Fintan otoole new york

His genius was to turn page 20 stories into page 1 stories by seizing on relatively inconsequential EU market regulations and inflating them into attacks by demented foreigners on the British way of life. Fintan O'Toole is an Irish columnist, literary editor, and drama critic for The Irish Times, for which he has written since We welcome responses to our articles, and include a selection of contributions from newsletter subscribers in our Letters to the Editor column, published every Saturday.

Please click [email protected] to send your letters, including your full name and town or suburb, and note the article to which you are responding. Letters should be no longer than words, and may be edited for clarity, style and length. How often? Daily Weekly. Politics Lobbyland. World Affairs Asia China Human rights. Economy Industrial relations Infrastructure Technology. The Vietnam War was conducted through a fog of lies. That sustained campaign of deception—of Congress and of citizens—broke something in the presidency itself.

One of the most gifted politicians of the twentieth century, Lyndon Johnson, was shattered by it. Nixon, a formidable operator with a substantial domestic program and a wide popular base, ended up as a political racketeer, authorizing and covering up illegal dirty tricks against his opponents. Watergate was a side-effect of Vietnam. But the next time there may be no watchman in the night. Nixon was forced out because Republican-appointed judges and Republican members of Congress joined with Democrats to reassert constitutional checks on the abuse of presidential power.

The Senate Republicans told him, in effect, that he can exercise power arbitrarily. Absolute power deranges absolutely.

My primary consultant is myself. He is, often on live TV , communing with the voices in his head that tell him that he is a combination of Lincoln and Churchill, that coronavirus will suddenly vanish, that it can be cured by ingesting disinfectant, that Joe Scarborough is a murderer, that George Floyd is looking down on him and rejoicing. Here, too, there is that sense of a spilling over of history, of the madness that, with Nixon, was revealed to close confidantes in the White House and recorded on secret tapes, now parading itself naked before the world.

And perhaps what defines this particular moment in America is its monstrous play on the idea of restraint. Citizens have a dizzying, sickening double vision. On one side of the screen, they see a show of violent restraint: George Floyd pinned down, trapped, immobilized to the point of paralysis while his life is squeezed out of him. The third remnant of unfinished war is the runaway momentum of the war on terror.

The arrival on the streets of American cities of troops and military vehicles camouflaged for desert warfare provides a stark image of domestication: the war on terror coming home from those hot, dusty places where it is supposed to be fought. You can call it murder.

You can call it whatever you want. Is it murder? Is it terrorism? And then you get into legal semantics. Trump was right in one sense: the war on terror has always been a war of definition, and for every US administration since September 11, that power of definition is arbitrary.

The semantics are the keys that unlock a vast array of state capacities, up to and including the right to kidnap and imprison people indefinitely without trial, to conduct summary executions, and to invade foreign countries and overthrow their governments. Conversely, if you refrain from using the word, those you approve of—for example, armed white men invading the Michigan state capitol—enjoy complete impunity. The Republicans wasted no time in exploiting that power of definition: they deliberately subverted the distinction between peaceful protesters and looters, and labeled them all terrorists.

They are terrorists using idle hate filled students to burn and destroy. And those protesters can also be assaulted on the streets by the police and by uniformed men who are not identified either collectively or individually and are therefore impossible to hold to account. If and when that assault happens, moreover, it is not real. The victim staged it. This is the final overflow from unfinished war. The word that once described Osama bin Laden and the killers of innocent Americans now extends to citizens protesting the killing of innocent fellow Americans.

The concept that is not defined—terrorism—is not bounded. In particular it is not bounded by constitutional or democratic values. Trump, Barr, and the Republicans have cleared the way for a great homecoming: the war on terror, with all of its weapons for the mass destruction of legality, is being fully repatriated. All of these historical surpluses—the afterlives of slavery, of the deranged presidency, and of the threat of terrorism as permission to set aside legal and democratic rights—have raised the stakes in the present struggle.

This mass of unresolved stuff is being forced toward some kind of resolution. That resolution can come in only one of two ways. What has come to the surface can be repressed again—but that repression will have to be enforced by methods that will also dismantle democracy. Or there will be a transformative wave of change. To help him command the attention of the mainstream media, cable news networks, talk radio and streaming services, Trump is apparently considering signing on with or buying into One America News Network or Newsmax.

But the post-Nov. More important, any deal with competitors is certain to alienate Fox News, which now has fewer incentives to be "Trump TV. A shortlist includes Vice President Pence, Sen. Tom Cotton R-Ark. Ted Cruz R-Texas , Sen. Marco Rubio R-Fla. Josh Hawley R-Mo. To remain relevant, Trump will hint that he will run again or declare his candidacy.

Nonetheless, keeping all the hopefuls " as frozen in place as a COVID vaccine " for years will be difficult - especially if Trump begins to falter or fade and it seems likely he would be defeated in Courts will compel Trump to turn over records - including tax returns - and to testify under oath.

New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance are investigating "possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct," including insurance and bank fraud connected to misrepresentation of assets.

Even if Trump pardons himself and the Supreme Court were to affirm the action constitutional, he would not be immunized from prosecution by New York State. The Internal Revenue Service will complete its audit of Trump's tax returns.