Category Archives: Minority Rule

“New Normal”, Conservative Perspectives, Current Affairs, Europe, Fire This Time, France, Immigration, Minority Rule, Nazis/Nazism, or Worse, Passing the Torch(es), Populism, Racism, Religious Issues & Conflicts, Resistance, Sedition Watch, Signs of the Times, To Save Democracy, UK -Britain

The Economist — Sep 14th 2023

A spectre is haunting Europe: the spectre of a rising hard right. In Germany the overtly xenophobic Alternative for Germany (afd) has surged to become the country’s second-most popular party.

Its success is polarising domestic politics and it seems poised to triumph in state elections in the east next year. In Poland the ruling Law and Justice party is leading the polls ahead of a general election on October 15th, and it is being drawn further to the right by an extreme new party, Confederation.

Continue reading A fresh wave of hard-right populism is stalking Europe →

Argentina, Catholics & Catholicism, Current Affairs, Francis & Catholics, Justice?, Mass killings, Minority Rule, Religious Issues & Conflicts, Southeast Asia, Thailand

A Dyer Twofer: Thailand’s Struggles & Pope Francis’ s Mixed History

September 4, 2023 Chuck Fager 1 Comment

Thailand: The Last Rigged Election?

Lèse-majesté is the ‘crime’ of offending the dignity of the king, and these days it has gone out of fashion. In Britain, you can say anything you like about King Charles the Turd (as an Irish friend calls him), and no one turns a hair. But if you insult King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand, you’re in deep trouble.

By Gwynne Dyer – September 4, 2023

Thailand’s Lèse-majesté law decrees specifies a jail term of up to fifteen years for insulting the king, and it is vigorously enforced. Every insult attracts a separate punishment, so the penalties pile up fast.

Continue reading A Dyer Twofer: Thailand’s Struggles & Pope Francis’ s Mixed History →

Annals of Inequality, Current Affairs, Iran, Islam & Muslims, Minority Rule, Religious Issues & Conflicts, Signs of the Times, Tyranny, Women & Girls

Iran Marks Anniversary of 1953 CIA-Backed Coup

August 27, 2023 Chuck Fager Leave a comment

AP News: A CIA-backed 1953 coup in Iran haunts the country with people still trying to make sense of it

BY NASSER KARIMI AND JON GAMBRELL

August 25, 2023

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Seventy years after a CIA–orchestrated coup toppled Iran’s prime minister, its legacy remains both contentious and complicated for the Islamic Republic as tensions stay high with the United States.

While highlighted as a symbol of Western imperialism by Iran’s theocracy, the coup unseating Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh — over America’s fears about a possible tilt toward the Soviet Union and the loss of Iranian crude oil — appeared backed at the time by the country’s leading Shiite clergy.

Continue reading Iran Marks Anniversary of 1953 CIA-Backed Coup →

Africa, Current Affairs, Minority Rule, Passing the Torch(es), Resistance, Tyranny

Dyer: Zimbabwe Election (With Updates)

August 26, 2023 Chuck Fager Leave a comment

Late Update, August 26, 2023:

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa was re–elected for a second and final five–year term late Saturday in results announced much earlier than expected following another troubled vote in the southern African country with a history of violent and disputed elections.

An opposition party spokesperson said within minutes of Mnangagwa being declared the winner that they would reject the results as “hastily assembled without proper verification.”

Mnangagwa’s victory meant the ZANU–PF party retained the governmental leadership it has held for all 43 years of Zimbabwe’s history since the nation was re–named following independence from white minority rule in 1980.

Zimbabwe has had just two leaders in that time, long–ruling autocrat Robert Mugabe and Mnangagwa.

Background: Zimbabwe and the ‘Ruling Party Syndrome’

Gwynne Dyer — August 21 2023

“No-one will stop us from ruling this country. You will be lost if you don’t vote for ZANU-PF,” said President Emmerson Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe. A bit more arrogant than the usual election pitch in most parts of the world, perhaps, but not unusual in Zimbabwe, one of the southern African countries suffering from ‘ruling party syndrome’. Continue reading Dyer: Zimbabwe Election (With Updates) →