ASIA Post & World News

Life under Trump’s Presidency. 

By J. A. Brandford

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    Democracy,  which  is,  and  has  always  been,  the  system  of  governance  upheld  by  the  United  States  of America  since  the  days  of  yore,  has  many  facets  like  free  press, free  enterprise, citizens freedom  of  association  which  gave  rise  to  modern democratic  elections. Many  democratic  elections  has  been  held  in the  USA  with  some  having  some  controversies  like  the  2000 presidential  election,  the  Al Gore and George  Bush  issue  among  others.

    The  race  to the  White  House  in this  2016 Presidential elections is very interesting especially looking  at  how  the  race  for  the  Democratic  Party  candidacy  is getting  tensed  and  nervy  but  this  whole  Presidential  race  has  been  marked  by  controversies  surrounding  the imminent  Presidential  candidate  for  the  Republican  party  in  the  person  of  the  billionaire  turned  politician,  Mr.  Donald Trump. 

    Mr.  Donald  Trump  is  a well  known  business  tycoon  and  with  his  great  knowledge  in  business  and  making  money,  one  cannot  doubt  how  his  tenure  as  the  President  of  the  USA  will be  marked  by  an  era  of  the  influx  of  great  businesses  within  the  USA  and  also  abroad  coupled  with  his  great  political  and  business connections  which  will  immensely  boost  the  economy  of  the  USA.  However,  one  cannot ignore  the  demeanor  of  Mr. Trump  with  regards  to  his  speeches  and  controversies  surrounding  him  which  in  my  opinion  will hurt  the  United  States  of  America  in  the  long  run.  

  We  see  traces  of  racism,  religious  intolerance  and  sheer  arrogance  in  Mr. Trump  and  this  can  be  supported  by  certain  comments  he  has  made  since  we  started  this  2016  Presidential  race. Under  the  aspect  of  his  religious  intolerance,  one  cannot  forget  his  comments  he  made  towards  Muslims  and  the  Islamic  faith  in  December  2015  by  calling  for  the  total  and  complete  shutdown of  Muslims  entering  the  USA  which  came  during  the  heat  of  the Syrian  Migrant  crisis which  hit  Europe and  also  the  Paris  attacks  whose  perpetuators  are  believed  to  be  Muslims.  This  however, is  a  clear  evidence  of   Islam phobia,  which  can  be  said  to  be  any  act  of  intolerance  towards  the  Islamic  faith.

  In  my  opinion,  judging  from  Trump's  demeanor  has  been  a ' big- foul mouth" who  says  whatever  he  deems  right,  such  comments  towards  the  Islamic  Faith  can  really  deepen  the  hatred  the  Arab  world  has  towards  the  United States  of America  which  can  increase  their  attacks  whether  within  the  borders  of  the  USA  or  abroad  usually  undertaken  by  Islamic  radical  groups  like  the  infamous  Islamic State( IS) which  would  not  bode  for  the  USA.

  Also,  looking  at  the  controversial  nature  portrayed  by  Mr. Trump  as  having  hateful  sentiments  towards  other  races  and  also  his  inability  to  speak  diplomatically ,  can  we  envision  a  strain  in  the  diplomatic  relations  that  the  USA  has  with  her  allies  like  France,  Germany  and  her  bond  sister, the United  Kingdom  who  for  the  sake  of  the  image  of  the  Queen  of  England  would  not  relate  with  anyone  who  would  drag  their  hard  won  reputation  in  the  mud? 

 Furthermore,  what  will  happen  to  the  sour  relations  between  the  USA  and  Russia?. I say  this  on  the  grounds  that  Russia  has  not  forgiving  herself  in  ending  the Cold  War  under  Mikhail  Gorbachev, which  to  them  means  they  surrendered  to  USA  supremacy  and  throughout  the  years,  we  can  see  Russia  has  been  undertaking  certain  tactics  which  aims  at  provoking  the  USA  to  react  to  them  like  how  Russia  succeeded  in  annexing Crimea in  Ukraine,  their  near  act  of  war  action  in  the  airspace  of  Turkey, who  is  part  of  the  North  Atlantic  Treaty  Organization(NATO)  and  also  what  happened  on  the  Baltic  Sea  in  April  2016 where  2  Russian  combat  jets  flew  within  30  feet  of  the  territorial  air  and  sea  space  of  the  USA's  USS Donald  Cook  which  can  be  considered  an  act  of  war  and  the  USA  could  be  justified  if  they  had  opened  fire  at  the  jets  but  the  USA  let  it  fly. In  my  opinion,  Mr. Trump  would  retaliate  to  these  provocative  actions  of  Russia  and  what  will  happen, Third World War.

  In sum, although having Mr.  Trump  as  president  will  result  to  great  economic  development  for  the  United  States  of  America  with  regards  to  his  business  nous  and  connections,  his  demeanor  of  being  a "big  foul  mouth'', racist,  religious  intolerant  among  others , his  tenure  will  be  more  of  a  curse  than  a  blessing  to  the  United  States  of  America  and  the  world  at  large.

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Contributed by:

Mr. Justice A. Brandford

China and U.S. are cooperating on assistance to nap fugitives coming out from both countries.

Most of the wanted fugitives by both nations are those of graft dodgers in nature although illegal drugs transactions players were also in the mix. No longer would these law fugitives have much room to hide from legal prosecution.

The cooperation between these two countries has been planted since a year ago in Beijing between the high level meeting among Guo ShengKun, Chinese State Councilor and Public Minister and Jeh Johnson, US Homeland Security Department Chief as pictured.

Chinese State Councilor and Public Security Minister Guo Shengkun (R) shakes hands with US Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson during the first ministerial meeting between the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and the US Homeland Security Department in Beijing, China, April 9, 2015.

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Hillary Clinton continues to rack in more delegates. Her Champaign has been fighting steps in steps with Bernie Sanders campaign organization.

Lately, she has been trailing in her fund raising compared to Sanders campaign.

However, Clinton lead in delegates still has a comfortable margin especially if the Super Delegates are filtered into play.

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Trump's winning streak continues in spite of the bumps along his campaign. His every word that he uttered has been scrutinized by the media and by even his Republican Party establishment. Mistakes and miss spoken words have been used as a way of trying to derail his candidacy. So far the American voters held on to Trump's ideas and his plan for America.

Photo by Jabin Botsford

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Trump and Clinton continue to win sizeable delegates to add on their leads among the GOP and the Democratic Parties respectively.

The rhetoric and attacks are now aiming more towards Trump on Clinton and Clinton on Trump as these two garnered more delegates to show that they are most likely to be winning their party’s nomination and would be facing each other in the fall’s general election.

With the name callings and accusations thrown at each other at this early stage, voters would be expected to be saturated by media blitzes with even more of the mudslinging unless a surprising turns around by both campaigns to civility which is at this time is not anyone’s expectation.

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In spite of the leaders in the Republican Party's warning of blocking any of President Obama's  nominees to the Supreme Court, the President is determined to exercise his Constitutional rights to fill in the position vacated by the passing of Justice Scalia recently.

The Republican leadership has made known publicly that the President should hold on to the nomination until after this November’s election to allow the then newly elected President to do the nomination.

But President Obama who is a constitutional law professor knows that it is within his power and rights to conduct the nomination process without having to wait after the election to do so.

Already, there has been the talk that the short listed nominee would include Nevada’s Governor Brian Sandoval who is of Hispanic origin. He was in Washington DC attending the Governor’s Conference and has already had a meeting with the Democratic Party leader, Senator Harry Reid, in private about the prospect as a nominee.

President Obama’s has an early start to work on a bipartisan support especially from the recent announcement by Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois who is himself a Republican. Senator Kirk has expressed his support for the President in his rights to nominate and to start the process to send his nominee to the Senate body for a vote. However, Senator Kirk is hoping that the President would nominate someone who meets the qualification as well as the political attributes to be accepted by both parties.

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Would the current Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina be the choice for the Republican VP slot? Is it too early to make such a decision?

Would Gov. Haley bring in the support from voters makes a difference?

There are many questions that Trump is facing as he maneuvers in his search to win the nominee for his Party for the right to run in the final Presidential election this November.

Donald Trump's chances of winning the Republican Party’s nomination are looking better and better as the Primaries progress. 

However, there are some skeptics who feel that Trump alone with his moderate conservative message may not be enough to win the final Presidential election for his lack of support if he has to reach out to the Democrats and the independents.

Today, as he stands, Trump could use the popularity of a consensus builder in Governor Hikki Harley of South Carolina.  

Even Rev. Al Sharpton shares the sentiment of the benefits of a Trump/Haley ticket.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is a "different kind of Republican," the Rev. Al Sharpton said Tuesday, and he thinks that she could be a powerful, balancing running mate for GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump.

Though Gov. Haley has been very popular in the Eastern South, how many do the rest of the country know about her?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_Haley

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Buoyant by his recent victory at the South Carolina Primary, Donald Trump is feeling more at ease at the CNN interview with Cooper. His campaign has been a roller coaster rides between his debate performances and his defense with the negative Ads.,  put up by his opponents in the media.

Trump has learned to adopt a seemingly less antagonizing stance in his rhetoric with a more mellowed choice of words. He was blamed for outrageous comments and “shooting from the mouth” rhetoric at the beginning of his political campaign since last year. Today, he seems to have improved on his diplomatic skills to gain more support from the moderates and even some liberals in the predominantly conservatives Republican Party. He is even observed to show a slight hesitation to first reflect on questions posed during live rallies by the attendees before volunteering an answer.

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With the first Primary States of Iowa and New Hampshire coming up, would Senator Rubio has the ability to make a final push to bring his standing among the still crowded field of the GOP candidates to make him a viable candidate to be reckon with?

Senator Rubio was initially been considered to be the front runner at one time last year. Lately his campaign has lost traction among a crowded field of Republican candidates.

With campaign fund-raising being a challenge for just about every candidates other than Billionaire Trump, Senator Rubio’s campaign is recently being pumped up with funding with support from a rich republican billionaire.

He also has gotten support from Governor Pataki of New York who suspended his own Presidential campaign.

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How far would a strong debater  like Senator Ted Cruz  has could propel him to win in the crowded field among the Republican Party’s presidential hopefuls?

Senator Cruz’s skills in debates have been well known since his days when he was at Princeton University. There he won the nation’s prestige debate prize. He continued his studies and eventually graduated with honors from the Harvard law school. He continued to use his skills as a public orator during his time in teaching at the University of Texas law school in Austin.  An open senate seat he ran won him as a first term Senator recently. At only 45 his political ambition has not taken a break.

Now he is arguing for the top post of his career as he seeks for the position of the Presidency of the United States of America. So far his campaign message has resonated well among the republican voters besides his closest and strongest rival, billionaire Donald Trump. Today, Senator Cruz has climbed up among the other 16 initial candidates to the second spot position.  

Skills in debate techniques may take a person thus far with the voters but there are other factors that would be needed to win the hearts and minds of the American voters. So how far Senator Cruz could needs to show in order to advance his message to solidified his candidacy?  Currently his platform is more towards conservatism with the Southern Christian base.  But would that be enough to garner enough to overcome the populist and unconventional style of Donald Trump’s to win the Party’s nomination?

If Senator Cruz is to expand his voters’ base, he has to extend his message to more diverse electorates of the North. The question is how he could expand his support without compromising his core supporters among the conservative southern Christians. Is he going to change his message to accommodate the northern voters in order to win these voters? So how far could a candidate change his or her principle to win votes? The answer might be in the skills of the spokesperson in debates?

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Senator Bernard Sanders, making his point on the far left, is a non conforming populist favorite candidate in the 2016 presidential election. He has been an independent leader in the U.S. Senate for many years but he has aligned himself more with the Democratic Party. Running as a democratic candidate, he is facing an uphill battle with the more organized political machine from Secretary Hillary Clinton, the other stronger of the pool of Democratic Party candidate so far. The quality of his campaign has been one of the cleanest in term of controversy as one could get in the U.S. presidential election. His recent decision to quickly disassociate with one of his campaign staff on the improper use of rival data information has earned him respect not only among his rival candidates but the nation’s voters as well. He even publicly apologized to his rival, Secretary Clinton; at the live telecast debate just this past Saturday, December 19th 2015. It was another indication of his true form for clean and honorable campaign. Irrespective of whether Senator Bernie Sanders, as he is more popularly called, he has already won. He has brought forward many of his ideas for the nation to consider and to be debated among all the presidential candidates. So his campaign alone has served his plan for the nation well. He has been able to advance his ideas through his stand and his platform throughout his campaign. For his dedication and his work at the Senate all these years, senator Sanders had served his country with the utmost high public service and professionalism. Now, the nation would have the power to vote if a leader of such caliber would be the best for a country that needs one like Senator Bernie Sanders.

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President Jimmy Carter recently announced at his Sunday Service that he is now cancer free. The cancer that has been diagnosed on him a few months ago has since been in remission.

His doctors have declared that he is now cancer free. There were great rejoice among his parish members in his home State of Georgia. There were prayers of thanks and applauses right after the announcement was made.

President Jimmy Carter has been one of the most loved Presidents of the United States. He is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and considerate as one of the world top Statesman for his principled stand on world peace by working on solving political problems and issues through diplomacy rather than resorting to armed conflicts and wars.

He is a man of peace in the true sense, even though; he was trained in the military as a naval officer in the U.S. Navy.

Now in his 90s, President Carter still preaches in his Church as a Minister and continues his charitable works for the needy and the poor albeit on a lighter schedules.

With such a leader still around, the world is a better place just from his voice, conscience and ideas he impart to call out for reason and peace.

During last Monday’s Bill OReilly show on FOX News, the host, Bill OReilly lectured Presidential candidate, Donald Trump, on his disregard to checking on facts before spreading wrongly and highly misleading information that could create serious problems with the current tensed racial conflicts in the country.

Trump was confronted by OReilly for his controversial tweets on Twitter. In one of his tweets Trump has retweeted from another source with erroneous crime figures that purported exaggerated figures that blacks were responsible for 81% of Whites killed. The actual figure was a much small percentage at 15%. OReilly even pointed out to Mr. Trump that the source that the tweet originates from was “an entity that doesn’t exist, according to Politifact.com”.

Even though, Trump was notified by OReilly about spreading wrong information, he was still adamant on staying with his source of that tweet and had not withdrawn his posting as of this report.

This begs on the question of the style of leadership this candidate might turn out to be.  Do we see a man who would still stay on issues if that issue happens to be one that he likes irrespective of the truth? Would America accept a leader who would stay on a course when the facts do not match reality?

To hold the office of the President of a country like the U.S. what kind of a leader would the country vote for?

Is The Cold War Really Over In Relation To This Current Syrian Civil War?

               Syria as a country is a near- failed state having lost over 220,000 lives and over 3 million refugees scattered abroad as a result of the Civil war that began in 2011 which was in the name of the people of Syria's quest for democracy.

              The United States of America (USA) holding its belief that all countries in the world embrace democracy inspired the Arab nations in these few years like Tunisia, Egypt and Libya among others to rebel against their Authoritarian regimes and Syria is the latest. Russia however, is against the overthrow of Authoritarian leaders hence their support for the Bashar Assad's government in Syria who Russia has ties with in the past of being a country that supported Russia against Western Super powers and also, Russia being a big weapons supplier to Syria and has extensive defensive contracts with the Bashar Assad regime.

            I am of the view that had Russia supported the USA and other Western countries efforts to halt Assad's killing of the innocent Syrians who were fed up with his regime and lost their legitimacy in time, we would not have had this issue of the proliferation of warring factions in Syria which has become so confusing as now we have the Bashar -Assad forces teaming up with its main rival, the Anti- Syria regime group to fight against another faction, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) .

         I believe Russia made this happen due to their Ideology of not wanting the USA to be in control of the Middle- East region in the pursuit of their (USA) political and economic interests which is reminiscent of the Soviet Union's creation of the Zhdanov Doctrine in the Cold War era as a counter- policy to the USA's inception of the Marshall Plan which the Soviet Union said it was a ploy of the USA to gain global domination through American Imperialism.

        In conclusion, one can say that the Cold war is still alive. Looking at Russia's backing of the Assad led government of Syria instead of teaming up with the USA and the other Western countries to overthrow him. If this had happened, peace could be won as it is apparent that it is the wish of the people of Syria too. But, if the U.S. and Russia have come together to fight the ISIS, the U.S. might only want to maintain their stance of limiting their co-operation with Russia. The U.S. will only limit their basic strategies with Russia in their quest to halt the ISIS invasion of Syria which is reminiscent of what happened in World War II where the USA failed to disclose fully their acquisition of the nuclear bomb which also might be a factor that led to the Cold war.

Contributed by Mr. Justice Brandford

U.S. President Barack Obama continues his travels this past week to the Far East from the Philippines to Malaysia.

In the Philippines, President Obama attended the APEC summit.  In Malaysia, he meets with the leaders of the 10 ASEAN member countries. Both APEC and ASEAN are region economic blocs of countries dealing with the promotion of trade.

In Malaysia, President Obama, treads on a thin line to avoid any show of close personal relationship with the current Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, who has been deep in scandals on a personal US$607 million gift deposited into the Prime Minister’s personal bank account. The U.S. law against questionable monetary transaction could trigger a U.S. government investigation especially if the transfer of the gift is found to involve U.S. banks as seem to be in this case.

The Prime Minister’s scandal has been lingered on since 2013 and there has been crack down on dissenters by applying the sedition laws and was also used to detain media executives. While answering questions at a university town-hall meeting, Obama, stressed on the issues of government transparency and the importance of the freedom of the Press. 

At the government level, the issues that were discussed between the two countries were more about the peace and stability in the region.  Political tensions in the South China Seas were also discussed including the cooperation to counter extremism. The recent beheading of a Malaysian citizen by the Abu Sayyaf Islamic group in the southern Philippines was brought up as an example for the common fights to eradicate such groups.

As a leader, the first thought that would come in people's mind would be a person who is skill to speak for others. Followers would expect their leader to be wise in his choice of words as in his command of a language to communicate.

But, the recent controversial words by Dr. Ben Carson were one of his low points as rightfully pointed out in the media. He had used the word “rabid-dogs" when he described the refugees from Syria.

For that he was criticized mostly by the liberal media. That alone might have cost him the slight in his popularity polls this past week. Before that he had picked up on a surge to be ahead of one of his rival candidates in Mr. Trump. Today, Mr. Trump has taken back the lead from Dr. Carson.

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With the recent rants coming from Trump with his portrayal of Dr. Carson's about the Doctor’s  troubled youth being repeatedly play on the TVs late shows, Trump’s supporters might be seeing a too comically side of him to take him as a serious Presidential candidate.

Even the liberal TV networks find Trump’s public rallies to take on a comical gathering. He was shown to have gone on a 90 minutes rant without any specific subject or theme in one of his recent rallies. Many serious voters looking for a strong and decisive leader might not see that character in Trump in the recent campaign. So some political pundits are beginning to ask if this is the first sign of the downward fall from the polls for him. Still others have said that they have predicted Trump’s fall from his popular polls back in the summer, but somehow, he might have proved them wrong again this time. After all this roller-coaster ride of his popularity, Trump has always been Trump and might have a stronger staying power than anyone could predict. Even he might be surprised on his staying power himself if he might want to admit someday.

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Could France's President François Hollande step up to the challenge to the attacks by extremists in his capital city?

The attacks around Paris last Friday night gave a wakeup call to France's readiness to meet such attacks. Not that it would be unthinkable that such attacks would not have ever occurred to the French homeland. One would be always be prepared with retaliation when the country is in an on-going military campaign in the Middle East.

The question is how France could protect its own citizens to make sure that such incidents do not repeat again.

The resources of France should be ample enough to prevent these very attacks. The fact that such an attack could occurred would place the leadership in France to continue to stay vigilant.

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Former Congressman Dr. Ron Paul again sounded off the spirit for a claim voice in the South China Seas. The recent maneuver of US navy ship around the disputed atolls that is claimed by China was not a necessary friendly act to US biggest trading partner.  Dr. Ron Paul, who was a former Presidential candidate, has always been the voice of reason and peace throughout his career in the US Congress. 

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Donald Trump hits the campaign trail the next day after the third GOP Presidential debate.

The support is still surging albeit accompanied by more protestors from the Hispanic group for his inflamatory remarks on the immigration issue that is close to the Hispanic community.

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China's president Xi visits Vietnam. The leaders of the two neighboring countries exchange pleasentry and continue to promote bilateral trade.

Vietnam's biggest trading partner is China. The future looks bright for the two countries as the trade expand every year in spite of the minor dispute with a few isolated atolls in the South China Sea.

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The Speaker of the House, America's Prime Minister is positioning himself to take up the new leadership post in Congress.

Congressman Paul Ryan is ready but could he gets the majority support for the challenging legislative work in the House of representatives that is staked mostly by a divided GOP?

As the Speaker, his job may not be as easily managed as in the past among previous Speakers because of a GOP that seems to be not as united as ever than before in the modern history of the U.S. Congress.

Would America be finally ready for the first lady President?

Secretary Hillary Clinton thinks so. She is betting on the country she has invested all her life to continue to serve in the top capacity of public office.

America might just acknowledge and recognize her leadership and vote for her to be the next President and the country’s Commander-in-Chief. She has the experience and the political smartness to come head-to-head with any candidate the GOP Party could nominate.

Her middle of the road stands has already garnered her some much needed support by the Union workers groups. Though when she was Secretary-of-State she was supporting the Obama Administration on the President’s initiatives, she has strategically distant herself recently from the pro-business trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The Union’s rational is that the implementation of the TPP would initially hurt the American workers of their jobs from the competitive advantage of the other Asian Pacific-Rim countries in lower labor costs.

However, her most major area of voters to win over would be from the female voters if she could win that demographic. Currently, her popularity has placed her in the lead among her Democratic Party’s candidates or even to compare to the GOP’s field of candidates.

Donald Trump thinks he has what it takes to be the President of the United States. Through his recent polls is slipping, he still say he is in the race for the long haul.

The key strategy to win a Presidential election for the highest office is to be inclusive of the growing diverse population of the United States of America.

In the recent state of the U.S. population demographic, no candidate has ever hope to win a Presidential election by either alienating or excluding any minority groups of voters.

Donald Trump has been a savvy businessman throughout his life by strategizing well in his planning and execution to achieve

his goals. So could he make it in his first political campaign with the experience as he has in business? Could his business experience be used as successfully to carry it over to his political campaign?