International

On US elections

04/11/2016

Prof. Michael Hudson on Hillary Clinton and the US Elections

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Worse Than Watergate? Revisiting the Clinton Email Fiasco

by ANTHONY DIMAGGIO

Donald Trump has grabbed headlines by claiming Hillary Clinton’s email fiasco is “worse than Watergate.” To the horror of liberal America, Trump promised in the second debate that Clinton will “be in jail” for her emails if he becomes president. These are the kinds of polemics that capture journalists’ attention, but they aren’t very helpful for those looking for a thoughtful historical and legal explanation of the email controversy.

Clinton’s emails have returned to the headlines because of FBI director James Comey’s recent letter to Congress announcing that he has discovered emails from Clinton’s aide Huma Abedin that “appear to be relevant” to the FBI’s investigation. Clinton supporters condemned Comey’s admissions that “the FBI cannot assess whether or not this material may be significant,” that he is unsure “whether they contain classified information,” or whether any of the emails even retain “importance to our investigation.” His vague language was used by critics to frame Comey as throwing his hat in the political ring, attempting to tilt the 2016 election toward Donald Trump. Democratic Senator Harry Reid suggested that Comey may have violated the Hatch Act of 1939, which prohibits federal employees from actively supporting election candidates. Comey’s actions, at the very least, run contrary to longstanding precedent at the Department of Justice and FBI to not get involved in electioneering in the months before election day.

Read more on Counterpunch

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L’Amérique de Trump, par Emmanuel Todd

La Grande Table reçoit l’historien et démographe Emmanuel Todd pour discuter des présidentielles américaines à travers la figure de Donald Trump.

“Il y a deux enjeux : une Amérique qui aspire à une sorte de recentrage démocratique et une Amérique de la globalisation qui domine jusque-là.” Emmanuel Todd, La Grande Table

“La source de la montée des inégalités dans le monde occidental vient de cette nouvelle stratification éducative.” Emmanuel Todd, La Grande Table

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Whose Election Anyway?

by MATT MEYER

When talking to a group of Black and Latino teenagers, it’s become clear that the 2016 election campaign seems more than a little strange to most of them. Just a year or so shy of being able to vote themselves, almost all of them admit being influenced and encouraged by Black Lives Matter and other movements for progressive social change. But they seem largely unmoved by the rivalry which is being termed by pundits “the most important election of our lifetime.” As a historian and teacher, I tried to look back at past electoral battles – including some very strange ones – to gain insights on the gaps we face today.

Almost one hundred years ago, an outsider who would make Bernie Sanders look like a typical Washington bureaucrat received almost one million votes – even though he ran his campaign from a prison cell, with buttons which read “For President: Convict No. 9653.” Socialist Party candidate Eugene V. Debs was doing time because he was a staunch anti-militarist – much more than merely being in favor of gun control – and advocated resistance to the draft during World War I. Though hardly a threat to the mainstream parties, Debs’ 1920 campaign influenced many people (including women, whose nonviolent suffrage struggle prevailed and they voted across the entire country for the first time in US history).