Obama et Bush aux funérailles de McCain: un moment historique

Non seulement les interventions de George W. Bush et Barack Obama sont remarquables parce que les deux présidents ont des allégeances politiques différentes, mais elles le sont également parce qu'historiquement les présidents n'intervenaient pas pour les éloges funèbres. Petit retour dans le temps.

 "In Washington, high-profile funerals often fall to vice presidents.

“You die, I’ll fly” was how George H.W. Bush summed up the frequent funeral part of his portfolio when he was Ronald Reagan’s number two in the 1980s. (Bush attributed the quip to Secretary of State James A. Baker.)

But sometimes, the passing of an august figure requires words from the highest political voice in the country, a sitting or former president.

President Trump will not even be attending Saturday’s memorial service for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) at Washington National Cathedral. Nor has Trump spoken at a funeral since moving into the White House, according to Gerhard Peters, a political-science professor and a keeper of the American Presidency Project at the University of California at Santa Barbara, a comprehensive database of presidential speeches, briefings, fireside chats, toasts and other public utterances dating to the Hoover administration."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/08/31/why-john-mccain-being-eulogized-by-bush-and-obama-is-historic/?utm_term=.8e1b0b0810aa

Sondage difficile pour Donald Trump: taux d'insatisfaction de 60%

Un des pires sondages de la présidence de Donald Trump alors que seulement 36% des personnes interrogées approuvent son travail. Le sondage ne se limite pas qu'au taux d'approbation global, il touche également des questions comme le congédiement de Jeff Sessions, l'enquête de Robert Mueller ou l'économie.

 "Overall, 60 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s job performance, with 36 percent approving, according to the poll. This is only a slight shift from the last Post-ABC survey, in April, which measured Trump’s rating at 56 percent disapproval and 40 percent approval.

The new poll was conducted Aug. 26 to 29, in the week after former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted of federal tax and bank fraud and after former Trump attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty and implicated the president in illegal payments to silence women who alleged sexual encounters with Trump.

The four-month gap between Post-ABC polls makes it difficult to attribute the modest uptick in disapproval of Trump to specific events. Other public polls have shown Trump’s disapproval rating in the low- to mid-50s and have not tracked a rise since the Manafort conviction and Cohen guilty plea.

Trump has tried to rally support for Republican candidates in the Nov. 6 elections by pointing to his economic record. This week’s poll finds that despite the president’s unpopularity with voters, he gets better ratings when it comes to the economy: 45 percent of Americans approve and 47 percent disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/poll-60-percent-disapprove-of-trump-while-clear-majorities-back-mueller-and-sessions/2018/08/30/4cd32174-ac7c-11e8-a8d7-0f63ab8b1370_story.html?utm_term=.ec6e871ec425

Robert Mueller réserve-t-il une surprise pour la fin de la journée?

Selon quelques sources dont Axios, Robert Mueller pourrait bien dévoiler de nouvelles informations avant la fin de la journée. Comme Mueller veut éviter d'intervenir pendant la campagne électorale, le vendredi avant le long congé pourrait effectivement être opportun. Axios rappelle ici que le procureur détient des informations sur beaucoup d'éléments dont nous n'avons pas encore entendu parler. À titre d'exemples: les impôts du président, des informations bancaires, des enregistrements de Michael Cohen ou des dossiers du National Inquirer.

 "Stay tuned" comme le dit souvent! "With speculation hot among the president's legal team that today could be a day for action by Bob Mueller (last working day before Labor Day), remember all the evidence the special counsel has — or could have — that we haven't seen.

Why it matters, from Bob Bauer, former White House counsel to President Obama, and now an NYU Law professor: "Investigators have the skills and resources to turn up evidence, including witness testimony, that goes beyond what anyone on the outside can imagine in the daily speculation about the Mueller probe."

  https://www.axios.com/robert-mueller-secret-files-russia-investigation-ec344cf7-b875-4b78-a0d9-2b7058e08fcf.html

Donald Trump influence la perception des adolescents

Lorsque Donald Trump attaque les médias il est pleinement conscient d'exploiter une brèche. La confiance envers les médias traditionnels s'érode et les adolescents y puisent de moins en moins d'informations. Le président encourage cette remise en question.

 "There is increasing evidence that this skepticism, exacerbated by the president’s relentless attacks, is trickling down to the next generation of voters. A 2017 poll of 52 people between the ages of 14 and 24, conducted by Data & Society and the Knight Foundation, found that many young Americans believe the news is biased and are skeptical of its accuracy. “There was no assumption that the news would convey the truth or would be worthy of their trust,” the study reported.

Teenagers, in particular, appear to be increasingly questioning the credibility and value of traditional media organizations. In interviews with The Atlantic, teens expressed great skepticism about the accuracy of the mainstream media, reiterated Trump’s biased characterization of many news sources, and said the president’s outrageous tweets have become so much a part of everyday life that they’ve morphed into catchphrases."

  https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/08/trump-has-changed-how-teens-view-the-news/568783/

Caricature Google doit revoir ses pratiques

Caricature de Dave Granlund, PoliticalCartoons.com

Caricature gestion des drapeaux à la Maison Blanche

Caricature de David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Star, Tucson, AZ

Collaboration au Téléjournal Québec (27 août)

L'entrevue en compagnie de Pascale Lacombe à compter de 22 minutes et 17 secondes dans le bulletin du 27 août:

  https://ici.radio-canada.ca/tele/le-telejournal-quebec/site

Caricature Neil Simon 1927-2018

Caricature de Milt Priggee, Oak Harbor, WA

Caricature Trump, McCain et la torture

Caricature de Dave Granlund, PoliticalCartoons.com

Qu'advient-il du siège de John McCain?

Le décès du sénateur de l'Arizona entraîne une vacance au sénat. Les Américains voteront bientôt aux élections de mi-mandat, mais le siège de McCain ne devrait être renouvelé qu'en 2022. Il revient donc au gouverneur de l'état de désigner le remplaçant ou la remplaçante jusqu'en 2020, année où peut avoir lieu une élection spéciale. Par respect pour John McCain Doug Ducey n'annoncera sa décision qu'après les funérailles. Plusieurs observateurs se demandent si on choisira un républicain ou une républicaine plus proche de la vision de McCain ou de celle de Trump.

 "The name most widely cited as a potential appointee is Cindy McCain, the senator’s widow. Ducey and his wife spent time with the McCains in May, which fueled speculation about a potential appointment.

The Arizona Republic on Friday also cited as potential appointees Kirk Adams, the governor’s chief of staff and a former state lawmaker; Barbara Barrett, a businesswoman and former gubernatorial candidate; and former Sen. Jon Kyl, who retired from the Senate in 2013.

The newspaper also cited as potential choices former Reps. Matt Salmon and John Shadegg; Karrin Taylor Robson, who serves on the state board of regents; and Eileen Klein, whom Ducey appointed as state treasurer earlier this year."

  https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/25/john-mccain-senate-seat-arizona-what-happens-796163

Donald Trump rejette un communiqué de la Maison Blanche soulignant l'héroïsme de John McCain

Le président s'est un peu piégé en raison de ses déclarations précédentes au sujet du sénateur de l'Arizona. Son équipe avait préparé une déclaration qui allait dans le sens de ce qu'on lit et entend un peu partout depuis l'annonce du décès. Le président a préféré rédiger un court gazouillis plus neutre et centré sur la famille de John McCain. J'ajoute que le président n'a pas hésité à louanger Paul Manafort après sa condamnation ou encore Kim Jong-Un.

 "Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and other White House aides advocated for an official statement that gave the decorated Vietnam War POW plaudits for his military and Senate service and called him a “hero,” according to current and former White House aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations. The original statement was drafted before McCain died Saturday, and Sanders and others edited a final version this weekend that was ready for the president, the aides said."

  https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-rejected-plans-for-a-white-house-statement-praising-mccain/2018/08/26/0d0478e4-a967-11e8-8f4b-aee063e14538_story.html?utm_term=.bfb5a99eaf26

Caricature États-Unis et tarifs

Caricature de Luojie, China Daily, China

Neil Simon meurt à 91 ans

Si "The odd couple" a connu beaucoup de succès sur une longue période, j'ai découvert Simon grâce à la trilogie "Brighton Beach Memoirs", "Biloxi blues" et "Broadway Bound".

 "Mr. Simon and Woody Allen, who both worked in the 1950s writing for Mr. Caesar (along with Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart and Carl Reiner, among others), were probably equally significant in shaping the currents of American comedy in the 1960s and ’70s, although their styles, their favored mediums and the critical reception of their work diverged mightily.

Mr. Simon was the populist whose accessible, joke-packed plays about the anxieties of everyday characters could tickle funny bones in theaters across the country as well as in 1,200-seat Broadway houses. Mr. Allen was the darling of the urban art-house cinema and the critical classes who created comedy from the minutiae of his own angst.

But together they helped make the comedy of urban neurosis — distinctly Jewish-inflected — as American as the homespun humor of “Leave It to Beaver.” Mr. Simon’s early plays, often centered on an antagonistic couple of one kind or another wielding cutting one-liners in a New York apartment, helped set the template for the explosion of sitcoms on network television in the 1970s. (The long-running television show based on his “Odd Couple” was one of the best, although a bum business deal meant that Mr. Simon earned little money from it.)"

 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/26/obituaries/neil-simon-dead.html?action=click&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=Article&region=Footer&contentCollection=Theater

Caricature John McCain enfin en paix

Caricature de David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Star, Tucson, AZ

Caricature memorial John McCain

Caricature de Bob Englehart, Middletown, CT

Caricature John McCain 1936-2018

Caricature de Taylor Jones, Politicalcartoons.com

Caricature John McCain, le dernier...

Caricature de David Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Star, Tucson, AZ

Caricature Donald Trump et les médias

Caricature de Daryl Cagle, CagleCartoons.com

Le chiffre magique de la présidence Trump: 34 (AXIOS)

Un court article efficace qui va au coeur de la situation actuelle. Le congrès pourrait décider du sort de la présidence Trump et si les Démocrates croient obtenir la majorité à la chambre après les élections de mi-mandat (novembre), cela leur permettrait de mettre en accusation le président, mais c'est au sénat qu'on vote pour destituer un président. Donald Trump sait très bien qu'il n'a besoin que de 34 sénateurs républicains pour éviter une destitution pour laquelle on doit parvenir à 67 votes (sur 100 sénateurs). Il est loin d'être acquis que les Démocrates obtiennent la majorité au sénat en novembre et même s'ils y parvenaient, jamais leur majorité ne serait suffisante pour s'assurer d'un vote favorable à une destitution. Donald Trump doit s'assurer de conserver la loyauté de quelques républicains et il sait déjà quelles sont ses cibles.

 "So those who know Trump best fully expect he would never surrender and bet his base is so strong, and Republican senators so fearful, his red wall will hold, regardless of evidence.

This wall would include:

 -True Trump loyalists.
 -Newly elected senators who credit Trump for helping them win.
 -Republicans running for reelection in states Trump won by 20 or more points.
 -Republicans in Trump states not up for 2020 reelection."

https://www.axios.com/number-to-save-trumps-presidency-34-b1310b54-21f2-45eb-9e66-61e814f09778.html

Caricature Trump le parrain...

Caricature de John Darkow, Columbia Missourian

Les États-Unis sont tombés bien bas (Roger Cohenm New York Times)

Plusieurs en sont venus à accepter Trump comme il est. Pour l'instant seul le congrès a le pouvoir de le freiner et il ne bouge pas. Mais si Trump est une manifestation spectaculaire d'un problème sérieux aux États-Unis, les causes sont bien plus profondes. Comment nos voisins du sud se définissent-ils en 2018?

 "The thing about all the shocking Trump revelations — Michael Cohen’s about violating campaign finance laws by paying hush money to two women in coordination with a “candidate for federal office” being the latest — is that they are already baked into Trump’s image. His supporters, and there are tens of millions of them, never had illusions. I’ve not met one, Babcox included, who did not have a pretty clear picture of Trump. They’ve known all along that he’s a needy narcissist, a womanizer, a lowlife, a liar, a braggart and a generally miserable human being. That’s why the “Access Hollywood” tape or the I-could-shoot-somebody-on-Fifth-Avenue boast did not kill his candidacy.

It’s also why the itch to believe that the moment has come when everything starts to unravel must be viewed warily. Sure, Trump sounds more desperate. But who’s the enforcer if Trump has broken the law? It’s Congress — and until things change there (which could happen in November) or Republicans at last abandon a policy of hold-my-nose opportunism, Trump will ride out the storm."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/opinion/trump-colorado-purple-state.html

La nature de John McCain

Dans l'édition de ce matin sur le site "The Atlanctic", Todd S. Purdum affirme ne jamais avoir rencontré un autre politicien comme John McCain. Un cas unique selon ce correspondant politique.

 "The Tao of John McCain was unlike that of any other politician I’ve ever covered. Ed Koch was as colorful, Mario Cuomo as smart, George W. Bush as human. But no one combined McCain’s unflinching mix of bracing candor, impossibly high standards and rueful self-recrimination when he (inevitably) failed to live up to the ideals he outlined for himself. Count me as a card-carrying member of the perennially fascinated constituency that McCain used to refer to as his base: the working press.

In his 2000 primary campaign against Bush in South Carolina, he at first denounced the Confederate battle flag as a symbol of racism and slavery, and then—after his advisers went berserk— took to reading aloud a statement explaining, “I understand both sides.” His maverick campaign never rebounded any more than his reputation ever completely recovered after he chose the palpably unqualified Sarah Palin as his 2008 running mate. But just as he later lashed himself for not picking his first choice— the Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman—so he analyzed his failure on the flag issue with an unsparing eye."

 https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/the-tao-of-john-mccain/568576/

Caricature hommage à John McCain

Caricature de Dave Granlund, PoliticalCartoons.com

Caricature Trump visé à son tour par le National Inquirer?

Caricature de Rick McKee, The Augusta Chronicle, GA 

 McKee réagit à la nouvelle du témoignage de David Pecker pendant le procès de Michael Cohen. Pecker dirige le groupe qui détient le National Inquirer et il obtenu l'immunité en échange de son témoignage. La publication a bien souvent acheté les droits d'histoires embarrassantes pour Donald Trump pour ensuite les dissimuler, un traitement de faveur qu'on accordait pas à Hillary Clinton qui a fait l'objet de nombreux faux reportages. David Pecker affirme également détenir d'autres histoires compromettantes sur le président, des histoires qu'il conserve dans un coffre.

Allen Weisselberg obtient également l'immunité

Le directeur financier de l'organisation Trump a obtenu l'immunité pour son témoignage lors du procès de Michael Cohen. Rien de bien rassurant pour le président.

 "Weisselberg, who got his start working for the president’s father, was granted immunity by federal investigators in New York in exchange for his truthful testimony about his role in the payments, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Weisselberg is the person identified in court filings as “Executive-1,” who prosecutors said helped authorize $420,000 in payments to Cohen, one person said. He testified last month before a grand jury investigating Cohen."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-organization-executive-allen-weisselberg-who-allegedly-helped-arrange-hush-money-reimbursement-to-cohen-granted-immunity/2018/08/24/404ebdf2-a7b1-11e8-97ce-cc9042272f07_story.html?utm_term=.e4d9797e04b1

Trump et Macbeth: une même chute?

D'un tyran à un autre, une constante?

 "But in the moment of losing power, the two will be alike. A tyrant is unloved, and although the laws and institutions of the United States have proven a brake on Trump, his spirit remains tyrannical—that is, utterly self-absorbed and self-concerned, indifferent to the suffering of others, knowing no moral restraint. He expects fealty and gives none. Such people can exert power for a long time, by playing on the fear and cupidity, the gullibility and the hatreds of those around them. Ideological fervor can substitute for personal affection and attachment for a time, and so too can blind terror and sheer stupidity, but in the end, these fall away as well."

  https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/the-end-of-trumps-reign/568480/

La Maison Blanche sous Donald Trump

Caricature de Michael Kountouris, Greece

Au tour de David J. Pecker de "trahir" Donald Trump?

David Pecker est à la tête d'American Media Inc. et jusqu'à tout récemment un ami de Donald Trump. C'est Pecker qui avait acheté les droits exclusifs pour des histoires qu'il ne diffusait pas ensuite parce que le contenu de ces histoires pouvaient être nuisibles au futur président des États-Unis. On apprenait hier que le nom de Pecker figurait dans la liste des témoins du procès de Michael Cohen et qu'il était lié à la fraude électorale pour laquelle Cohen a plaidé coupable. En échange de ses confidences Pecker avait obtenu l'immunité. Une raison de plus de s'inquiéter pour Donald Trump.

 "In bringing their charges against Mr. Cohen this week, prosecutors defined American Media’s payment to Ms. McDougal as an illegal, coordinated campaign expenditure. Election law prohibits corporations from spending money to influence elections in conjunction with candidates or their representatives.%% “He reminded us,” Robert S. Khuzami, the deputy United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said of Mr. Cohen when he announced the charges in Manhattan this week, “that it is illegal for corporations to make contributions to candidates.”"

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/us/politics/david-pecker-immunity-trump.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Caricature le rêve de Vladimir Poutine

Caricature de Jeff Koterba, Omaha World Herald, NE

Caricature Mueller chasse la sorcière

Caricature de Bruce Plante, Tulsa World

Collaboration dans "Radio-Canada cet après-midi": Trump sur la défensive

Nos échanges à compter de 17h18 sur l'audio fil du 24 août:
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/premiere/emissions/radio-canada-cet-apres-midi

Caricature Trump balaie sous le tapis

Caricature de Daryl Cagle, CagleCartoons.com

Caricature Trump rattapé par la justice

Caricature de Mike Keefe, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Caricature chef Vladimir et la cuisson au BBQ

Caricature de Dave Granlund, PoliticalCartoons.com

Caricature noeud trumpien

Caricature de Nate Beeler, The Columbus Dispatch, OH

Les Chrétiens les plus fidèles se retrouvent en Afrique, en Amérique latine et aux États-Unis

Je me suis intéressé à cet article en raison du scandale qui frappe l'Église catholique. Nos voisins américains ont toujours été très croyants même si le nombre de ceux qui ne pratiquent plus augmentent sensible depuis quelques années. Le scandale des prêtres accusés de pédophilie peut-il ébranler la ferveur religieuse?

 "At the same time, the United States remains an outlier among wealthy countries in terms of its relatively high levels of religious commitment. In the U.S., more than two-thirds of Christians say religion is very important in their lives, compared with significantly lower levels in other rich democracies. For instance, only 12% of Christian adults in Germany and 11% in the United Kingdom say religion is very important in their lives."


  http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/22/the-worlds-most-committed-christians-live-in-africa-latin-america-and-the-u-s/

Les électeurs démocrates plus actifs politiquement que les électeurs républicains (Pew Research Center)

Les Républicains sont habituellement très actifs sur le terrain et leur machine est redoutable. Selon ces données du Pew Research Center, il semble qu'à l'approche des élections de mi-mandat ce soit présentement les électeurs démocrates qui sont plus enclins à l'impliquer.

 "Across a range of political activities – from attending political rallies to donating to campaigns – voters who back Democratic candidates for Congress are reporting higher levels of political activity than GOP voters. But both sets of voters share a view that the upcoming election is important: About three-quarters in both parties say it “really matters” which party wins control of Congress in this fall’s election."

  http://www.people-press.org/2018/08/16/as-midterms-near-democrats-are-more-politically-active-than-republicans/

Pour quels motifs peut-on être destitué?

Si de hauts fonctionnaires américains ont déjà été destitués, aucun président à ce jour n'est tombé à la suite de cette procédure. Richard Nixon a préféré quitter au début de la procédure alors que Bill Clinton et Andrew Johnson ont survécu. Rien de dit que Donald Trump devra se soumettre à cette pénible épreuve, mais le New York Times en profite pour revenir sur le contexte dans lequel les Pères fondateurs ont inséré cet outil dans la constitution. Une chose est sûre, le recours à la corruption pour se hisser à la présidence les hantait.

 "Of course, bribery is not the same thing as depriving voters of information by paying hush money. But both interfere with the democratic process, said Laurence H. Tribe, a law professor at Harvard, the other author of “To End a Presidency” and a frequent critic of Mr. Trump.

“The felonies of which Cohen, in statements that were self-incriminating and thus particularly trustworthy, accused his former client, the president, didn’t literally involve bribery,” he said, referring to Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former lawyer, “but certainly involved criminal conduct designed to reduce the risk that disclosure of his extramarital affairs and dalliances on the eve of the election would cost him the votes he ended up needing in places like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.”

Most scholars agree that the impeachment clause covers abuse of official power by a sitting president but not wholly private conduct committed before assuming office."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/22/us/politics/offense-impeachable-constitution.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Caricature les Républicains et les changements climatiques

Caricature de Wolverton, Battle Ground, WA

Caricature Giul...iani craint que Trump ne soit piégé

Caricature de Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune, UT

Caricature Mike Pence se prépare

Caricature de Bill Day, Tallahassee, FL

Caricature l'heure de vérité pour Trump?

Caricature de Stephane Peray, Thailand

Caricature Trump Tower de 2020

Caricature de Bill Schorr, PoliticalCartoons.com

Manafort coupable. Et puis après?

Donald Trump affirmait qu'il s'entourerait des meilleurs et qu'il "assécherait le marais" à Washington. Dure journée pour ses anciens collaborateurs. Michael Cohen a plaidé coupable et Paul Manafort a été reconnu coupable par un jury. Que signifie la condamnation de Manafort? À quoi peut-on s'attendre pour la suite? Ces trois journalistes du New York Times précisent les choses.

 "Mr. Manafort’s conviction cannot be diminished by arguing, as Mr. Trump and his coterie are fond of doing, that the misconduct was unrelated to the Trump campaign or Russian “collusion.” On the contrary, the trial evidence included Mr. Manafort’s close ties to pro-Russia forces and his desperate financial straits as he “volunteered” his time for the next president. The trial revealed how willing Mr. Manafort was to corruptly leverage his position of influence over Mr. Trump during the campaign for his own personal benefit. He offered briefings to a pro-Russia Ukrainian oligarch and dangled a position in the Trump administration in front of a banker who provided him a loan for which he would not otherwise have qualified.

 The conviction also shows the caliber of the foe that President Trump is facing as he decides whether or not to sit for an interview with Mr. Mueller focusing on obstruction of justice. While we had already believed that Mr. Trump was unlikely to voluntarily sit for an interview, Tuesday’s verdict makes that interview even less probable. We should now prepare for a potential extended legal battle about the scope and power of a possible Mueller-issued subpoena for the president’s testimony."

  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/opinion/guilty-verdict-paul-manafort.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

Caricature Michael Cohen plaide coupable

Caricature de Dave Granlund, PoliticalCartoons.com

Michael Cohen plaide coupable et implique Trump

Non seulement Michael Cohen a-t-il plaidé coupable un peu plus tôt aujourd'hui, mais il a en plus reconnu avoir tenté d'influence le cours de la dernière élection à la demande du président. Si les médias se sont d'abord intéressés au procès de Paul Manafort, la plus grosse nouvelle de la journée se trouve dans les aveux de Cohen. Un dossier qui n'est pas sans rappeler le tristement célèbre Watergate.

 "I participated in the conduct for the purposes of influencing the election," Cohen said in court.

  https://www.politico.com/story/2018/08/21/michael-cohen-strikes-plea-deal-with-prosecutors-790646

Caricature l'Église catholique et la confession

Caricature de Bill Schorr, PoliticalCartoons.com

Les États-Unis déportent un ancien garde nazi de 95 ans

La fin d'une longue saga entourant le dossier de celui qu'on croit être le dernier criminel de guerre nazi sur le sol américain.

 "The former guard, Jakiw Palij, is believed to have been the last surviving Nazi war crimes suspect living in the United States. First tracked down there by investigators in 1993, he was stripped of his American citizenship 10 years later when a federal judge found Mr. Palij had falsely claimed in his immigration papers that he had worked on his father’s farm in Poland and at a German factory during the period when he was actually serving the Nazis.

 In 2004, a federal immigration judge ordered that Mr. Palij be deported. But for years, no country would accept him.%% Germany had long refused to do so because Mr. Palij, who was born in what was Poland at the time and is now part of Ukraine, is not actually German. Poland and Ukraine refused to take him, saying he was Germany’s responsibility. On Tuesday, the German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, acknowledged as much."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/world/europe/nazi-guard-deported.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

La statue de "Silent Sam" renversée par des manifestants

Depuis quelques années nous assistons au retrait de plusieurs monuments ou statues qui commémoraient des héros des états confédérés. Si généralement la décision émane des autorités, dans certains cas ce sont des manifestants qui agissent sans consulter. La plus récente attaque est survenue hier et elle visait la statue de "Silent Sam" sur le campus de la University of North Carolina. La statue commémorait les étudiants de l'université qui ont combattu pendant la guerre de Sécession. Elle est l'oeuvre du sculpteur canadien John Wilson. Quand on s'intéresse au contexte dans lequel fut dévoilée la statue, on ne peut nier son caractère résolument raciste. Pourquoi alors les officiels n'ont pas procédé à son retrait comme on a pu le voir dans d'autres villes du sud? Simplement parce qu'on a voté une loi en 2015...

 "Silent Sam was a peculiar artifact in Chapel Hill, which, like Charlottesville, is a picturesque, liberal college town. Even as Donald Trump won North Carolina in the 2016 election, Orange County, home to Chapel Hill, voted 73 percent for Hillary Clinton. The university’s student body is 10 percent African American; though many of the state’s segregationist leaders attended UNC, its most famous alumnus these days is Michael Jordan. In 2005, the university erected an Unsung Founders Memorial, dedicated to “the people of color bound and free who helped build the Carolina that we cherish today,” near Silent Sam.

But the university was handcuffed from removing or relocating Silent Sam himself by a 2015 law, passed by the Republican-dominated North Carolina General Assembly, that bars the removal of historical statutes. The law was one of several passed by state legislatures in the South in recent years, intended to prevent the removal of Confederate monuments. Growing antipathy to Confederate monuments, coupled with increasingly progressive leadership in many urban areas of the South, has meant a growing number of statues have come down, in cities from Memphis to New Orleans. The march in Charlottesville came after a push by local authorities to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee."

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/silent-sam-confederate-monument-unc-chapel-hill/568006/