The Londoner

By Sikander Hayat  There is a perception that Trump is the logical conclusion of all that has been happening in the world and in the United States of America for last 10 years.  It has been argued by many that democracy acts as a vent and allows societies to show their frustrations without resorting to bloody civil conflicts . It is also true that it allows demagogues to use people’s frustrations to their advantage and instil hate into the minds of populace. It is always easy to blame a particular outcome on particular outsiders/others. It is very well documented that Trump used the pain , anger and helplessness of ordinary citizens to make a case against globalisation , free trade and environmental protection agencies. Both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump pointed at the same symptoms for the malaise in society but both of them have proposed different remedies for these ills. Some of the main differences are as follows: 1.    ...

Republicans Think America Is Doing Terribly, But It Isn't   Ezra Klein, Vox What Obama's Futile Quest for a Legacy Means for 2016   Ed Rogers, Washington Post Hillary Clinton's Fake Tough Talk on Wall Street   Jeff Gerth, The Daily Beast Rubio & Cruz Are Top Contenders in Debate   Michael Barone, Washington Examiner Why Aren't Conservative Intellectuals Disgusted w/GOP?   Damon Linker, The Week Mizzou and the Master of Our Universe   Matthew Continetti, Free Beacon Where Has All the Power Gone?   Francis Wilkinson, Bloomberg Obama Responsible for Growing Lawlessness in U.S.   Gov. Chris Christie, FOX News Mass Atrocities Looming in Burundi?   Nicholas Kristof, New York Times Changing Direction of Country Starts at the State Level   Steve Hantler, Breitbart Live Like You Were Dying   Gov. Larry Hogan, Washington Post Latest Polls:   GOP: Florida, Georgia, T...

1.  Why the Republican Candidates Don't Do Substance John Cassidy, The New Yorker 2.  The Media's Potemkin Village Starts to Topple Michael Walsh, PJ Media 3.  Was the Third Debate Bush's Last Stand? Eugene Robinson, Washington Post 4.  The Improbable Speaker Ryan   Stephen Hayes, Weekly Standard 5.  Paul Ryan, the Radical Now Running the House   Jonathan Alter, The Daily Beast 6.  Republicans Are the Real Big-Tent Party Mitchell Blatt, The Federalist 7.  Once, Talk of an Enemies List Was Shocking George Condon, National Journal 8.  The Closing of a Newsroom's Mind Donald Graham, Wall Street Journal 9.  An American Hostage in Iran--Again   Robin Wright, The New Yorker 10.  AIPAC's Devastating Decision Caroline Glick, Jerusalem Post 11.  Bipartisanship Still Matters Jon Huntsman Jr. and Joe Lieberman, RealClearPoli...

In response to the first half of the question, and bowing to the contemporary wisdom that anything can be reduced to the length of a tweet, I offer up this definition: American liberalism is belief system that combines egalitarian impulses with a conviction that markets often fail and that the government should seek to address these failures. (Actually, that’s about one and a half tweets, but never mind.) Now to how liberalism is faring . If you’ve been reading some of the articles out of Washington in recent weeks, you may have received the impression that it’s an endangered creed, and that the troubled rollout of the Affordable Care Act might just about finish it off. I’m not just referring to the coverage in conservative outlets like the  National Review , the Weekly Standard , and the op-ed page of the  Wall Street Journal , which have been publishing obituaries of liberalism for decades. In mainstream and even liberal publications, some of the best columnists in Wa...

The requisites for a U.S. secretary of state , along with intelligence and judgment, are a knowledge of foreign policy, an understanding of domestic politics, and, ideally, first-hand experience of what President Dwight D. Eisenhower called the “brutality and stupidity” of war. Senator John Kerry , who was tapped by President Barack Obama to succeed Hillary Clinton , checks off all those boxes. He has been an engaged diplomat, a successful politician with gravitas and a decorated combat veteran. Much of his 28-year Senate career has focused on national security. He was among the few young Americans of privilege who fought in Vietnam . Clinton , though unlike most modern-day secretaries of state, he understands how U.S. politics affects foreign policy on issues from the Middle East to China . Massachusetts Democrat has won six statewide races. He knows how Washington works. Like The 69- year-old “Senator Kerry was the most prominent choice of most people o...

Wayne LaPierre and the NRA : so defensive it was downright offensive The leading gun rights lobbyist gave a performance so tone-deaf that only he missed why 'put more guns in Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice-president, called reporters 'irresponsible, duplicitous and dangerously dishonest'. Photograph: Christian Gooden/AP Wayne LaPierre, executive vice-president of the National Rifle Association , came to the podium Friday with the pursed lips and furrowed brow of a banker anxious over accounting errors . Throughout the press conference, he seemed to be reaching for an emotional range that would reflect the horror and sorrow so many felt in the wake of the Sandy Hook killings . But the most effective expression he could muster was that of someone trying to remember his lines. I would like to believe that LaPierre was as anguished and confused by the events of last week as the rest of us, but the man clearly suffers from constip...

Michael Tomasky : The GOP Brings Politics to a Crisis Point by Michael Tomasky Dec 23, 2012 4:45 AM EST With their refusal to vote for Boehner’s Plan B , Republicans have definitively shown that they’d rather sabotage democracy than govern. How can they be stopped? Really, what is to be done about this Republican Party ? What force can change it—can stop Republicans from being ideological saboteurs and convert at least a workable minority of them into people interested in governing rather than sabotage? With the failed Plan B vote, we have reached the undeniable crisis point. Actually we’ve been at a crisis point for years , but this is really the all-upper-case Undeniable Crisis Point. They are a direct threat to the economy, which could slip back into recession next year if the government doesn’t, well, govern. They are an ongoing, at this point almost mundane, threat to democracy, subverting and preventing progress the American peo...

Sen. Barrasso : Obama sees a ‘political victory ’ in going over the cliff Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said Sunday he thinks President Obama wants to dive over the so-called "fiscal cliff." "I believe the president is eager to go over the cliff for political purposes," Barrasso told Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday. " "He senses a political victory at the bottom of the cliff." The senator also said he believes the nation will go over the cliff, with the deadline just nine days away. Barrasso said he thinks Obama is eager to blame Republicans if Congress cannot reach a deal by the end of the year. Polls have indicated that Americans would blame Republicans more than Democrats if talks fail. Barrasso also pointed to a report in the Wall Street Journal late last week that said during negotiations, Obama threatened Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) that he would use the presidential bully pulpit to heap blame on the GOP ...

How 'Cliff' Talks Hit the Wall Behind Scenes, Boehner Failed to Sell Republicans on Taxes , While Obama's Spending Plans Rankled WASHINGTON— Congressional leaders and President Barack Obama called Friday for a return to negotiations to avert the so-called fiscal cliff, a day after talks cratered in a very public fashion when Republicans abandoned House Speaker John Boehner 's backup plan. In truth, talks to secure a big deficit-reduction deal had already broken down Monday afternoon in the office of Mr. Boehner (R., Ohio), a Wall Street Journal reconstruction shows. Mr. Boehner had been negotiating a deal with the White House to let tax rates rise for upper-income people. Mr. Boehner, irritated with the White House, was finding it hard to keep his troops in line as details of his negotiations with Mr. Obama leaked out. In the speaker's office just off the Capitol's majestic rotunda that afternoon, he told his top lieutenants that ...

As expected, John Kerry, the senior senator from Massachusetts and former Democratic presidential candidate in 2004, has been nominated by President Obama to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of State in Obama's second term. Kerry is popular in the Senate on a bipartisan basis. His confirmation should present few issues, especially since he has already gone through the even more severe vetting process of an intense and highly competitive presidential race. And because of his detailed knowledge of many foreign policy issues, due to his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee over the years, not to mention his presidential aspirations and his Vietnam military service at an earlier stage in life, he is also well placed to ensure thoughtfulness and continuity in American foreign policy in the months ahead. Like Clinton, Kerry is diligent, hardworking, patient and pragmatic. Like her, while not necessarily personally close to President Obama at th...

Well, the Mayans were sort of right. The world didn’t implode when their calendar stopped on Dec. 21. But the National Rifle Association did call for putting guns in every American school in a press conference that had a sort of civilization-hits-a-dead-end feel to it. And we learned that negotiations on averting a major economic crisis had come to a screeching halt because Speaker John Boehner lost the support of the far-right contingent of his already-pretty-damned-conservative caucus. We have seen the future, and everything involves negotiating with loony people. Wayne LaPierre , the C.E.O. of the N.R.A., has major sway in Congress when it comes to gun issues. So the press conference, in which he read a rambling, unyielding statement in a quavering voice, while refusing to take any questions, could not have inspired confidence that the national trauma over the shooting at a Connecticut elementary school was going to be resolved anytime ...