In September,  Time  magazine  had an article that might foreshadow what beholds the USA, now that Donald Trump has been re-elected.  Let's go back to 2011 and to the birthplace of the  Arab Spring , Tunisia. Tunisia began this uprising, followed by Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain, Tunisia with the public suicide of a vegetable vendor began a path towards democracy, the only Arab country that went in this direction. All went well until 2019 when Kais Saied was elected president on a populist platform disillusioned with political gridlock and economic stagnation.  The first major sign was in 2021 when Saied used the COVID-19 pandemic to centralize his power.  The first time Trump was elected, he was not experienced enough to do that. The Constitution was suspended, parliament was dissolved and opposition politicians, critics, activists, journalists and union leaders were persecuted.  Many of them were jailed. Tunisia had a presidential elect...

It was a rough night.  Nightmare became reality.  Not only will Donald Trump again become president, but the U.S. Senate will be Republican controlled.  Probably the House too.  Said   Time : Trump campaigned on an authoritarian agenda that would   upend America’s democratic norms , and he is already preparing to deliver on it: mass detention and deportations of migrants; revenge against political enemies via the justice system; deploying the military against his own civilians. How far he chooses to go with the power the public has handed him is a question that will shape the fate of the country. A good look at  Project 2025  provides you the Trump agenda.   Global warming?  While it might not be a hoax anymore, the U.S. will not be cooperative, citing the actual recalcitrance of China and India as reasons.  Trump is also beholden to fossil fuel interests.  The world will suffer. Freedom?   Abortion rights will b...

There have been times in the history of the United States when the presidential election determined the future of Humanity.  Which one was the most important? A case has been made for 1940, when then President Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for his third term.   The makers of the Constitution did not include presidential term limits. Some had tried. In 1880, Ulysses Grant ran for a third term and failed. In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt also ran, but lost to William Howard Taft. Harry Truman sought a third term in 1952, but dropped out after losing in a primary. In  1940, FDR, a Democrat, ran against Republican Wendell Wilkie , who was an isolationist, and totally against the U.S. entering the war in Europe.  FDR too indicated his opposition to the war, but insiders knew that was just something he said in public,. Hitler and continued recovery from the Great Depression were compelling issues inducing FDR to go for a third term. Wilkie, a relative unknown, had upset Senato...