History never really repeats itself, neither as tragedy nor as farce nor as something else entirely.  Donald Trump is both a narcissistic and megalomanical fool and a tragedy for the U.S. and the planet.  Yet, although there are certainly some alarming resemblances with Trump, he is not a reborn Mussolini or Hitler or some other fascistic demagogue from 1920s Europe.   Trump comes out of a very American background of anti-intellectualism, racism, sexism, and xenophobia.  Andrew Jackson, a president with those attributes and a faux claim to support the interests of the “little man” is an apt model for Trump.

British Columbia is giving away lumber at .50 cents an acre and the Green Party holds the balance of power at a tipping point on energy policy says Michael Hudson

Dimitri Lascari: This is Dimitri Lascaris for The Real News. On Tuesday of this week the Canadian Province of British Colombia held an election and the result was a nail biter. BC’s legislature consists of 87 seats and in order to command a majority, a party must hold a minimum of 44 seats. The provisional results are that the right wing incumbent liberal party, led by BC premier Christy Clark, won 43 seats. The Social Democratic NDP won 41 seats, and the BC Green party, led by climate scientist Andrew Weaver won three seats.