares at another phone showing a video of Trump professing love for the crowd, which included some who carried baseball bats and zip ties and chanted “Hang Mike Pence!”

July 18, 2016

In the early afternoon, as the crowd tore down barricades and fought police, White House staffers worried things were “getting out of hand,” as Sarah Matthews, a Trump aide, testified.

They thought that the president needed to tweet something immediately. At 2:24 p.m., they got a notification that the president had indeed tweeted. But it was not the calming tweet they had hoped for; it was one designed to drive the rioters into a frenzy.

“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify,” Trump tweeted. “USA demands the truth!”

As Matthews recalled in her deposition, “The situation was already bad, and so it felt like he was pouring gasoline on the fire by tweeting that.”

Trump was still steaming from the contentious morning phone call when he failed to persuade the vice president to reject some of the states’ electors so they could be replaced with fake electors who supported Trump. He had railed at Pence with emasculating epithets.

January 20, 2017

As Trump recalled in a speech on Friday in Nashville, “I said to Mike, ‘If you do this, you can be Thomas Jefferson.’ And then, after it all went down, I looked at him one day and said, ‘I hate to say this, but you’re no Thomas Jefferson.’”

In the same speech, Trump had another line that was strikingly delusional, even for him. “For the radical left,” he said, “politics has become their religion. It has warped their sense of right and wrong. They don’t have a sense of right and wrong, true and false, good and evil.”

February 8, 2022

Trump sparked the mob to seek vengeance against Pence the same way Henry II sparked a crew to murder Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170. According to legend, after Becket defied Henry by excommunicating bishops supportive of the king, Henry muttered something to the effect of, “Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?” Four knights immediately rode to Canterbury Cathedral and sliced up Becket.

The line became a famous example of directing loyalists with indirection, cloaking an order as a wish. Who will rid me of this meddlesome vice president?

A Times video, showing how the Proud Boys breached the Capitol, underscored that within the confederacy of dunces, there was an actual organized conspiracy. The group began plotting even before the election to take up arms for Trump. When Trump barked “Stand back and stand by” about the Proud Boys during his debate with Joe Biden, the Proud Boys felt as though they had received a directive, like Henry’s knights.

The Bengal Levee, by James Gillray | The Marquess Cornwallis (1738-1803) was made British Governor-General of India in 1786 and a Marquess in 1792. He held a weekly levee at Government House, making a point of speaking to all those who attended. Here Cornwallis is standing in the inner room on the right, his right hand on his breast and his left in the pocket of his breeches, awaiting chat time with a following of sycophants. Not far off from the current parade of Republicans who gather for meet and greets at Mar-a-Lago.

With each hearing, it becomes clearer that Trump has no plausible deniability. He put the lives of the vice president and his family at risk, as well as the lives of lawmakers, by sending a crowd, stewing in lies, into a frenzy.

Pence did not have the power to do what Trump wanted, and it’s good that he resisted the insane, illegal and unconstitutional plan of the narcissist in the Oval. But Pence still wants it both ways. He has steered clear of the committee. He wants to become president by staying on the good side of Trump supporters, but they’re never going to forgive him.

At the end of the day of infamy, John Eastman, the nutty lawyer trying to help Trump overturn the election, sent an email imploring Pence to adjourn the congressional certification so sympathetic state legislators could help with Trump’s fairy tale of a rigged election.

When Greg Jacob, Pence’s counsel, showed the email to the vice president, Pence said, “That’s rubber room stuff.”

The fate of a sycophant is never a happy one. (Maureen Dowd – The New York Times) 

Letter to the Editor, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday June 23, 2022 

Pence did well

Letter to the editor

I really do appreciate Mr. MacKay’s daily offerings filled with wit, insight and hilarious satire, whether I agree with his message or not. I do however take exception with the depiction of Vice President Mike Pence as subservient lap dog to a delusional, narcissistic sociopath, his boss. Mike Pence displayed real courage, honour and dignity in the face of unpredictable violent behaviour and refused to comply with that megalomaniac’s demand to circumvent the peaceful transition of power. Whether you agree with his politics or not, when offered an escape from danger, Mike Pence refused, checking on the safety of staff instead, during perhaps one of the most dangerous moments in American history.

To quote the great Rudyard Kipling, “ if you can keep your head while all about you are loosing theirs and blaming it on you … yours is the world and all that’s in it And, which is more, you’ll be a man my son.” You did good Mike.

Claudio D’Amato, Stoney Creek

 

 

 

Saturday January 15, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday January 15, 2022

Prince Andrew: Ruthless royals move to limit the damage

There was no waiting to see if Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, could clear his name in court. He’s already lost the use of his HRH, and his military links have been severed.

March 9, 2021

“Brutal,” tweeted royal commentator Peter Hunt. “The Windsors have shown that when the institution is under threat, dynastic preservation trumps flesh and blood.”

It could also be seen as inevitable. Rather than facing endless awkward questions about Prince Andrew’s future, Buckingham Palace has made a pre-emptive strike, effectively announcing that he will never return to an official royal role.

The royal statement, in two short sentences, moves him from 61 years as a public figure to a “private citizen”.

Separate to the merits of the civil court case, from a reputational perspective this story has been like a leaking supertanker gushing out bad news, and the Royal Family want to stop any more from washing up on its shores.

Saturday September 11, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 11, 2021

The 20th anniversary of 9/11: no end in sight

Wednesday September 12, 2001

A new and deadly era began when the planes sliced into the twin towers on the morning of 11 September 2001. That evening, the historian Tony Judt wrote that he had seen the 21st century begin. The nearly 3,000 lives stolen by al-Qaida were only a small part of the toll. The horror began a chain of events that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, including huge numbers of civilians abroad and many US military personnel. It is still unfolding.

If the killing of the plot’s mastermind Osama bin Laden a few months before the 10th anniversary perhaps let some hope that an end to that new era might be in sight, there can be no such false confidence at the 20th. The establishment of a Taliban government in Kabul, two decades after the US ousted the militants for harbouring Bin Laden, has underscored two things: that far from reasserting its global supremacy, the US looks more vulnerable today; and that the echoes of 9/11 are still reverberating across the region – but will not stay there.

September 11, 2006

Al-Qaida itself survives and others claim its mantle. In the west, the threat from Islamist terrorism endures – from 7/7 and the Madrid train bombings, to the attacks at Manchester Arena, the Berlin Christmas market and Vienna – though the nature of the threat has shifted, from a heavily financed, complex and internationally organised plot to more localised, less sophisticated attacks. This week, 20 men went on trial over the 2015 massacre at the Bataclan concert hall and other sites in Paris. Ken McCallum, MI5’s chief, said on Friday that the agency had prevented six “late stage” terrorist plots during the pandemic, and that with the Taliban’s triumph, “more risk progressively may flow our way”.

The determination to pursue a military solution fed the political problems, as history should have warned. (A Rand Corporation study of 248 terrorist groups worldwide suggested that only 7% were ended by military force.)

September 11, 2011

In Afghanistan, the refusal to accept a Taliban surrender paved the way for America’s longest war and ultimate acceptance of defeat. Islamic State arose from the ashes of the invasion of Iraq. Extraordinary renditions, torture, the atrocities of Abu Ghraib and the unwillingness to acknowledge or atone for civilian deaths at the hands of US forces or their allies all stoked the fire. These abuses and crimes were not anomalies but intrinsic to the war on terror. Men swept up in the aftermath are still held at Guantánamo Bay.

Around the world, basic rights were erased at home too. The US saw a massive expansion of presidential power; the veneration of secrecy; the destruction of norms; the normalisation of Islamophobia; the promotion of a narrative linking immigration and terrorism, breeding broader intolerance; and the encouragement of the belief that ordinary citizens were in a state of war. It is not hard to draw the line to the rise of Donald Trump and white supremacy, or rightwing populism elsewhere. In the US, far-right terror groups were behind most attacks last year; in the UK, police have said that the fastest growing terror threat is from the far right. The biggest perils to the US now appear not external but internal. The future of a divided and distrustful country looks increasingly precarious, its status in the world weakened.

August 18, 2021

Whatever many in the country once believed, American citizens cannot be isolated from the dangers of the outside world; trouble is not “always someplace else”. On 9/11, the country transitioned from a dream of unending tranquility at home to a nightmare of forever war. With the return of soldiers from Afghanistan, the US is more distanced from the enemy. But the conflict continues by other means, and without boots on the ground, drone strikes are more likely than ever to claim the lives of civilians as well as terrorist suspects. The US, and the west, cannot be safe at home while insecurity reigns abroad. (The Guardian) 

 

Tuesday July 20, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday July 20, 2021

“I’m Getting the Word Out”: Inside the Feverish Mind of Donald Trump

March 26, 2019

Seventy days had passed since Donald Trump left Washington against his will. On March 31, 2021, we ventured to Mar-a-Lago, where he still reigned as king of Republican politics. We arrived late that afternoon for our audience with the man who used to be president and were ushered into an ornate sixty-foot-long room that functioned as a kind of lobby leading to the club’s patio. A model of Air Force One painted in Trump’s proposed redesign—a flat red stripe across the middle, a navy belly, a white top, and a giant American flag on the tail—was proudly displayed on the coffee table facing the entrance. It was a prop disconnected from reality.  Trump’s vision never came to be; the fleet now in use by President Biden still bears the iconic baby blue-and-white livery designed by Jacqueline Kennedy.

“Used to be” is not a phrase anyone dares use to describe the president inside his Palm Beach castle. Here, beneath the gold-leaf ceiling of winged griffins and crystal chandeliers, Trump still rules, surrounded day and night by applauding fans, obsequious courtiers, and dutiful servants. At the perfectly manicured Mar-a-Lago, none of the disgrace that marked the end of his presidency pierces Trump’s reality. Here, he and his aides work to maintain the gospel according to Trump, with the most important revelations being that Donald Trump was the greatest president of all time and was unjustly denied a second term.

January 22, 2019

Trump had invited us to Mar-a-Lago to interview him for this book. He had declined an interview for our first book about his presidency, and when A Very Stable Genius was published in January 2020, attacked us personally and branded our reporting a work of fiction. But Trump was quick to agree to our request this time. He sought to curate history.

As we sat for the interview, the former president’s press secretary presented us copies of a bound volume: 1,000 Accomplishments of President Donald J. Trump: Highlights of the First Term. On the back cover is an American flag, the presidential seal, and Trump’s thick, jagged signature. The book totals 92 pages and is organized with chapters dedicated to the economy, tax cuts, deregulation, trade, and so on.

January 24, 2017

Trump walked into the room flanked by a couple of plainclothed Secret Service agents, a much smaller detail than he once had as president. He wore his customary dark suit and tie, his face covered with bronze makeup. He sat in his preferred position, a plush armchair of ivory brocade facing the entrance where guests arrive, with us on a sofa to his right. Behind him was a huge window looking out to the Atlantic Ocean; in front of him, the patio facing Lake Worth.

“This is the biggest, the best, the most acreage, the most everything—the ocean, the lake, it fronts both,” the ever-boasting Trump said. “Mar-a-Lago is ocean-to-lake. Did you know that? Mar-a-Lago, ocean to lake. It’s the only place. See that window? That window, when that was built, is the largest pane of glass in the world, okay?”

June 23, 2021

Trump started the interview by pointing out his enduring and unrivaled power within the Republican Party. He explained that he didn’t intend to follow the path of former presidents, who largely bowed out of the nitty-gritty of party politics. He was proud to say he genuinely enjoys this sport he found so late in life, and believes he plays it better than anyone else. The parade of Republican politicians flocking to Mar-a-Lago all spring to kiss his ring had both energized him, he said, and proved the value of his stock.

“We have had so many, and so many are coming in,” Trump said. “It’s been pretty amazing. You see the numbers. They need the endorsement. I don’t say this in a braggadocious way, but if they don’t get the endorsement, they don’t win.” 

But future elections were not front and center in his mind. A past election was. Trump was fixated on his loss in 2020, returning to this wound repeatedly throughout the interview. 

April 29, 2020

“In a certain way, I had two presidencies,” he said. In the first, when the economy was roaring, Trump argued that he had been unbeatable, never mind that his approval rating was never higher than 46 percent in the Gallup poll during his first three years as president.

“I think it would be hard if George Washington came back from the dead and he chose Abraham Lincoln as his vice president, I think it would have been very hard for them to beat me,” Trump said.

Then, he lamented, came his second presidency: the pandemic killed his chances.

Trump seemed determined as well to convince us that he actually had won, and handily, had it not been for the many people who had wronged him—the “evil people” who conspired to deny him his rightful second term.

“The greatest fraud ever perpetrated in this country was this last election,” Trump said. “It was rigged and it was stolen. It was both. It was a combination, and Bill Barr didn’t do anything about it.”

Trump faulted not only his attorney general, but Vice President Pence for lacking the bravery to do what was right. (Continued: Vanity Fair)

The Journey of a Hero to the Island of Elba

A satirical depiction of the exile of the French Emperor Napoleon to the island of Elba in 1814. This was Napoleon’s first defeat by the Allied nations of the Sixth Coalition, including Britain, Prussia, and Russia. Less than a year after Napoleon was overthrown, he escaped from Elba and returned to France, forcing the Sixth Coalition to reform. The Allied armies marched against him, and Napoleon was finally and conclusively defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. Pub’d by J. Phillips, No. 32 Charles Street Hampstead road, May 1814. (Source: Age of Revolution) 

Saturday July 17, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday July 17, 2021

Is the former town of Dundas next to be renamed?

Dundas Street West and Dundas, Ont., both named after Henry Dundas, who delayed British abolition of slavery

July 10, 2021

Toronto will rename Dundas Street West because of its ties to a racist from centuries past, but what about Hamilton’s suburb with the same name?

Toronto City Council voted in favour of a motion of changing the name of the west-east traffic artery. While there are no public calls to have the town of Dundas renamed, the downtown Toronto street and community in Hamilton have the same namesake.

Both were named in honour of Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville — an 18th-century politician from Scotland who used his power to delay the freedom of slaves in Britain. He entered politics in the late 1700s, gaining status and influence as home secretary and secretary at war.

He later became known as “The Great Tyrant” for tweaking an anti-slavery bill that would delay the abolition of the slave trade by roughly 15 years. His actions froze the freedom of roughly 630,000 slaves. He still has a monument in Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital and it has been the target of vandalism and a source of controversy.

September 1, 1999

Dundas no longer formally exists as a town, since Hamilton, its surrounding suburbs and the region of Hamilton Wentworth were amalgamated in 2000, so it’s not clear what a campaign to remove the name would mean.

But signs are still up identifying it as Dundas, the name is still in common everday use, it exists as a postal address and is still part of the riding name for the area – Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas.

Ontario’s NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who grew up in Hamilton, supported the idea of renaming the Toronto street on Twitter.

“Henry Dundas blocked the abolition of slavery in the UK by years, a delay that cost tens of thousands of lives. Removing his name to reflect our values isn’t about rewriting shameful history — we can’t do that,” she wrote.

“It’s about rewriting our present day. Rename Dundas Street.”

It’s unclear if she supports renaming Dundas, as her office did not respond for comment.

August 15, 2015

Ward 13 Councillor, Arlene VanderBeek, who represents the Dundas area, did not return calls for comment.

Ameil Joseph, a McMaster University associate professor who studies critical race theory, told CBC News it’s important to think about the “how” and “why” of naming and renaming.

“If we’re thinking of Dundas, you would have to think about what it was before — Cootes Paradise. Thomas Coote was a British officer, also involved in a colonial project. Are we going to rename Bathurst, Jarvis — Jarvis who is a slave trader? Yonge? It’s all around us,” he said.

“When we think about removing statues and street signs, we have to think about how we do it differently, how we can tell the story in a way that’s more comprehensive rather than more erasure.”

Joseph said it is important to remove monuments that only tell one side of the various ethnic atrocities in Canada’s history, but the emphasis needs to be on replacing them with full context of past events, instead of only portraying the view of powerful.

You Might Be From Hamilton If…

“We’re in a historical moment where we can unpractice that, but it’s all about how. If we’re talking about our histories of Hamilton and Dundas, what’s beneath that? Beneath that is what’s always been here, these are traditional nations of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee nations,” Joseph explained.

“A renaming would have to be something that speaks to Black communities who have been here since before Hamilton was Hamilton … these things are deeply implicated all around us. I don’t think pulling things down is just the answer.” (CBC)