Michael Moore: If Elected, Donald Trump Would Be 'Last President of the United States'

Democracy Now! speaks with Michael Moore about his new film, in which he suggests that the election of Donald Trump would herald the end of the United States.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/Jonathan Feinstein

By Amy Goodman / Democracy Now!-November 7, 2016

With the presidential election just a day away, we continue our conversation with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore, the director of "Roger & Me," "Fahrenheit 9/11," "Bowling for Columbine," "Sicko," "Capitalism: A Love Story" and "Where to Invade Next." He has just released a surprise new film titled "Michael Moore in TrumpLand." On Thursday afternoon, we spoke with Michael Moore about his new film, in which he suggests that the election of Donald Trump will herald the end of the United States.

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: In late October, Donald Trump sent out a tweet that may have surprised many of his followers. In the tweet, he linked to a video of filmmaker Michael Moore along with the words "I agree, @MMFlint." That’s Michael Moore’s Twitter handle. Trump went on to say, "To all Americans, I see you & I hear you. I am your voice. Vote to #DrainTheSwamp w/ me on 11/8." Well, Trump’s tweet included a four-minute audio recording pulled from Michael Moore’s new film, Michael Moore in TrumpLand. The recording was edited to make it sound like Michael Moore was endorsing Trump. Well, in response, Moore tweeted, quote, "Look at this Orwellian tweet by Trump! Donald, u either haven’t seen my movie or u are conning your followers. The clip u show [u] doctored," unquote. Well, we end today’s show with the undoctored clip from Michael Moore’s film and get response to the controversy from Michael Moore himself. This is from Michael Moore in TrumpLand.

MICHAEL MOORE: Donald Trump came to the Detroit Economic Club and stood there in front of the Ford Motor executives and said, "If you close these factories, as you’re planning to do in Detroit, and build them in Mexico, I’m going to put a 35 percent tariff on those cars when you send them back, and nobody is going to buy them." It was an amazing thing to see. No politician, Republican or Democrat, had ever said anything like that to these executives. And it was music to the ears of people in Michigan and Ohio and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin—the Brexit states. If you live here in Ohio, you know what I’m talking about. Whether Trump means it or not is kind of irrelevant, because he’s saying the things to people who are hurting. And it’s why every beaten-down, nameless, forgotten working stiff who used to be part of what was called the middle class loves Trump. He is the human Molotov cocktail that they’ve been waiting for, the human hand grenade that they can legally throw into the system that stole their lives from them. And on November 8th, Election Day, although they’ve lost their jobs, although they’ve been foreclosed on by the bank—next came the divorce, and now the wife and kids are gone, the car has been repoed, they haven’t had a real vacation in years, they’re stuck with the [bleep] Obamacare Bronze Plan, where you can’t even get a [bleep] Percocet—they’ve essentially lost everything they had—except one thing, the one thing that doesn’t cost them a cent and is guaranteed to them by the American Constitution: the right to vote. They might be penniless, they might be homeless, they might be [bleep] over and [bleep] up. It doesn’t matter, because it’s equalized on that day. A millionaire has the same number of votes as the person without a job: one. And there’s more of the former middle class than there are in the millionaire class. So, on November 8th, the dispossessed will walk into the voting booth, be handed a ballot, close the curtain and take that lever, or felt pen or touchscreen, and put a big [bleep] X in the box by the name of the man who has threatened to upend and overturn the very system that has ruined their lives: Donald J. Trump. They see that the elites who ruined their lives hate Trump. Corporate America hates Trump. Wall Street hates Trump. The career politicians hate Trump. The media hates Trump—after they loved him and created him, and now hate him. Thank you, media. The enemy of my enemy is who I’m voting for on November 8th. Yes, on November 8th, you, Joe Blow, Steve Blow, Bob Blow, Billy Blow, Billy Bob Blow—all the Blows get to go and blow up the whole goddamn system, because it’s your right. Trump’s election is going to be the biggest "[bleep] you" ever recorded in human history. And it will feel good—for a day, yeah, maybe a week, possibly a month. And then, like the Brits, who wanted to send a message, so they voted to leave Europe, only to find out that if you vote to leave Europe, you actually have to leave Europe. And now they regret it. All the Ohioans, Pennsylvanians, Michiganders and Wisconsinites of Middle England—right?—they all voted to leave, and now they regret it, and over 4 million of them have signed a petition to have a do-over. They want another election. It ain’t gonna happen, because you used the ballot as an anger management tool. And now you’re [bleep]. And the rest of Europe? The rest of Europe? They’re like, "Bye, Felicia." So, when the rightfully angry people of Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin find out after a few months in office that President Trump wasn’t going to do a damn thing for them, it will be too late to do anything about it. But I get it. You wanted to send a message. You had righteous anger and justifiable anger. Well, message sent. Good night, America. You’ve just elected the last president of the United States.

AMY GOODMAN: "You’ve just elected the last president of the United States." Michael Moore—

MICHAEL MOORE: Right. 

AMY GOODMAN: —in studio here in New York.

MICHAEL MOORE: Right.

AMY GOODMAN: Your response to yourself?

MICHAEL MOORE: Yeah, well, that’s what I think—you know, the United States that we know now, for better or worse, won’t be the United States that we know after four years of Donald Trump. So, we all—those of us who are upset at the things about this country that we’re upset about, the way to fix it isn’t to put Trump in there, you know, to blow it up. But, you know, that whole piece, it’s funny you played that. A couple of right-wing websites doctored that piece, and they cut me off right after "And when you vote for Trump, and it will feel good," and they cut it right there like I wanted to say like it’s going to feel good. And, of course, the next line is, as you just showed, you know, "for a day, maybe a week." And this went all over these right-wing websites last week. And iTunes like sent me a text saying, "What’s going on? Like, tens of thousands of people suddenly in the middle of the day are buying your film." And we were already doing well. I mean, it’s been at number one on iTunes for almost a couple weeks. I said, "The right-wingers are telling people to go buy this movie because they’ve been shown only this one little bit of it." And I was feeling kind of—I know I shouldn’t—just bear with me. It’s the Irish Catholic in me. I was feeling guilty that all these poor, conservative, right-wing dudes were losing five bucks to iTunes, and then they get my movie, and they realize, you know, "Oh, no!" and they can’t get their money back. So, I—actually, I called up Megyn Kelly and got her producer, and I said, "Can I come on Fox tonight? You know, I know I’m not a usual Fox guest, but can I come on? And I just want to tell people to stop buying my movie, because I just feel bad they’re losing five bucks, you know." And so, they had me on. And I told them that. I said, "People, I mean, I want you to watch my movie," I said. "I think you might learn a few things," because I had—in the movie, I have a number of gently disguised facts that will—you know, I hope might seep in a little bit. "But I just can’t take your money if you’re thinking that this is some love poem to Donald Trump, because it’s the opposite of that."

AMY GOODMAN: Well, it wasn’t only them, but him. It was Donald Trump—

MICHAEL MOORE: Yes, yes.

AMY GOODMAN: —himself who tweeted out this video.

MICHAEL MOORE: Correct.

AMY GOODMAN: He wrote what? Michael Moore, "To all Americans, I see you & I hear you. I am your voice. Vote to #DrainTheSwamp w/ me on 11/8." And he linked to a YouTube of the edited video.

MICHAEL MOORE: Yes, yes, which only then drove hundreds of thousands of more people to my movie, maybe millions at this point. And it’s like—I looked at this. I thought, "I cannot believe this." Right? So, does he think—OK, he clearly hasn’t seen the movie, right? So, does he think this is—honestly, Amy, this is what I think it is. I think he saw that his name was in the title of a movie, and he’s such a narcissist, that he just went, "Hey, there’s a movie about me. It’s got my name in it." You know? He doesn’t talk like that, by the way. That was like western Michigan accent.

 

Amy Goodman is the host of Democracy Now!, a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 1,200 stations in North America. She is the co-author of The Silenced Majority, a New York Times best-seller.

Come, Let’s Check in on Melania Trump’s Native Slovenia

BY EMILY TAMKIN-NOVEMBER 7, 2016

On the eve of this especially eventful American election, perhaps you were wondering, as we were, how Melania Trump’s native Slovenia is dealing with the possibility of the ascent of one of their own to the prestigious position of first lady of the United States.

The answer, based on our reporting, is a motley mix of “not well”; “why are you asking me this question?” and “we have our own issues but overall, Slovenia is fine, thanks.”

Lara Kobe, a resident of capital city Ljubljana, did not feel she had enough information to have an opinion of Melania Trump. “But from what I’ve heard from people in different circles about this,” she added, “I can conclude that Slovenians see Melania more as a shame than as a respected person.”

“It’s quite obvious,” said Tamara Juricic, who works in Glasgow but hails from the small Slovenian city of Lasko, “that she doesn’t have any experience, even diplomatic experience.”

That kind of experience, Juricic noted, might be helpful to have as first lady. Juricic made clear she does not want to judge Melania Trump but said if the former model becomes first lady, she’ll need to embrace a few changes: namely, temper her tendency to stay in the background, and also tackle what Juricic called the “the plagiarism issue.” She was referring to Trump’s rather liberal use of a portion of Michelle Obama’s 2008 Democratic National Convention speech without attributing it in her own address at the 2016 GOP National Convention.

That “was really bad. It put Slovenia in a bad light,” Juricic said. (Are you proud of yourselves, American outlets that said Trump plagiarized because she is Eastern European?)
All right, so Melania Trump has stumbled. But she’s still Slovenian. Why is Hillary Clinton 30 percent more popular with Melania Trump’s former countrymen?

“Because no one in Slovenia likes Donald Trump,” said Juricic. (Donald Trump does have at least two fans from Slovenia: his wife (presumably), and also Slovenia’s most famous philosopher, Slavoj Zizek). If Melania were married to someone who reflected more positively on the country, Juricic said, Slovenia might be more supportive.

Others do not feel Melania Trump has reflected on the country either way. When asked if global attention to or perception of Slovenia had changed over the course of this presidential election seasion, a press representative from Slovenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs sounded nonplussed, and said no one from America had asked him such a thing. “It’s hard to answer from Ljubljana,” said Rok Hren (He also suggested that we speak instead to the Slovenian Embassy in Washington — even though it was the embassy that directed us to the gentleman from the press office at Slovenia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.)

While Slovenia, like the rest of the world, is attuned to the American elections, there are other concerns on the country’s collective mind. Melania Trump said in an address last week that she considers cyberbullying to be the issue most deserving of her first lady focus (yes, yes, we know she is married to Donald Trump, but let us keep our focus on Slovenia, and not give into the distraction of irony).

But what, we wondered, matters to the people of Slovenia today?

A Slovenian citizen who asked not to be identified said the key issue of the day is immigration—Slovenia, after all, is at the southernmost edge of theSchengen zone. Hren, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, agreed Europe’s “migration crisis” is an issue for the country, but said Slovenia was also concerned with creating a “green economy.” (That it is — just last week the London-based Legatum Institute said Slovenia is “the best at using nature to improve the well-being of its citizens.”) Hren also lauded the current government in Ljubljana on “the improvement of public finance” and said it was working to decrease “administrative obstacles” to local and foreign investment.

Juricic also named this last point as one of the pressing problems in Slovenia, but said “political parties still live in the past, and haven’t moved past issues that happened 70 years ago … and I would say that it’s really difficult to establish long term or sustainable alternatives to major political parties.”

On this, America understands Slovenia all too well.

Photo credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Malaysia: Johor crown prince ‘fires shots’ at right wing activists in parody video

Johor Crown Prince Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim. Image via YouTube

 7th November 2016

A HIGH-PROFILE crown prince in the Malaysian state of Johor released a parody footage of himself firing several handgun rounds at a group of right-wing “activists” who staged pro-government protest on Saturday.

The 23-second video has gone viral since it emerged on social media on Sunday, gaining more than one million views in less than 24 hours of its posting on the official Facebook page of the Johor Southern Tigers, a football team overseen by the Johor palace.

The parody kicks off with a group of seven men dressed in red shirts and black masks encircling one of their members who is being “beaten” with a wooden stick and a rock in a display of strength that lampooned a martial arts stunt by “Gerakan Merah” red-shirted activists who protested outside the office of a local news portal.

Seconds later, the scene pans to the crown prince, Tunku Ismail Sultan Ibrahim, who – wearing a blue t-shirt and aviator sunglasses – raises a handgun and shoots five rounds at the group of men before looking at the camera and shrugging in a gesture against their actions.

SEE ALSO: Malaysia: Asian rights groups demand probe into threats against protest leader

According to Free Malaysia Today, the prince in the message accompanying the video said he was on neither the side of the red or yellow shirts, the two major protest movements in the country.

“I am on the side of the Bangsa Johor’s (Johorian People) where it symbolizes unity. As unity is the formula of this nation moving forward, not violence and hatred,” he said.

“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Violence and hatred is not going to make this nation a better place. Stay positive. Lots of love.”

On Saturday, 700 supporters of the pro-government ‘Red Shirt’ movement activists staged a protest outside the MalaysiaKini office in the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur to rally against funding the news site received from the Open Society Foundations (OSF), an international charity organisation that provides funding to civil society groups.

The red shirt group – led my Jamal Yunos, a division leader from the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party – alleges that MalaysiaKini was an agent of foreign intervention, as the OSF is linked to billionaire and business magnate George Soros.

Soros, a Hungarian-born Jewish hedge fund manager listed one of the top 30 richest people in the world, is a persona non grata in the Muslim majority country due to wide speculation of his alleged role in the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

SEE ALSO: Bersih roadshow convoys ‘see red’ as opposing Red Shirts stir up trouble

The red shirt group is also defending embattled Prime Minister Najib Razak’s leadership following calls from opposition groups for him to step down amid a multi-billion dollar scandal involving the1Malaysia Development Berhad state fund.

Jamal’s ilk is supposedly a counter-movement to the Coalition of Free Elections (Bersih 2.0), which is planning to hold the mass Bersih 5 rally on November 19 to demand Najib’s resignation.

In recent months, the red shirt movement has often resorted to intimidation and scare tactics towards Bersih 2.0 leaders and supporters in a bid to stop them from proceeding with the planned rally.

Venezuelan 'narconephews' bad at drug smuggling, defense and prosecution say

Defense says pair were ‘stupid’ and set up by informants while US prosecutors claim they overestimated their power in trying to ship 800 kilos of cocaine to US

 Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores after their arrest in Haiti in 2015. Photograph: Reuters

Amanda Holpuch in New York-Monday 7 November 2016 

The nephews of Venezuela’s first lady believed they were so powerful that they could dispatch drug-filled planes from the “presidential hangar” at Caracas airport, US prosecutors have said at the start of a high-profile narcotics trial in New York.

Franqui Francisco Flores de Freitas, 31, and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, 30, are accused of attempting to send 800 kilos of cocaine from Venezuela to the US. Both are nephews of Cilia Flores, the wife of embattled president Nicolás Maduro.

In opening statements at the US federal court for the southern district of New York on Monday, US attorney Emil Bove said the men “believed they were so powerful in their country they could ship almost a metric ton of cocaine from one airport to another”.

Bove said Flores de Freitas had bragged to informants that he had “complete control” of the main airport in Caracas and could send drug-filled planes from the presidential hangar.

But while the government painted the men as entitled braggarts, the defense described their clients as stupid, but well-connected, novices. “There are very few people in the world who can get their hands on 800 kilos of cocaine – Efrain and Franqui are not two of them,” said John Zach, Campo Flores’s attorney.

The cousins were arrested in Haiti in November 2015 following a DEA sting operation.

Zach repeatedly described the men’s actions leading up to the arrest as “stupid” and “dumb”, promising the courtroom that the jury would see “how utterly clueless Efrain is – it’s almost embarrassing”.

The defense instead placed the blame on the informants – including two experienced drug traffickers hired by the DEA – who were eventually arrested for continuing drug sales while being paid by the US government.

The trial comes as Maduro fends off a campaign to remove him from office. Maduro is blamed for the oil-rich country’s socio-economic crisis, which has seen triple-digit inflation, food and medicine shortages and the second-highest murder rate in the world.

And now his wife’s nephews – characterized by the opposition as “narconephews” – have joined the parade of senior Venezuelan government officials tried in US courts for ties to drug trafficking.

In August, two former leading officials of Venezuela’s anti-drug agency were indicted in US federal court on charges of helping drug traffickers move their product in exchange for bribes. One of those men, general Nestor Luís Reverol Torres, was promoted to become the country’s interior minister, just a day after prosecutors unsealed their indictment.

At least five other former Venezuelan officials have been charged in US courts with drug-related crimes, including the former head of the investigative police force, CICPC.

Venezuela is not the only Latin American country where ties between drug trafficking and the government are assumed, but the DEA – which was expelled from Venezuela in 2005 – has been exceptionally aggressive in its pursuit of the country’s officials. “Even though we know there are narcotics traffickers tied to power in other countries, you don’t see that same level of dogged focus [from the DEA],” said Christopher Sabatini, a professor of international affairs at Columbia University.

Sabatini said the case is an indicator of the poor relations between Venezuela in the US.

It is possible, Sabatini said, that the US could eventually use this case as a bargaining chip in its diplomatic relations with the country. “We are constantly trying to get the government to move in a direction that would hopefully avoid any conflict or popular uprising that could be dangerous for the region and Venezuelan people, so this may be another chip in that,” he said.

The US and Venezuela’s poor relations were barely mentioned in opening statements, though Flores de Freitas’ attorney, Michael Mann, emphasized that the two countries do not get along and that the US government was “giddy” to be pursuing these two men.

The defendants said in July they feared they had been kidnapped in the sting operation that lead to their arrest. “Given my familial relationship with senior members of the Venezuelan government, I believed that we were potential targets for an extortionate scheme or other violent attempt at retribution against my family and country,” Campo Flores said earlier this year.

Prosecutors said that the men admitted to the crime. And in a recording of a conversation with the informants, the nephews said they were trying to get money to help their family oppose enemies such as the US.

In a transcript entered into the trial’s public record by prosecutors last week, Campo said the men told two informants they wanted to send multiple batches of cocaine to the US in 2015 in return for at least $20m.

The attorneys said Campo Flores said in December 2015: “But we need the money. Why? Because the Americans are hitting us hard with money. Do you understand? The opposition is getting an infusion of a lot of money and so, it’s also us, that’s why we are at war with them.”

Defense attorneys asked the judge to exclude these statements from the record, but Judge Paul Crotty denied the request. Crotty also denied a request by the US government to preclude the defense from introducing an entrapment defense.

If convicted, the men could face 10 years to life in prison. The case is expected to last 10 days, wrapping up just before Thanksgiving.

Witnesses including a Haitian police officer and a DEA special agent involved in the operation appeared on the stand on Monday. They will be followed by others tied to the case, including the imprisoned informants.

Nigeria: Other side of Muhammadu Buhari

How the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari cashed in on the political capital of global jihad

by Osita Ebiem

( November 7, 2016, New York Times, Sri Lanka Guardian) Some Nigeria’s analysts see Muhammadu Buhari’s emergence as the “accepted” “saintly tough-guy” Nigerian corruption killer in a different light from the general make-believe one. These analysts attribute Buhari’s final success after many failed attempts to become Nigeria’s democratically-elected president to some external influences. They claim that some powerful international figures have often meddled in Nigeria’s internal affairs to affect the outcome of events in the country. And Buhari’s recent victory at the polls was not an exception.

One remarkable example that these critics cite is the especially patronizing speech by the American President Barack Obama just before the 2015 Nigerian presidential election which brought Buhari to power. In his speech Obama urged Nigerians to maintain a united country no matter the outcome of the election. Many saw the speech in which the president used an old Biafran-Nigerian wartime “genocidal slogan:” “To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done” as an outward expression of clandestine political machinations which in the end installed a preferred candidate in Nigeria’s supreme leadership saddle.

In the opinion of many observers, Buhari is an Islamic extremist who believes that he; “will continue to show openly and inside me [him] the total commitment to the sharia movement that is sweeping all over Nigeria,” and “God willing, we will not stop the agitation for the total implementation of the sharia in the country.” Those are Buhari’s own words. For having the foisted posture of the “saintly tough-ruler” as well as an Islamic fundamentalist, Buhari fitted well the ideal consensus candidate of Nigeria’s Islamic north. He was chosen because he was believed to be a capable and willing candidate who would boldly implement the so-called north’s long term ambitious Islamic agenda for Nigeria – extending the global Islamic caliphate project to cover the entire country, including Christians’ and other religions’ areas. Nigeria for many reasons has long been considered important in this local and global Islamic caliphate agenda. It is said that the ultimate goal of this agenda for countries in Africa’s south of the Sahara is to eventually overrun and conquer them for Islam like those in the northern half of the continent. The advocates and financial sponsors of this agenda see the conquer and subjugation of the entire Nigerian geography as being strategic because by virtue of its position and clout the country will serve as a launch pad whose reaches cover the entire target-region.

The Nigerian jihad as part of the greater global Islamic agenda

In Nigeria today there are two manifest champions of this “global caliphate” agenda. They are members of the deadly Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram who have very strong connections with the most powerful people in Nigerian political, military and business establishments. The second group is also an equally well-connected Islamic terrorist group modeled after the fearsome Sudanese Janjaweed. Its members are mostly Fulani, members of the ethnic group (the group sometimes referred to as Nigeria’s “born-to-rule” over others) from which the current Nigerian president comes. They are generally known as the Fulani Cattle Herders (FCH.) Like Boko Haram, Fulani Cattle Herders are also generously financed by the northern elite and ruling oligarch class.

In the last few decades Saudi Arabia and some other Islamic countries like Iran, Turkey and Nigeria have dreamed of and fanatically pursued the archaic fantasy of an eventual Islam-subjugated world. These countries have expended in the process, a chunk of their petrodollar and other national incomes in pursuing the agenda. Some observers think that they have been successful in more ways than most people will care to admit. It is believed that among other achievements, that perhaps their greatest is being able to successfully infiltrate the Western news media establishment. Through this subversive penetration of the mainstream news and information dissemination process of Western societies, the jihadists have over the years, exerted pervasive subtle but unmistakable influence on the editorial opinions of media outlets in the West. Some analysts think that the prevalent editorial stance of most mainstream Western media where each tries to outdo the other on who would best be described as the most “politically correct,” “tolerant” and “civilized liberal,” can hardly be explained otherwise.

The infiltration seems to be so thorough and complete that today no matter how realistic and objective a critic is, there will always be a way to accuse him or her of being “politically incorrect,” suffering from “islamophobia” and expressing a “dangerous far right extremist views.” Today anyone can easily bet their most valued possessions to predict that the editorial opinions of Western media will always sing in unison the well-rehearsed chorus that “not all Muslims are terrorists” therefore the critic who deviates from the accepted “liberal” and fear-induced “civilized tolerance” is condemned and labeled; “unsophisticated,” “bigoted,” “crude” and “uninformed racist.” The new Western standard is simple; even after the attacker had called the authorities on the phone to announce their reason for the attack, Western authorities in the name of “not being at war with Islam,” should spend an endless period of time investigating to ascertain the motive behind the attack.

The ultimate goals of all terroristic or Islamic jihad campaigns are to receive attention, elicit fear and intimidate or cow the target-victims (the infidels.) Those goals have substantially been achieved in many places around the world, Nigeria inclusive. The ongoing global jihad has not only successfully used fear and intimidation to cow much of the international community, it has also compelled everybody to “tolerate and endure happily” the prevailing globe-wide displays of barbaric Islamic violent extremism. So, the fear campaigns have successfully cleared the way for the emergence into powerful offices, such extremist bigots like Buhari in dysfunctional societies like the Nigerian country. As a result, people in the mold of Nigeria’s present leader, rather than being censored are patronized by such world leaders like United Nations’ Ban Ki-moon with such unrealistic words like: “You are highly respected by world leaders, including myself. Your persona has given your country a positive image.” Yet the so-called Nigeria’s “positive image” is nothing more than the continued descent to the lowest levels of religious intolerance and flagrant abuses of the human rights of peaceful citizens. The brutal killings of hundreds of non-violent Biafran separatist protesters by government security forces are too recent to be swept under the carpet by the patrons of these extremist elements.

While campaigning for and on assumption of office, Buhari did not need to present any complex political agenda. Having proved himself as an Islamic fundamentalist, he could cash in on the well-established global jihad’s political capital of the “global caliphate.” Nevertheless, Buhari who became the posterchild of Nigeria’s “saint-and-tough-guy” messiah, winning became a do-or-die obsession. At 70 plus years, he became desperate as he felt that time was running out on him. In his own words; “baboons and dogs would be soaked in blood” should he fail again to win the election to become Nigeria’s next president in 2015.

Buhari and his handlers managed to convince the uninformed public that he was the “poor” candidate who never stole money since his more than forty years in public office (but there are abundant public records to the contrary) who is suited to kill the monster of Nigerian corruption. Yet this wretched candidate was able to easily afford the $10 million consultancy fee of the American political strategist David Axelrod of the Obama phenomenon. So, an indigent Buhari who would kill the Nigerian corruption saw nothing wrong in paying a “modest” $10 million to a foreign political consulting firm for a local election in a country where the people live on less than $2 a day.

Iran's foreign minister is first to meet Lebanon's new president

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (L) walks with Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil in Beirut, Lebanon November 7, 2016. REUTERS/Aziz Taher-Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (L) shakes hands with Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil in Beirut, Lebanon November 7, 2016. REUTERS/Aziz Taher

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (L) meets with Lebanese President Michel Aoun, upon his arrival to the presidential palace in Baabda, near Beirut, Lebanon November 7, 2016. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir-Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (R) reacts during a joint news conference with Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil (not pictured) in Beirut, Lebanon November 7, 2016. REUTERS/Aziz Taher

Tue Nov 8, 2016

Iran's Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday became the first foreign minister to meet Lebanon's new president, underscoring Tehran's struggle with its regional arch-rival Saudi Arabia for influence in Beirut.

He met Michel Aoun, a Christian leader who was elected president last week. Aoun is a close ally of Lebanon's Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shi'ite Muslim group, and Iran welcomed Aoun's election as a victory for Hezbollah.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Lebanese Foreign Minister Gibran Bassil, Zarif said Lebanon's presidential election should serve as an example to other politically troubled countries in the region.

"The Lebanese people showed it is possible to reach a solution acceptable to all, or what we call a win-win situation," Zarif said.

Aoun also met an envoy sent by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad earlier in the day. Iran is a political and military ally of Assad in the Syrian civil war, where his troops are supported by Iran-backed militias and Hezbollah fighters from neighbouring Lebanon.

Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran also back opposing factions in Yemen, Iraq and Bahrain. They broke diplomatic ties earlier this year after Riyadh's execution of a Shi'ite cleric and a subsequent attack by protesters on its embassy in Tehran.

"We hope others also come to this understanding: that there can only be a political solution to the crises in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, but while continuing the fight against terrorism," Zarif said.

Zarif, who was accompanied on the two-day visit by a high- profile political and economic delegation, said he hoped to expand ties with Lebanon.

Former army commander Aoun was elected by the Lebanese parliament as president last Monday, ending a 29-month presidential vacuum. Aoun then asked Sunni Muslim leader Saad al-Hariri to start consultations to form a new government, of which Hariri would be prime minister.

The empty presidency was a symptom of an underlying political struggle between rival factions in Lebanon, which has been made worse by the war in neighbouring Syria. It has paralysed decision-making, economic development and basic services, and raised fears for the country's stability.

The deal to appoint Aoun as president and Hariri as prime minister has underscored Hezbollah's dominant role in Lebanon. It has also demonstrated a diminished position for Saudi Arabia, Hariri's main regional backer, which seems more focused on confronting Iranian influence elsewhere in the region.

Zarif said he would meet Hariri on Tuesday.

"In my meeting with Saad al-Hariri tomorrow I will emphasise Iran's determination to cooperate with all Lebanese people, from any group or ethnicity," he said at the joint press conference.

Under Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system, worked out upon independence and confirmed after a bitter 15-year civil war, the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni and the speaker of parliament a Shi'ite.

Syrian envoy Mansour Azzam, who is head of presidential affairs, greeted Aoun on behalf of Syria's Assad, saying he hoped Aoun's election would contribute to stability in Lebanon and in the region.

Azzam said there would be "no new page" in Syria-Lebanon relations and they would continue in a balanced way.

Aoun's meetings with Iranian and Syrian dignitaries came on the same day that Prime Minister-designate Hariri said Lebanon's new administration was a chance to revive ties with the Gulf Arab countries.

"The formation of the government is a chance to renew the emphasis on Lebanon's Arab identity and return momentum and heat to Lebanon's relations with its brethren in the Gulf Cooperation Council," Hariri said after meeting council ambassadors to Lebanon.

(Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin.; Editing by Angus McDowall and Larry King)

Arctic Circle: explore in 360

Arctic Circle: explore in 360

When it comes to climate change, there’s quite a lot to get your head around. So we thought we’d try putting climate change around your head.

Monday 07 Nov 2016

At the end of the Arctic summer we took a 360 degree camera to the north of Norway’s Svalbard Islands. The archipelago is one of the last true Arctic wildernesses and home to one of the most northerly human settlements.

We filmed at the front of Svalbard’s glaciers as they collapsed into the sea, in fjords that no longer freeze in winter, and on fishing vessels that can now enjoy access to parts of the northern oceans previously encased in ice.

On average, the world is now about one degree warmer than it was in pre-industrial times. But the Arctic has warmed twice as fast. And for an environment dominated by frozen water, both on land and across the North Pole, change here is very apparent. And very rapid.

We arrived in Svalbard at the end of what is almost certain to be the warmest year on record. And for the Arctic it has been an exceptional one. “Absurdly warm,” was how one expert described 2016’s Arctic mid-winter and early spring. The first six months of the year were all, individually, the warmest ever recorded.

Greenland’s ice sheet melted spectacularly in the springtime and glaciers in places like Svalbard lost thickness due to falling rain instead of snow. And when sea temperatures began to rise later in the summer, the glaciers that float on the ocean began to collapse into it faster than usual. The process that makes icebergs, called “calving”, happens every summer in the Arctic. But this summer, the rate of the calving was faster than anyone studying the glaciers can remember.

We visited the front of the Kongsbreen and Kongsvegen glaciers at the peak of this calving. The silence of the completely still fjord was regularly interrupted by the thunderous crash of huge icebergs falling off the front of the 50 metre high glacier front.

But the most profound changes in the Arctic is far less dramatic. The gradual reduction in the extent of sea ice covering the frozen northern oceans. This loss of reflective ice is thought to be one of the factors that will accelerate warming in the north. But it’s also opening up the Arctic’s previously untouched resources to exploitation.

One of the reasons for this year’s dramatically higher temperatures was a strong El Niño event. It has now passed and its quite likely 2017 won’t break 2016’s record. But the other thing you will see in this video is that the powerful signal of human induced climate change is now riding beneath natural climate events like El Niño, accentuating their extremes.

The Arctic is in for a lot more extreme change to come.

Follow @TomClarkeC4 on Twitter

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Gut bacteria 'may help drugs fight cancer'

By James Gallagher-7 November 2016

Bacteria living deep inside the digestive system seem to alter how cancer drugs work, a study suggests.

Immunotherapies - which harness the body's own defences to fight tumours - can clear even terminal cancer in a small proportion of patients.

However, a small study by the University of Texas found those harbouring a more diverse community of gut bugs are more likely to benefit.

Cancer Research UK said understanding gut bugs had "great potential".

The human body is home to trillions of micro-organisms - estimates suggest our own tissues are so heavily outnumbered that our bodies are just 10% human.

And a growing wealth of studies shows these microbes can influence our immune systems and have been implicated in auto-immune diseases and allergies.

Higher levels

Immunotherapies are one of the most exciting breakthroughs in treating cancer. They work by taking the brakes off the immune system to help it to attack tumours more easily.

The research group compared the gut bacteria in 23 patients who responded to the therapy and 11 who did not.

Dr Jennifer Wargo, a melanoma surgeon and scientist, told the BBC News website: "We found a night-and-day difference in the diversity of bacteria species in the faecal samples."

The study, presented at the National Cancer Research Institute's Cancer Conference in Liverpool, found Ruminococcus bacteria in much higher levels in those that responded to treatment.

It suggests that it may be possible to boost the effectiveness of immunotherapy by altering the balance of bacteria in the gut.

'Scratch the surface'

Procedures such as a trans-poo-sion - a transplant of faecal matter containing beneficial bacteria - are already used as a treatment for some diseases.

Dr Wargo added: "It is hugely plausible I think - we still need to dig a little deeper, but I think we're on to something.

"I think it really does shape our body's immune response as a whole and to cancer."

It is not yet clear if the differences in bacteria are the cause of the better response.

People with diets containing more fruit and vegetables tend to have a richer set of gut bugs, so it is possible that it is those with a healthier lifestyle that respond better to therapy.

"It might point to a healthy diet increasing your chances, which I think would be a great message," she added.

Sir Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: "Our bodies are filled with trillions of bacteria, and we are just beginning to scratch the surface of understanding their great potential.

"It's really interesting and exciting to see new evidence emerge on the close connection between the immune system and the bacteria living in our guts. As this, and several other studies, have shown, manipulating these bacteria could be exploited in future to help patients respond better to treatment."

Follow James on Twitter.

Call for autonomous unit in North-East renewed-GTF seeks talks on proposal though not being included in Wijenayake Report

Autonomous administrative division

By Shamindra Ferdinando-November 6, 2016, 12:00 pm 

The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) on behalf of the Sri Lankan Tamils resident overseas has called for the creation of an ‘Autonomous Tamil Region’ (ATR) in a re-merged Northern and Eastern Province to address their grievances. The two provinces comprise eight administrative districts.

The GTF has acknowledged that a consensus among Tamil and Muslim leaders is a prerequisite for creating an autonomous unit. The proposal has been included in four separate proposals dealing with contentious issue of power sharing. In addition to them, the GTF has made ten specific recommendations regarding administrative autonomy exercised by what it called ATR

Call for autonomous unit in North.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

Ethnic Issue In Sri Lanka: Power Dividing Is The Solution

By Dinesh Dodamgoda –November 6, 2016

Dinesh Dodamgoda

When I published my previous article arguing that power sharing is counterproductive and would not solve the ethnic issue in Sri Lanka, many (including commentators, civil society members and some members of the Steering Committee drafting the new constitution) asked me then ‘what is the solution you propose?’ The solution is Power Dividing or the Multiple-Majorities Approach that was proposed by Philip G. Roeder and Donald Rothchild.

Philosophical Foundations

Power diving is a ‘prudential strategy’ of institution building. Yet, the approach’s philosophical foundations are principles of liberalism and pluralism.

The power dividing strategy proposes to remove ‘the most divisive issues’, in SL’s case the ethnicity and religion, from the government and reserve the decision making power to individuals and civil society. Therefore, the strategy is based on principles of liberalism. On the other hand, the power dividing strategy promotes multiple identities, cultural as well as non-cultural identities, and therefore, the strategy is rooted in principles of pluralist democracy.

Liberalism in Practice

The power dividing strategy proposes to bring legislations, such as bill of rights in USA to impose restrictions on government to protect individuals and society from the state. Those legislations are to remove issues that are likely to ignite political conflicts, such as in SL’s case, ethnicity and religion from the government and make institutional arrangements to reserve decision making powers to individual and civil society. In addition to the decision making rights, the approach proposes to guarantee freedoms of associations as well. Hence likeminded individuals can form civil society organisations that can meet their cultural needs.

Therefore, power dividing strategy divides decision-making rights between society and the government and guarantees institutions for individuals and civil society to uphold their cultural needs. Since the approach proposes legislations, such as bill of rights in USA to impose restrictions on government to protect individuals and society from the state, it makes the government incapable of taking the given rights and freedoms back from individuals and society. Any such attempt can be challenged in courts.

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