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April 4, 2018 | The Clarion Opinion Page 5 John Bolton to be Natl Security Advisor By Jordon Morgan Editor in Chief In President Trump’s never ending revolving door of staff firings, resignations, and appointments, the latest stop has the president appointing John Bolton, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, as his new National Security Advisor, replacing Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster (who replaced General Mike Flynn), Though it was at best fairly non-existent to begin with, any sense of restraint and decency Trump had is slowly being phased away. Through a combination of a Congress filled with cowardly Republicans either not having any desire or not having any courage to stand up to Trump’s madness, and the fact that the list of people who have any sort of influence over him is slowly dwindling. Maureen Dowd of The New York Times made an eloquent statement that is frighteningly true. She said that “It’s unnerving covering a president who is treated like a boy king, requiring minders; who is easily swayed because he is under informed; who can sit still only long enough for short oral briefings; who swaggers and mocks to mask his insecurities; who tries to replace real news with faux; and who can’t seem to fathom that distorting reality to suit political ends is dangerous.” Digressing, the aforementioned list of people losing influence over the president includes his Chief of Staff John Kelly. Apparently, Trump is truly starting to fulfill his dictatorial fantasies by putting himself in the mindset that he doesn’t need anyone’s advice or consent, and his attempts at blocking a legitimate investigation into his alleged ties to Russia are becoming more blatant. According to AOL, John Kelly “has reportedly been left out of key decisions, including last week’s ouster of national security adviser H.R. McMaster and the hiring of John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the UN,” in addition to the fact that “Kelly has also been sidelined during Trump’s calls with foreign leaders, according to Bloomberg,” AOL says. This is troubling, but what’s more troubling is his appointment of Bolton. It is reasonable to say that John Bolton is one of the most, if not the most, hawkish, fiercest advocates for war, in particular against Iran and Russia. Not to mention the fact that despite the overwhelming consensus, based on years of evidence, falsified reports now debunked, and a realization of the chaos it caused, that the Iraq War was an unmitigated disaster, John Bolton still hasn’t caught up with reality. According to Dowd again, she says that “he [Bolton] pushed to go to war in Iraq and still thinks it was a good idea, just as he has pushed to go to war in North Korea and get regime change in Iran and Syria. He is a fervent believer in preemptive war.” What is even more confusing about Trump’s appointment is that he is appointing a man who supports a war that he himself was against. Again quoting Dowd: “In 2013, Trump tweeted: ‘All former Bush administration officials should have zero standing on Syria. Iraq was a waste of blood & treasure.’” Yet here we are. We have come full circle, regressing nearly 10 years and recreating Bush’s warmongering administration. We have a president that shows an explicit disregard and uninterest in our rule of law, is a thin-skinned man child that hasn’t earned a single thing in his life, and arguably wants to turn our republic into an autocracy (I mean a man who “jokes” about ending Presidential term limits isn’t to be taken lightly). Let’s hope that this country can last until 2020. Democrats, don’t screw this up. Catalonia's former president arrested in Germany By Florian Peyssonneaux Opinion Editor On Friday, March. 23, Supreme Court Judge Pablo Llarena agreed to unconstitutional imprisonment of the presidential candidate for the Catalan government Jordi Turull, from the former president of the Catalan parliament Carme Forcadell and its advisers Raul Romeva, Josep Rull, and Dolors Bassa. On Sunday, March 25, former president of the Generalitat Carles Puigdemont was arrested while crossing the German border in order to enter Belgium. This was in response to the European and international warrant delivered by the same judge. The same kind of warrants are also in application for politicians Antoni Comin, Meritxell Serret, Lluis Puig, Clara Ponsati and Marta Rovira who are currently in Belgium, Scotland and Switzerland respectively. It might be illegal, but is it unethical for politicians to be imprisoned for their ideas without any trial? At the same time people who are sentenced to jail for corruption or money laundering can remain free until their sentence starts. Hundreds of protestors were in the streets of Catalonia to protest the imprisonment of the leader of the Catalan political party. In Tarragona, Spain, on of the main highway has been cut by protesters with slogans such as “Puigdemont our president”, or in Salient, roads have been cutted as well which in Gerona where protesters gathered in front of the delegation of the Spanish government in Catalonia. In Barcelona, the biggest city of the Catalan region, a giant protest with a giant banner saying“llibertat presos politics” (a movement which tries to free the Catalan politicians from jail), was on the rise. The march started in front of the delegation of the European Union and ended with a speech of a manifesto in front of the German consulate. Gathering also occured in front of the building of the Spanish government in Barcelona. On Sunday, April. 1, hundreds of protesters from Catalonia made the trip to Berlin to ask for the liberation of the former president of the region Carles Puigdemont as he faces the extradition to Spain on rebellion charges. More recently, the president of the parliament appeared in the media to ask the Catalan citizens to respond to this event in a nonviolent way. Even if this is considered an outrage from the Spanish government, that is clearly seen as an invitation for democracy. He warns that Catalonia has became a laboratory in which the Spanish government is testing its repression against any opinion that goes against the Spanish government’s interests. As the current situation in Spain and Catalonia is very tense, independent parties from Catalonia are thinking about taking actions against the repression that its leaders have taken part in. Half a year after the Catalan independence was declared unconstitutional by the Spanish government, three possibilities seems to stand out of this situation: a general strike, a permanent mobilisation, or the immediate election of Carles Puigdemont as president. This situation really puts Spain in a delicate positional socially and economically. Even if the election that occured in Catalonia to vote on the independence wasn’t legal for Madrid’s government, and done in some dubious ways, the methods used by the Spanish government are at the limit of being authoritarian regime. Where does one’s freedom ends if politicians are send to prison because of the ideas that they support? Even if their should be regulations on how a region could gain its independence, and the conditions of the vote, people from Catalonia should be listened to by the Spanish government to avoid huge conflicts that will hurt both sides in the next months.
Brevard College Student Newspaper
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April 4, 2018, edition 1
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