Chris Hedges's Blog, page 243

After Pat’s Birthday

Editor’s note: Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat (left) in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, later wrote a powerful, must-read document. The following essay was first published in Truthdig on Oct. 19, 2006, and is being reprinted on the occasion of yet another Memorial Day many of our troops are spending in foreign lands, fighting America’s forever wars. 

It is Pat’s birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice… until we got out.

Related Articles









Where Is the Democratic Alternative to Forever War?



by Maj. Danny Sjursen















The Tragic Anniversary in Afghanistan We Dare Not Acknowledge



by Maj. Danny Sjursen















Veterans Ron Kovic, Oliver Stone on the True Cost of War (Video & Transcript)

Much has happened since we handed over our voice:

Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few “bad apples” in the military.

Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It’s interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.

Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.

Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started. Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.

Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.

Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.

Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.

Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.

Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.

Somehow torture is tolerated.

Somehow lying is tolerated.

Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.

Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.

Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.

Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.

Somehow the most reasonable, trusted and respected country in the world has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted countries in the world.

Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.

Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.

Somehow this is tolerated.

Somehow nobody is accountable for this.

In a democracy, the policy of the leaders is the policy of the people. So don’t be shocked when our grandkids bury much of this generation as traitors to the nation, to the world and to humanity. Most likely, they will come to know that “somehow” was nurtured by fear, insecurity and indifference, leaving the country vulnerable to unchecked, unchallenged parasites.

Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat’s birthday.

 

Brother and Friend of Pat Tillman,

Kevin Tillman

 

Related coverage

Edicion en espanol de este ensayo en La Jornada (de Mexico)

The Mysterious Death of Pat Tillman

Check out some of the best Tillman-related materials on the Web

Mary Tillman speaks out in Truthdig

‘They tried to attach themselves to his virtue; then they wiped their feet with him.’

Playing the Atheism Card Against Pat Tillman’s Family

A veteran of the U.S. Army Special forces writes about a series of shockingly callous statements that Pat Tillman’s commanding officer made about the Tillman family’s search for the truth.

 

Truthdig Classics

Check out some of our most-read Truthdig originals

Sam Harris: An Atheist Manifesto

Sam Harris: The Truthdig Interview

Gore Vidal: President Jonah

Ron Kovic: The Forgotten Wounded of Iraq

Ron Kovic: Breaking the Silence of the Night

Steve Wasserman — Chicago Agonistes: The Plight of the L.A. Times

The Mass Media Is Poisoning Us With Hate

In “Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media,” published in 1988, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky exposed the techniques that the commercial media used to promote and defend the economic, social and political agendas of the ruling elites. These techniques included portraying victims as either worthy or unworthy of sympathy. A Catholic priest such as Jerzy Popiełuszko, for example, murdered by the communist regime in Poland in 1984, was deified, but four Catholic missionaries who were raped and murdered in 1980 in El Salvador by U.S.-backed death squads were slandered as fellow travelers of the “Marxist” rebel movement. The techniques also included both narrowing the debate in a way that buttressed the elite consensus and intentionally failing to challenge the intentions of the ruling elites or the actual structures of power.

“Manufacturing Consent” was published on the eve of three revolutions that have dramatically transformed the news industry: the rise of right-wing radio and Fox-style TV news that abandon the media’s faux objectivity, the introduction of 24-hour cable news stations, and the creation of internet platforms—owned by a handful of corporations—that control the distribution of news and information and mine our personal data on behalf of advertisers, political campaigns and the government. The sins of the old media, bad though they were, are nothing compared with the sins of the new media. Mass media has degenerated into not only a purveyor of gossip, conspiracy theories and salacious entertainment but, most ominously, a purveyor of hate. Matt Taibbi, the author of “Hate Inc.: How, and Why, the Media Makes Us Hate One Another,” has dissected modern media platforms in much the same way that Herman and Chomsky did the old media.

The new media, Taibbi points out, still manufactures consent, but it does so by setting group against group, a consumer version of what George Orwell in his novel “1984” called the “Two Minutes Hate.” Our opinions and prejudices are skillfully catered to and reinforced, with the aid of a detailed digital analysis of our proclivities and habits, and then sold back to us. The result, Taibbi writes, is “packaged anger just for you.” The public is unable to speak across the manufactured divide. It is mesmerized by the fake dissent of the culture wars and competing conspiracy theories. Politics, under the assault, has atrophied into a tawdry reality show centered on political personalities. Civic discourse is defined by invective and insulting remarks on the internet. Power, meanwhile, is left unexamined and unchallenged. The result is political impotence among the populace. The moral swamp is not only a fertile place for demagogues such as Donald Trump—a creation of this media burlesque—but channels misplaced rage, intolerance and animosity toward those defined as internal enemies.

The old media sold itself as objective, although as Taibbi points out, this was more a reflection of tone rather than content. This vaunted objectivity and impartiality was, at its core, an element of a commercial tactic designed to reach the largest numbers of viewers or readers.

“Objectivity was when I was told I couldn’t write with voice,” Taibbi told me when I interviewed him on my television show, “On Contact.” [Part one of the interview; part two.] “I couldn’t write with a point of view. Objectivity was to write in a dull, flat, third-person perspective. Don’t express yourself. Don’t be too colorful. This actually was, if you pick up The New York Times today, that same writing style. The original idea behind it is you didn’t want to turn off people on the start because they’re trying to reach the widest possible audience. This also infected radio, television. That’s why you have this Tom Brokaw, Dan Rather-style delivery, which was monotonal, flat, unopinionated. A lot of people thought this was some kind of an ethical decision that news organizations were making. In fact, what they were trying to do is reach the greatest number of people to sell the greatest number of ads. That’s how we developed that idea.”

The old media rigidly held to the fiction that there were only two kinds of political opinions—those expressed by Democrats and those expressed by Republicans. These two positions swiftly devolved into caricatures on radio and television. The classic example was the show “Crossfire,” in which two antagonists, the stereotypical liberal and the stereotypical conservative, could never agree. The liberal, Taibbi pointed out, “was always cast as the person who couldn’t punch back. He was always in retreat. The conservative was always in attack mode. A personality like Tucker Carlson.” These staged and choreographed confrontations were, in essence, sporting events.

Related Articles









Corporate Media's Open Hostility to Medicare-for-All



by

“If you watch a [‘Sunday NFL] Countdown’ you’ll see the sets are designed exactly the same” as that of “Crossfire.” “The anchor on one side. There’s usually four commentators—two that represent each team. They have graphics that tell you what the score is, who is ahead, who is behind. We want people to perceive politics as something they have a rooting interest in. There’s no possibility of any gray area in any of this. Your political identity can’t possibly bleed into any other political identity. You are on one team or another. That’s it. We don’t even acknowledge the existence of people who have different types of ideas. For instance, anti-abortion but also pro-union. Whatever it is. That doesn’t exist in the media.”

The fact that on most big issues the two major political parties are in agreement is ignored. The deregulation of the financial industry, the militarization of police, the explosion in the prison population, deindustrialization, austerity, the endless wars in the Middle East, the bloated military budget, the control of elections and mass media by corporations and the wholesale surveillance of the population by the government all have bipartisan support. For this reason, they are almost never discussed.

“It’s always presented as two parties that are always in disagreement about everything,” Taibbi said, “which is not true.”

“We [members of the press] are not focusing on the timeless, permanent nature of how the system works,” he said. “We don’t think about the central bank. We don’t think about the security state. We don’t think about any of that stuff. We focus on personalities. Donald Trump versus Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. That simplifies everything and allows us to not look at the bigger picture.”

Once the old media model imploded with the arrival of 24-hour news networks, Fox-style news and the internet, the monopoly of a few dominant newspapers and networks ended. In the new setting, media organizations tailor their content to focus on specific demographics.

“MSNBC, which has gone through some interesting changes over the years, markets itself as a left-leaning network,” Taibbi said. “But it was so intensely pro-war in 2002 that it had to uninvite Jesse Ventura and Phil Donahue from the network. This latest thing was ‘Russiagate’ and the constant hyping of the narrative ‘If you watch, you might learn any minute that we, along with Robert Mueller, are going to take down the president.’ ”

The media model not only sets demographic against demographic, it mutes and destroys investigations into corporate systems of oppression and genuine dissent.

“You don’t have to make the news up for these people,” Taibbi said of the process of carving up the public. “You can just pick stories that they’re going to like. You start feeding them content that is going to ratify their belief systems. Fox did it first. They did it well. They started to make money. They were No. 1 for a long time. But this started to bleed into the rest of the business. Pretty soon, everybody was doing the same thing. It didn’t matter whether you were the food channel tailoring content for people who liked food or MSNBC who tailored content for people who leaned in a certain political direction, you were giving people stuff they wanted to hear.”

“Previously, you were looking at the illusion of debate,” Taibbi said of the old media model. “You would see people arguing on ‘Crossfire.’ On the op-ed pages, there were people who disagreed with each other. Now, most people’s news consumption experience is tailored entirely to their preferences. … If you’re only reading media that tailor to your particular belief system you’re not being exposed to other ideas. It’s going to be progressively more vituperative.”

“One of the first stories that taught the news business you can actually sell anger as a product was the [Monica] Lewinsky scandal,” Taibbi said.

MSNBC built its brand and its audience by relentlessly warning that the presidency of Bill Clinton was in mortal peril during the Lewinsky investigation. It repeated this formula by spending two years hyping the story of supposed Russian collusion with the Trump administration.

“What they were trying to do was basically create the impression that [a new] ‘Watergate was going on, you better tune in because at any moment this could all go kaput,’ ” Taibbi said of the Lewinsky scandal. “They got an enormous market share. Fox added a twist to it. Fox took the same concept and openly villainized the characters. They decided to make Bill and Hillary Clinton into caricatures and cartoon figures, aging hippies. They kept running clip after clip of Hillary Clinton talking about how she didn’t bake cookies. They knew their audience was going to react to all these images in a certain way. They sold people stories that make them angry. They told them, ‘If you keep tuning in, somehow you are a part of the process. You are a part of this ongoing prosecution of this culture enemy that we’re showing you. … We tell you about somebody you don’t like. We keep telling you about it over and over to dominate the ratings.’ ”

The result, Taibbi argues, is a marketing strategy that fosters addictive and aggressive behavior. The more the habits of readers and viewers on the internet and electronic devices are tracked, the more the addiction and aggression are fed.

“This creates more than just pockets of political rancor,” he went on. “It creates masses of media consumers who have been trained to only see in one direction, as if they have been pulled through history on a railroad track, with heads fastened in blinders, looking only one way. … Even without the vitriolic content, just the process of surfing and consuming the news has a lot of the same qualities as other addictions—like smoking cigarettes or taking drugs. People get addicted to the feel of their phones. They get addicted to the process of turning on screens. You especially get addicted to the idea that you’re going to turn on a news program or read an article and it’s going to tell you something that is going to anger you even more than you were yesterday.”

The template for news, Taibbi writes, is professional wrestling.

“Wrestling was a commercial formula that they figured out worked incredibly well,” Taibbi said of the corporate owners of news outlets. “There was a simplified morality play where there was a good guy, who was called the baby face, and a bad guy they called the heel. They relentlessly hyped the bad guy. The heel was more important in wrestling and more popular than the face. The amount of tickets they can sell is a direct correlation to how much people hate the bad guy. You have to have a hateable heel in order to make the formula work. This is how news works.”

Reporters, Taibbi writes in his book, “now regularly do the outraged hero, finger-pointing routine whenever they are within a mile of Trump. Jim Acosta’s confrontations with the president, for instance, seemed pulled straight from WWE [World Wrestling Entertainment] outtakes. Trump’s whole presidency has turned into a heel/hero promotion with Bob Mueller in the face role.”

“Trump fits like a glove into the commercial formula of all of this,” Taibbi said in the interview. “That’s what’s fascinating about it. He actually makes more money for the MSNBC, CNN, Washington Post, New York Times side than he does for Fox and the Daily Caller. He’s a cartoon character who is a perfect heel. You have an utterly simplified political landscape. There are only two ways to be. You are either for this incredibly noxious figure or you are against him.”

But, Taibbi notes, there is a diminishing return as with any addiction.

“You always have to constantly increase the level of the rhetoric in order to get people to keep coming back,” he said. “You can’t be narrowly ‘incompetent’ or ‘corrupt.’ Sooner or later, you have to get to the point where you’re saying ‘demagogues,’ ‘authoritarians,’ ‘dictators.’ Finally, as Glenn Beck discovered, you have to start calling them Hitler. Beck got to the point where he was simultaneously calling people Hitler and Stalin. It wasn’t enough just to be Hitler.”

“If you are defining somebody else as that bad, then everything is permissible,” he said. “We saw this with Russiagate. The same sort of liberal commentators who, ages ago, would have been very concerned about things such as the collapse of attorney-client privilege, or the FISA program, any of that stuff. They don’t care about it anymore. They just want to get the person.”

The shaping of the public into antagonistic tribes works commercially. It works politically. But it is a recipe for social disintegration. I watched competing ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia seize rival mass media outlets and use them to spew vitriol and hate against the ethnic group they demonized. The poisonous images and rhetoric that were pumped out month after month in Yugoslavia led to a savage fratricide.

The United States is already plagued by an epidemic of mass shootings, death threats against critics of Trump, including Rep. Ilhan Omar, and aborted assassination attempts, including a Trump supporter’s mailing of pipe bombs last year to prominent Democrats and CNN, an effort to decapitate the hierarchy of the Democratic Party, as well as terrorize the media outlet that is the party’s principal propaganda arm.

“If you’re constantly winding up audiences and telling them that all of their troubles are a result of this other group that is literally Hitler, that they’re literally Nazis, they’re literally Stalin, sooner or later some people are going to start picking up weapons and do something crazy,” Taibbi said. “This is why people are correctly upset about Fox News. But they should also be concerned about other forms of media. The formula is similar across the board.”

“Our system of bubble economics is going to produce some kind of a catastrophe at some point,” Taibbi, the author of one of the finest books on the 2008 financial crash, “Griftopia,” concluded. “At which point, if you tell people often enough that their next-door neighbor is literally in the league with Nazis or terrorists or whatever it is—of course Fox pioneered this, going back to the Iraq War, when we were told liberals were terrorist supporters—sooner or later, there’s going to be violence. The inability of society to agree on a common set of facts means the media has failed already. It means we’re just not reaching people. [In this atmosphere] we will never be able to work things out in a civil way.”

The Right and the Greens Gain Ground in EU Elections

BRUSSELS — The hardest-fought European Parliament elections in decades drew to a close Sunday with the anti-immigrant far right and the pro-environment Greens both projected to gain ground at the expense of the continent’s longtime political center.

Turnout was estimated at a two-decade high over the four days of balloting across the 28 European Union countries. The elections were seen as a test of the influence of the nationalist, populist and hard-right movements that have swept the continent in recent years and impelled Britain to quit the EU altogether.

While pro-EU parties still were expected to win about two-thirds of the 751-member legislature that sits in Brussels and Strasbourg, other contenders appeared headed for significant gains, according to projections released by Parliament.

Exit polls in France indicated that Marine Le Pen’s far-right, anti-immigrant National Rally party came out on top in an astonishing rebuke of French President Emmanuel Macron, who has made EU integration the heart of his presidency.

Le Pen said the expected result “confirms the new nationalist-globalist division” in France and beyond.

Exit polls in Germany, the EU’s biggest country, likewise indicated the party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and its center-left coalition partner also suffered losses, while the Greens were set for big gains and the far right was expected to pick up slightly more support.

Turnout across the bloc — not counting Britain — was put at a preliminary 51%, a 20-year high. An estimated 426 million people were eligible to vote. Full results were expected overnight.

The balloting, which began Thursday, pitted supporters of closer European unity against those who consider the EU a meddlesome and bureaucratic presence and want to return power to national governments and sharply restrict immigration.

Italy’s Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, a major figure among the anti-migrant hard-line nationalists, said that he felt a “change in the air” and that a victory by his right-wing League party would “change everything in Europe.”

The results could leave Parliament’s two main parties, the European People’s Party and the Socialists & Democrats, without a majority, opening the way for complicated talks to form a working coalition. The Greens and the ALDE free-market liberals were jockeying to become decisive in the body.

Early projections Sunday suggested the Greens would secure 71 seats, up from 52 in the last election, five years ago. The Greens appeared to have done well not just in Germany but in France and Ireland.

“The Green wave has really spread all over Europe, and for us that is a fantastic result,” said Ska Keller, the group’s co-leader in the Parliament.

Germany’s Manfred Weber, the candidate of the EPP, the biggest party in Parliament, said the elections appeared to have weakened the political center. He said it is “most necessary for the forces that believe in this Europe, that want to lead this Europe to a good future, that have ambitions for this Europe” to work together.

The EU and its Parliament set trade policy on the continent, regulate agriculture, oversee antitrust enforcement and set monetary policy for 19 of the 28 nations sharing the euro currency.

Other countries voting on Sunday included Italy, Poland, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Belgium and Lithuania. Britain voted Thursday, taking part in the balloting even though it is planning to leave the EU. Its EU lawmakers will lose their jobs as soon as Brexit happens.

Europe has been roiled in the past few years by immigration from the Mideast and Africa and deadly attacks by Islamic extremists. It has also seen rising tensions over economic inequality and growing hostility toward the political establishment — sentiments not unlike those that got Donald Trump elected in the U.S.

Hungary’s increasingly authoritarian prime minister Viktor Orban, a possible ally of Italy’s Salvini, said he hopes the election will bring a shift toward political parties that want to stop migration. The migration issue “will reorganize the political spectrum in the European Union,” he said.

Proponents of stronger EU integration, led by Macron, argue that issues like climate change and immigration are too big for any one country to tackle alone.

Macron, whose country has been rocked in recent months by the populist yellow vest movement, had called the elections “the most important since 1979 because the Union is facing an existential risk” from nationalists seeking to divide the bloc.

With the elections over, European leaders will begin the task of selecting candidates for the top jobs in the EU’s headquarters in Brussels. The leaders meet for a summit over dinner Tuesday. Current European lawmakers’ terms end July 1, and the new parliament will be seated the following day.

___

Associated Press writers Raf Casert, Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria; Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain; Pablo Gorondi in Budapest; Sylvie Corbet in Paris; Jill Lawless in London; and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

Le Pen’s Far-Right Wins Over Macron’s Centrists

BRUSSELS — The Latest on elections for the European Parliament (all times local):

12:30 p.m.

French official results confirm the far-right National Rally’s victory over French President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party in the European Parliament election.

Related Articles









Marine Le Pen Is a Fascist—Not a 'Right-Wing Populist,' Which Is a Contradiction in Terms



by Harvey Wasserman

France’s Interior Ministry published results based on 81% of the votes counted, placing Marine Le Pen’s party at 24.9% support and Macron’s party at 21.5%. Some votes in France’s biggest cities, which tend to benefit Macron more, remain to be counted.

The National Rally’s result appears close to its score at the previous 2014 European elections.

The green party EELV came in third position with 12.8% support.

France’s traditional parties, which were eviscerated by Marcon’s presidential win in 2017, were still far behind in Sunday’s vote, getting 8.3% for The Republicans conservative party to 6% for the Socialist party.

___

12:25 a.m.

Provisional results from Austria are confirming a big win for Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s center-right party, days after a scandal involving the far-right Freedom Party brought down his governing coalition.

Election officials said that Kurz’s People’s Party won 35.4% of the vote in Sunday’s European Parliament election. It was followed by the center-left Social Democrats with 23.6% and the Freedom Party with 18.1%. The Freedom Party’s tally in Austria’s 2017 national election, in which it also finished third, was a much stronger 26%.

The Greens took 13% of the vote and the liberal NEOS party 8.1%. The tally excludes postal votes, but on that basis Kurz’s party would take seven seats, the Social Democrats five, the Freedom Party three, the Greens two and NEOS one.

The vote for European Parliament is the first test in Austria ahead of a national election in September.

___

12:20 a.m.

The European Parliament spokesman says turnout over all of the bloc’s 28 countries was a 20-year high of 50.5% for Sunday’s vote.

Jaume Duch Guillot says the turnout was 8 percentage points higher than the last Europe-wide vote for the parliament in 2014. He said the figures, which include voting from Britain, which aims to leave the bloc, “shows that European citizens realize that the European Union is part of their everyday reality and future.”

With final results still trickling in early Monday, it appeared that the parliament’s two long-time centrist political groups saw their support shrink at the expense of the anti-immigration far-right and pro-environment Greens. That was according to seat projections for the 751-seat parliament that Guillot read aloud from the stage in the parliament building in Brussels.

___

12:10 a.m.

Three Catalan separatists — one in jail and two more fugitives from Spanish justice — have won European Parliament seats.

Former Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont, his ex-No. 2 Oriol Junqueras and former Catalan Cabinet member Toni Comín all won seats for separatist parties in Sunday’s EU vote. That’s according to provisional results released by Spain’s Interior Ministry with 85% of the votes counted.

Junqueras is in jail in Madrid while on trial on charges that include rebellion for his part in Catalonia’s attempt to secede from the rest of Spain in 2017. Puigdemont and Comín are wanted in Spain after they fled to Belgium following Catalonia’s failed secession bid.

The three were allowed to run as candidates, but will face legal hurdles to actually take possession of their European Parliament seats.

___

12 midnight

A new pro-EU coalition linked to President-elect Zuzana Caputova has won the European Parliament election in Slovakia while a far-right party gained seats in the EU legislature for the first time.

According to the final results released by the Slovak Statistics Office, the coalition Progressive Slovakia/Together received 20.1 % of the vote, gaining four seats in the European legislature.

Caputova was Progressive Slovakia deputy chairman before winning the March presidential election.

People’s Party Our Slovakia, a far-right party, finished third with 12.1 %, winning two seats.

But Slovakia’s local ally of France’s far-right National Rally party led by Marine Le Pen didn’t win a seat.

___

11:50 p.m.

A centrist party in the Czech Republic led by populist Prime Minister Andrej Babis won the most votes in the European Parliament election despite the fact that Babis is facing fraud charges involving the use of EU funds.

The Czech Statistics office says his ANO (YES) group has won 21.2% percent of the Sunday vote or six seats — two more than in 2014 —of the 21 seats at stake in the Czech ballot.

Babis wants his country to remain in the bloc but is calling for EU reforms.

The Czech Republic’s most ardent anti-EU group, the Freedom and Direct Democracy party, captured its first seats — two of them — in the EU legislature after finishing fifth with 9.1%. The party is the Czech ally of France’s far-right National Rally party led Marine Le Pen.

The moderate euroskeptic Civic Democratic Party was second in the vote, winning four seats, while two pro-European parties, Pirate party and conservative TOP 09, won three seats each.

___

11:40 p.m.

The first official British results in the European Parliament election bear out predictions of victory for the Brexit Party led by anti-EU campaigner Nigel Farage.

The tally from northeast England, the first of the U.K.’s 12 regions to report, gives the single-issue party, launched just weeks ago, 39% of the vote.

The left-of-center Labour Party, which has traditionally dominated the region, got 19% of the vote, down sharply from 2014.

The pro-EU Liberal Democrats, campaigning to stop Brexit, more than doubled their share to 17% of the vote, while and the governing Conservatives got just 7%, one point behind the Greens.

Many U.K. voters are apparently using the election to protest at Britain’s Brexit deadlock.

___

11:35 p.m.

Hungary’s National Election Office says Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s ruling Fidesz party has won 13 of Hungary’s 21 seats in the EU parliament, one seat more than in the 2014 vote.

With 99.9% of the votes counted Sunday evening, former Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany’s Democratic Coalition has won four seats and the liberal Momentum Movement has captured two seats.

Both the left-wing/green coalition of the Socialist and Dialogue parties, and the right-wing Jobbik party got one seat each, worse than expected.

Voter turnout was above 43%, the highest for an EU parliament election in Hungary, which first took part in the balloting in 2004.

___

11:25 p.m.

Spain’s Socialists have won the European elections ahead of the conservative Popular Party, according to provisional results released by Spain’s Interior Ministry.

With 85% of the votes counted, the Socialists will win 32.9% of the vote and 20 seats of the 54 that Spain is allocated in the European Parliament. The conservative Popular Party, which suffered major losses in the April 28 national election, has won 12 seats, down from 16 seats in 2014.

The upstart far-right Vox party is the fifth most popular in Spain, earning three seats, its first time in the European Parliament.

The poor showing for the Popular Party comes after it was crushed in last month’s national election. The party has been hurt by corruption allegations and convictions.

The victory will strengthen Sánchez as he tries to form a coalition government.

The Socialists are also hoping to do well in local and regional elections in Spain on Sunday.

___

11:10 p.m.

Exit polls indicate the right-wing populist League party led by Italy’s hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, posted huge gains in this year’s European parliamentary election to become Italy’s largest party.

The League won between 27% and 31% of the vote, up from 6.2% five years ago. Salvini has been working to expand an alliance of right-wing populist parties in a bid to upend European politics and slow down, if not turn around, the drive toward greater European integration.

In another significant result, the League’s government coalition partner, the populist 5-Star Movement, is Italy’s third party, behind the Democratic Party, which lost badly in last year’s national election.

If the 5-Star Movement’s finish behind the Democratic Party is confirmed in the final result, it could have implications for Italy’s governing coalition.

___

10:55 p.m.

Projected results from the European Parliament in Portugal predict a victory for the Socialists of Prime Minister António Costa.

The Socialists are projected to win with nearly 32.5% of the vote, slightly down from 2014 when it took 34%.

The center-right opposition is set to take 22.9%, while the leftist Bloco de Esquerda is projected to get nearly 10.3% of the vote.

Costa will face a national election in Portugal in October.

___

10:40 p.m.

Voters in ethnically divided Cyprus have elected a Turkish Cypriot to the European Parliament for the first time since the island nation joined the 28-member bloc in 2004.

Niyazi Kizilyurek, who teaches at the University of Cyprus’ Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies Department, ran for the communist-rooted AKEL party that was the runner-up in Sunday’s European parliament election behind the conservative Democratic Rally party.

Kizilyurek told private TV station Sigma that he’ll represent Cyprus and its European citizens, irrespective of ethnic origin.

AKEL leader Andros Kyprianou said the election of Kizilyurek, 60, sends a strong message to other EU nations that Cypriots want an end to their country’s division and want more EU help in peace efforts.

Turnout was at 42.8%.

Despite earlier opinion polls, far-right party ELAM didn’t manage to gain one of Cyprus’ six allotted seats at the European Parliament, even though it doubled its support.

___

10:15 p.m.

The pro-business ALDE group said Sunday’s voting projections make it clear that the European Parliament will have a “new balance of power” and the long-dominant European People’s Party and Socialists groups will have to share much more power.

Guy Verhofstadt said his group, boosted by the addition of French President Macron’s LREM party, will be an essential powerbroker in the negotiations to get a working majority in the legislature and back a candidate to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as Commission President.

Verhofstadt says the two mainstream parties “will no longer have a majority and it means no solid pro-EU majority is possible” without his ALDE group and others pro-EU parties like the Greens.

Latest projections show the EPP getting 173 seats, down from 217, and the Socialist S&D with 147, down from 186. Together they hold 320 seats in the 751-seat legislature.

Verhofstadt’s group is projected to get 102 seats and the Greens 71.

___

10 p.m.

An exit poll shows a huge setback in the European Parliament election for Romania’s ruling coalition, led by the Social Democratic Party.

Data released Sunday by pollsters Avangarde and CURS show the Social Democrats, or PSD, getting a 25.8% of the votes, enough only to tie the opposition National Liberal Party, or PNL.

The PSD’s junior coalition partner, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats, may get less than the mandatory 5% of votes needed to win a seat in the EU legislature.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis says the Social Democrats have “failed,” adding that the only possible option was that their government “has to go.” Critics say the government tolerates corruption.

Prime Minister Viorica Dancila said she wouldn’t step down, declaring that “Romanians trust the current government. These were EU, not national, elections.”

___

9:50 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s party is pledging to combat nationalists at the European Parliament and block them from weakening France.

The lead candidate of Macron’s centrist party, Nathalie Loiseau, urged all pro-European forces “to unite to defend the interests of the Europeans” and not let the European Union fall into the hands of “those who want to unbuild it.”

In France, polling agency estimates show that Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party is expected to beat Macron’s centrist party in the European election.

Loiseau said her party, associated with the pro-market ALDE alliance in a new centrist group, will have a key role as they will represent the third strongest force at the European Parliament.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said he will continue to implement Macron’s policies and planned reforms.

___

9:40 p.m.

In Greece, New Democracy leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the protected winner of Sunday’s European election, has just called on Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to resign.

Tsipras, who is not obliged to call an early election until his term expires in October, is at the Syriza party headquarters. Top Syriza officials say an early election is not on the cards.

The Interior Ministry’s pollster estimates that conservative opposition New Democracy will get 32.8%, while the ruling left-wing Syriza party will get 24%.

In other estimates, the Socialists got 7.8%, the Communist Party saw 5.6%, the far-right Golden Dawn saw 4.8% and the nationalist Greek Solution was projected at 4.1%. The estimate is based on results from 10% of polling stations.

___

9:20 p.m.

Green leaders in the European Parliament are hailing a “green wave” that has spread throughout Europe after early projections showed the environmentalist movement is likely to make significant gains.

Early projections Sunday suggest the Greens will secure 71 seats in the 751-seat parliament, up from 52 seats five years ago. The Greens appear to have done well in France, Germany and Ireland.

The Greens co-leader in the assembly, Ska Keller, says “the green wave has really spread all over Europe and for us that is a fantastic result.”

Fellow Greens leader Philippe Lamberts says the party cannot be avoided as groups begin negotiations in coming days to form alliances in the parliament to counter the likely rise of anti-EU parties.

Lamberts says “to forge a stable European Union, the Greens are indispensable.”

___

9:15 p.m.

An exit poll in Poland shows the nationalist conservative ruling Law and Justice party as the biggest vote-getter in the European Parliament election, with 42.6% of the vote.

If the projection is confirmed by the official results, it would put the party in a strong position ahead of Poland’s national parliamentary election in the fall.

The exit poll by the Ipsos agency shows the ruling party’s main rival, the European Coalition, running in second place with 39.1%. The coalition is led by the centrist Civic Platform party and includes several other parties.

The exit poll gave Spring, a new center-left party that backs fighting climate change, 6.6% support.

A far-right alliance formed to stand in the European election, Confederation, had 6.6% of the vote according to the exit poll.

___

9 p.m.

The ruling, pro-EU conservatives are projected to win the most votes in the European election in Croatia, the European Union’s newest member.

An exit poll carried by the public broadcaster HRT said Sunday that the Croatian Democratic Union will win some 23% of the ballot, followed by the center-left Social Democratic Party with around 17%.

HRT says the exit polls have been conducted by the Ipsos polling agency. Partial official results are expected later in the evening.

The exit polls also indicated that a far-right coalition could win 6.6% of the ballot, or one of the 12 EU seats for Croatia. Local media say the biggest surprise is the third position for an independent list with some 8% of the votes.

___

8:50 p.m.

First European Parliament projections suggest that mainstream parties have lost ground in the EU elections, with the Greens and far-right and populist parties set to pick up seats.

The projections, based on estimates in 11 EU member countries and voting intentions in 17 others, show that the center-right European People’s Party would remain the biggest group with 173 seats, down from 217 in 2014.

The center-left Socialists would lose 40 seats, dropping to 147.

The left-wing Greens seem set to win 71 seats, up from 52 in 2014.

The European of Nations and Freedom group, which combines populist and far-right parties in countries like France and Italy, looks like it will secure 57 seats, up 20 from five years ago.

Despite the losses for mainstream parties, staunchly pro-EU parties are slated to win 493 of the 751 seats in Parliament.

___

8:40 p.m.

French far-right, nationalist leader Marine Le Pen is declaring victory in the European Parliament election over pro-EU French President Emmanuel Macron.

French polling agencies are projecting that Le Pen’s National Rally will come first in France’s voting Sunday, followed by Macron’s centrist Republic on the Move party.

Le Pen said the expected result “confirms the new nationalist-globalist division” in France and beyond.

She immediately expressed hope the election could foreshadow her party’s victory in France’s 2022 presidential election. Le Pen was beaten handily by Macron in France’s 2017 presidential vote.

She called on Macron to dissolve the French parliament.

Macron says the National Rally represents the “leprosy” of nationalism that is eating the EU from within. For Le Pen, the race is a battle to preserve European civilization from immigration and globalization.

___

8:30 p.m.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz says he is “invigorated” by a projection showing a big win for his center-right party after a week in which his governing coalition collapsed.

The projection for ORF public television, the Austria Press Agency and private broadcaster ATV pointed to Kurz’s center-right People’s Party finishing well ahead of the center-left Social Democrats in the European Parliament vote. It also shows Kurz’s former coalition partner, the far-right Freedom Party, a distant third.

A scandal surrounding the Freedom Party’s now-departed leader brought down the coalition and prompted Kurz to call for an early national election in September.

Kurz still may be unseated by an opposition no-confidence vote in parliament on Monday. But he told supporters on Sunday: “Whatever is going to happen tomorrow and in the following days we are defying the rain, we are defying everything else that is going to come our way. We emerge invigorated.”

___

8:15 p.m.

French polling agency estimates show that Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party is expected to beat French President Emmanuel Macron’s party in the European elections.

The populist, anti-immigrant National Rally is estimated to win 23% to 24% of the vote, compared to 21.9% to 22.5% for Macron’s centrist, pro-European party. That’s according to estimates by the Ifop and Ipsos polling agencies.

The green party EELV is estimated at 12.8% to 13%, a sharp rise compared to previous European elections.

The French conservative party, The Republicans, is expected to be in fourth position with about 8% support while far-left France Insoumise (“Rebel France”) and the Socialist party are both estimated to capture between 6% and 7% support.

In France, polling agencies including Ifop and Ipsos are forecasting the nationwide vote result based on projections from the actual vote count in select constituencies.

___

8:05 p.m.

The European Parliament spokesman says turnout for this year’s pivotal election is nearing 51% for 27 nations, according to preliminary figures.

Jaume Duch Guillot says the figure, which excludes Britain, is the highest in at least 20 years and reverses years of steady decline. U.K. figures are expected later Sunday evening, as final tallies roll in for an election that both centrist parties and the far-right have portrayed as a referendum on sovereignty and the European Union.

Four days of voting will end Sunday, and 426 million people across 28 nations were eligible to vote for the makeup of the European Parliament. In the case of Britain, voters are electing legislators who will lose their jobs when Brexit is finalized.

It is, Guillot said, “very significant increase in turnout for the very first time since the first European elections took place in 1979.”

___

8 p.m.

In Greece, an updated exit poll shows the conservative opposition New Democracy party winning between 32.5% to 34.5% of Sunday’s vote for the European Parliament.

Greece’s governing left-wing Syriza is projected to get between 24% and 26%. The socialists of Movement for Change are expected to see between 7.2% to 8.2% support; the Communists between 5% to 6%; while the extreme-right Golden Dawn and the nationalist Greek Solution both are projected to get 4% to 5% support.

The threshold to elect one of Greece’s 21 European lawmakers is 3%. The exit poll was conducted jointly by five polling firms.

Greece is also voting for regional and local councils Sunday.

Voters from 21 EU nations went to the polls Sunday in the final day of a crucial European Parliament election.

___

7:45 p.m.

The Greens are celebrating projected strong gains in Germany in the European Parliament elections and a good showing in Ireland.

An exit poll published by the European Parliament says that in Germany, the Greens finished second with 22% support, double their result five years ago. The poll shows that in Ireland the Green Party was in a three-way tie for second place behind the governing Fine Gael party.

Ska Keller of the European Greens hailed the results Sunday evening. She says, “it is a great celebration but it’s also a great responsibility. It is a great task to now put into action those things that people asked us to do: Climate protection, social justice in Europe and fighting for civil liberties all over.”

The strong showings for the Greens follow protests by students and activists across Europe calling for faster action to tackle climate change.

___

7:35 p.m.

In Bulgaria, the ruling center-right GERB party is projected to come in first in the European election in that nation, according to an exit poll jointly conducted by two Bulgarian polling firms.

The poll by Alpha Research and Gallup International says GERB is projected to win 30% to 33% of the vote, compared to 23% to 25% for the opposition Socialist party.

The liberal Movement for Rights and Freedoms party is projected to win 13%, while a nationalist formation, the VMRO, and the right-wing Democratic Bulgaria party are projected to get between 6% and 8% each.

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev says “we need a united and strong Europe” based on solidarity.

Voters from 21 EU nations went to the polls Sunday in the final day of a crucial European Parliament election that could see gains by nationalists and far-right movements. The EU’s other seven nations voted earlier this week but results on all the voting will not be released until after all polls close Sunday night.

___

7:08 p.m.

The center-right candidate to lead the European Union Executive’s Commission is promising to bring “stability” to the European Union over the next few years and predicts pro-EU forces will lead the next parliament.

Manfred Weber, the candidate of the European People’s Party, said in Berlin that Sunday’s European Parliament elections appear to have weakened the political center. He says it’s “most necessary for the forces that believe in this Europe, that want to lead this Europe to a good future, that have ambitions for this Europe, … (to) work together.”

He said those forces have to have a “clear division” from other political groups who oppose Europe on both the right and the left.

Weber said the EPP will be “hopefully the strongest group” in the new European parliament. He said “we promised stability, and (we) will guarantee this stability in the coming years.”

___

6:35 p.m.

Spain’s Interior Ministry says turnout for the European elections at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT) is up to 49.3% from nearly 34.1% in 2014.

Spain is also holding local and some regional elections Sunday, including the highly watched races for the mayor of Madrid and Barcelona. The 2014 European elections were held alone.

Still, turnout was down from Spain’s April 28 national election, when it was nearly 60.8% at 1600 GMT.

In Barcelona, a Catalan separatist candidate is trying to oust its incumbent far-left mayor, who says she does not support secession but believes that Catalans should vote on the question.

___

6:15 p.m.

In Greece, the conservative opposition New Democracy party is projected to win the European election, according to an exit poll jointly conducted by five Greek polling firms.

New Democracy is projected to win 32% to 36% of the vote, compared to 25% to 29% for the ruling left-wing Syriza.

The socialist Movement for Change is projected to win 7% to 9%, while the extreme right Golden Dawn and the Communist party are expected to get between 5% and 7% each.

Two more parties, far-right nationalist Greek Solution and Diem25, the Greek section of former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis’ European movement, have a chance to exceed the 3% threshold required for sending a representative to the European Parliament.

The poll, with 7,000 respondents, was conducted until 5 p.m. (1400 GMT), two hours before voting ended, and will be updated.

___

6:05 p.m.

An exit poll shows Germany’s governing parties losing significant ground in the European Parliament election, with big gains for the Greens party and a much smaller increase for the far-right.

The ARD television exit poll put support for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Union bloc at 28% and showed their coalition partners in Berlin, the center-left Social Democrats, dropping to a dismal 15.5%. Five years ago, those parties took 35.4% and 27.3% respectively of the vote.

It showed the Greens easily taking second place with 22% — double their result five years ago. The far-right Alternative for Germany was seen with 10.5% support, better than its showing in 2014 but less than it scored in Germany’s last national election in 2017.

___

5:50 p.m.

France’s Interior Ministry says turnout for the European Parliament election was up in the country compared to previous vote.

In France, turnout was over 43% at 5 p.m. (1500GMT), compared with 35% at the same time in 2014. Polls remain open until 8 p.m. in the country’s big cities.

Several French poll institutes estimate that the final turnout may be over 50% at the end of the day, which would be a first in the country since 1994.

A similar rise in turnout has been observed in neighboring Spain and Germany.

In the whole European Union, turnout for this pan-European vote has trended downward since the first election in 1979. Turnout stood at less than 43% in the 2014 vote.

___

5:35 p.m.

A projection for Austrian public television and the country’s national news agency points to a big win for Chancellor Sebastian Kurz’s center-right party in the European Parliament election, with the far-right Freedom Party finishing far behind in third place.

The projection was released after polls closed Sunday in Austria. It put support for Kurz’s center-right People’s Party at 34.5%, with the center-left Social Democrats at 23.5%, the Freedom Party at 17.5% and the Greens at 13.5% support.

It was based on 5,200 interviews conducted from Tuesday to Sunday.

The vote for the joint European Parliament is a the first test in Austria ahead of a national election in September that Kurz called a week ago after a scandal erupted surrounding the Freedom Party’s leader. Heinz-Christian Strache quit as party leader and vice chancellor, and the governing coalition between the People’s Party and the Freedom Party then collapsed.

___

5:20 p.m.

Italy’s anti-migrant hard-line Interior Minister Matteo Salvini says he feels a “change in the air” and that a win by his right-wing League party would “change everything in Europe.”

Salvini’s League is seeking to form an alliance of nationalist, populist parties to exert more power in the European Parliament over the affairs of the European Union. He’s campaigned relentlessly throughout Italy and has become the face of Europe’s far-right by speaking out against migrants and the influence of Muslims in Europe.

The League party, once just a regional power in northern Italy, is gaining strength throughout the country. It’s the junior partner in a coalition government with the populist 5-Star Movement, but the coalition is on rocky ground. Salvini may be tempted to end the partnership to seek a new election in Italy if his electoral gains on the European front are significant.

But on Sunday, he voted in the European election and dismissed speculation about seeking new elections.

He told reporters “I’m interested in winning in Italy to change Europe,” according to the Italian news agency ANSA.

___

4 p.m.

Turnout appears to be up in several of the European Union’s largest countries for the continentwide battle for influence at the European Parliament.

Turnout was up slightly in Spain, France and Germany by mid-afternoon.

In Spain, turnout was up to 35% compared to 24% at the same time in the last European elections in 2014. Spain is also holding municipal and some regional elections —including for mayor of Madrid and Barcelona— while in 2014 the European elections were separate.

In Germany, the federal election authority said that 29% of registered voters had cast ballots by 2 p.m., four hours before polls closed. That’s up from 26% at the same time in 2014. The figure doesn’t include postal votes.

And in France, turnout was at 19% at noon, compared with 16% at the same time in 2014.

___

3:10 p.m.

The leader of Spain’s upstart far-right Vox party, Santiago Abascal, asked Spaniards to make “their voice heard” after he cast his ballot in Madrid.

“We come to these elections calling for participation from all Spaniards in accordance to their convictions and principles,” Abascal said. “We want to tell them that it is important that each Spaniard has their voice in the municipal and regional institutions, also in the European institutions as, often, this is not seen with much interest by citizens.”

Vox erupted into the Spanish political scene in December when it won its first seats in the regional legislature for the Andalusia region. It then won 10% of the vote in national elections on April 28 to enter the Spanish Parliament.

Founded in 2013, Vox failed to win a seat in 2014 European elections, its first electoral test.

Unlike other European far-right parties, Vox is not anti-European Union despite its ultranationalist ideology.

___

2:55 p.m.

Anti-EU and pro-EU parties are both hoping to make gains in a Brexit-dominated election for British seats in the European Parliament, while the governing Conservative Party is bracing for one of its worst-ever performances.

Daniel Hannan, a Conservative Member of the European Parliament, said he feared the party was facing “total wipeout” and would fail to gain any of Britain’s 73 seats.

The Conservatives look likely to be punished for failing to take the country out of the EU as promised. Opinion polls suggest the newly founded Brexit Party led by Nigel Farage is set to take the biggest share of votes. There could also be a surge for the centrist Liberal Democrats, who want to stop Brexit.

In the last EU election in 2014, Farage’s former UKIP party won 27% of the vote, helping to build momentum in the push to get Britain out of the EU.

___

2:35 p.m.

Spaniards in the restive northeastern region of Catalonia are voting in European elections that include two high-profile separatist leaders who are running from jail and self-imposed exile.

Former Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont and his ex-No. 2 Oriol Junqueras are both running on competing tickets of separatist parties for the European Parliament.

Junqueras is in jail in Madrid while on trial on charges that include rebellion for his part in Catalonia’s attempt to secede from the rest of Spain in 2017. Puigdemont is wanted in Spain and fled to Belgium.

Both have been allowed to run as candidates, but would face legal hurdles to actually become European Parliament members if elected.

Polls and recent election results show that the 7.5 million residents of the wealthy Catalonia region are roughly split by the secession issue. It is highly unpopular in the rest of Spain.

“I think a lot is at stake for Catalonia in the European elections,” Manuel Guajardo, a 57-year-old businessman, said after voting in Barcelona. “It will be the definition of a people, to take a path or another path, and these elections will mark this.”

Barcelona is also holding municipal elections, where a separatist candidate is trying to oust its incumbent far-left mayor, who says she does not support secession but believes that Catalans should vote on the question.

___

12:50 p.m.

In Castelbuono, a Medieval mountain town in Sicily’s province of Palermo, a steady but sluggish stream of voters is showing up to cast ballots.

Many of the town’s residents are backing the 5-Star Movement, a populist party now in a coalition government with the anti-migrant League party.

One of these is Vincenzo Messineo, a 32-year-old laborer who’s concerned about youth unemployment and the influx of migrants.

“We don’t want them all here,” he said. “Europe is united so why can’t they be divided among other countries too?”

For Anna Maria Ippolito, a 62-year-old 5-Star Movement supporter, financial inequality is a top concern.

“Six percent of the Italian population has all the wealth,” she said. “It’s not at all right. Paying the taxes that we do now just lets the rich get richer and the poor poorer.”

On Europe, she thinks it’s time to rein in the big guns. “Up to now, it’s all been about Germany and France,” she said. “They’re the ones dragging us into this European disaster.”

Migrants are on the mind of Silvia Bonomo, too, but she feels Europe needs to “open itself up” and do more to welcome people fleeing war and hardships. The 62-year-old middle-school teacher voted for the center-left Democratic Party.

“They wouldn’t be coming if they didn’t have a reason to,” she said. “Migrants are seen as stealing jobs, which they are not. They’re seen as criminals, which they are not. They are just like us.”

___

12:30 p.m.

People’s Party Our Slovakia, a far right party that has 14 seats in Slovakia’s parliament is expected to win seats in the European legislature for the first time.

The party openly admires the Nazi puppet state that the country was during World War II. Party members use Nazi salutes, blame Roma for crime, consider NATO a terror group and want the country out of the alliance and of the European Union.

The party received a boost in April after Slovakia’s Supreme Court dismissed a request by the country’s prosecutor general to ban it as an extremist group whose activities violate the Constitution.

Turnout in Slovakia at the previous vote in 2014 was 13%, the lowest in all EU countries.

The polls favor the leftist Smer-Social Democracy party, the senior member of the current coalition government, to top the voting with about 20%. Slovakia has 14 seats in the European Parliament.

___

11:40 a.m.

The center-right German candidate to head the European Commission says he hopes voters will back a “Europe of stability” and a united and ambitious continent.

Manfred Weber, whose European People’s Party group hopes to retain its status as the biggest in the European Parliament, said after voting in his native Bavaria Sunday: “I don’t want to see a right-populist Europe (that) wants to destroy the idea of togetherness … and I’m also against a Europe which is in the hands of the left.”

Ska Keller, a German Green who heads her group’s European election slate, said in Berlin that “the European Union should lead the way in climate protection. We need social cohesion, we need to strengthen democracy in Europe and I hope that this will meet with much support.”

___

11:25 a.m.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz says he hopes the European Parliament elections will strengthen the center rather than parties on the far right and left.

Kurz told reporters in Vienna Sunday that he hopes his center-right People’s Party will keep first place in the race for seats in the EU legislature.

The vote has turned into a first test of support ahead of a national election in September following the collapse of Kurz’s governing coalition a week ago in a scandal surrounding the now-departed leader of the far-right Freedom Party, which was his junior coalition partner.

Regardless of the result, Kurz faces a no-confidence vote brought by the opposition in parliament Monday. He said he expects the Freedom Party and the Social Democrats to back it, which would bring him down.

___

10:55 a.m.

Spanish caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez says that he hopes the outcome of Sunday’s European and local elections will lead to more “political stability” for Spain as he starts his attempt to form a government.

Sánchez called on “all the political forces to open a horizon of political stability” after he voted early Sunday morning with his wife in Madrid.

He added that the elections are “to decide the future of progress and wellbeing for the entirety of our country and Europe.”

Voter opinion polls point to a victory for Sánchez’s Socialist Party in the European elections. Elections are also taking place for administrations in all Spain’s cities, including deciding on a second term for the female mayors of Madrid and Barcelona, and 14 of its 19 regions.

Sánchez’s Socialists won April 28 national elections in Spain, but fell short of winning an outright majority and will need to earn the support from rivals in Parliament to stay in power.

___

10:40 a.m.

Hungary’s prime minister says he hopes the European Parliament election will bring a shift toward political parties that want to stop migration.

Viktor Orban said Sunday after casting his vote at a school near his Budapest home that the issue of migration, which he believes is stoppable, “will reorganize the political spectrum in the European Union.”

Orban, whose Fidesz party had its membership suspended in the center-right European People’s Party, the largest political bloc in the EU parliament, because of concerns about Hungary’s democracy, said Fidesz would want to stay in the EPP only if it can influence the group’s future strategy.

Orban met recently with Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, but has not committed to joining the more radically nationalist alliance that Salvini has been forming.

Fidesz is expected to win up to 14 of Hungary’s 21 seats in the EU parliament.

___

8:05 a.m.

Belgians are heading to the polls in European Union, national and regional elections Sunday.

Polls opened at 8 a.m. (0700GMT) and the first estimates and exit polls were expected by 6 p.m. (1700GMT). In the national elections Belgians are looking to end months of political limbo after the biggest party in the governing coalition quit over Prime Minister Charles Michel’s support for the U.N. migration pact.

Michel has steered a caretaker government doing only day-to-day business since December, but with the country’s 8 million voters choosing from more than a dozen parties, chances are that it will prove difficult to quickly form a stable coalition.

___

6 a.m.

Bulgarians are voting in the European Parliament elections after a series of scandals overshadowed the debate on key issues of the EU’s future.

Voters on Sunday are casting ballots for their country’s 17 seats in the 751-member European Parliament. The vote is seen as a test for the center-right party of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, which suffered a setback after senior officials were involved in corruption scandals.

Latest surveys show only three parties, belonging to mainstream European political groups, passing the election threshold — the ruling GERB party, the Socialist party, and the liberal MRF.

Projections suggest the nationalist and far-right vote will be split between several smaller parties, which could prevent them from capturing seats in the EU legislature.

Impeach Trump? Most 2020 Democrats Tiptoe Past the Question

WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders in Congress have argued that impeaching President Donald Trump is a political mistake as the 2020 election nears. Most of the candidates running to succeed him seem to agree, for now.

Fewer than one-third of the 23 Democrats vying for the nomination are issuing calls to start the impeachment process, citing evidence in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report they believe shows Trump obstructed justice . Most others, including leading contenders Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, have found a way to hedge or search for middle ground, supporting investigations that could lead to impeachment or saying Trump’s conduct warrants impeachment but stopping short of any call for such a proceeding.

The candidates’ reluctance, even as more congressional Democrats start pushing their leaders in the direction, underscores the risky politics of investigating the president for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Impeachment matters deeply to the party’s base but remains unpopular with most Americans.

Related Articles









Robert Reich: Democrats Have a Duty to Impeach Trump



by Robert Reich















Ralph Nader: Trump Is the Most Impeachable President in American History



by

White House hopefuls may win praise from liberal activists by pressing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for an impeachment inquiry, but those who fall short of insisting are unlikely to take heat from early-state primary voters more focused on other issues.

“People talk about it and people have opinions about it, but health care is much more salient to them,” Sue Dvorsky, a former head of the Iowa Democratic Party, said in an interview. “I just don’t see Democratic activists here all worked up about impeachment. They trust Pelosi.”

The 2020 candidates are facing pressure from the left to take a harder line on impeachment as the Trump administration’s stiff-arming of subpoenas leaves House Democrats fuming and a growing number of lawmakers urge Pelosi to initiate an inquiry constitutionally required to remove Trump from office. Leah Greenberg, co-founder of the progressive group Indivisible, described the absence of louder calls for impeachment from the candidates as “a real gap in leadership.”

“What we’re seeing is, some Democrats would prefer to keep the topic focused on places where they’re most comfortable and some Democrats would prefer to play pundits on this,” Greenberg said in an interview.

Tom Steyer, a California billionaire, has run television ads and held town halls across the country as part of a campaign calling for Trump’s impeachment. He suggested that candidates who haven’t yet endorsed impeachment “have a political problem telling the truth about this.”

Steyer said that if the public saw televised, unfiltered hearings that showed “exactly how bad this president is and exactly who he’s surrounded himself with and how corrupt he really is,” Democrats and Republicans alike would “reject that kind of behavior.” Steyer declined to enter the 2020 presidential race himself.

The administration’s blockade of congressional investigations and Mueller’s report detailing possible obstruction action have yet to push any new Democratic candidates off the fence.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the current front-runner, said last month there is “no alternative” but impeachment if the administration keeps stonewalling congressional investigations. But Biden has notably stopped short of urging Pelosi to move forward.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who’s running second in most polls, told CNN this past week “it may be time to at least begin the process” which could result in impeachment. But he warned in the same interview that Trump could try to exact political gains from any impeachment effort. Pete Buttigieg said last week that Trump “deserves impeachment,” but the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, stressed that he would defer to Pelosi on the timing for taking any formal steps.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker told The Associated Press on Friday that Trump’s refusal to cooperate with Congress amounts to “undermining the Article I branch of the government’s ability to conduct its constitutional mandates.” But he gave Pelosi wide leeway. He acknowledged that “she’s feeling the frustration from Democrats in the House” and said that “should getting cooperation from the administration not work, I know she’ll increasingly be considering her options.”

Even California Sen. Kamala Harris, who said after the release of Mueller’s report last month that “Congress should take the steps towards impeachment,” is emphasizing her pessimism that Senate Republicans would act on impeachment if the matter came before them.

The most vocal pro-impeachment candidates are Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke and former Obama housing chief Julian Castro. Two others, Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton and California Rep. Eric Swalwell, also have supported the start of the impeachment process.

Moulton and Swalwell are among four candidates could vote on impeachment, as current House members. Pelosi and other House leaders have signaled clearly that they want to pursue investigations into Trump, including two lawsuits where they scored victories this past week, rather than start a consuming and politically uncertain impeachment process. If the House did vote to impeach Trump, the Constitution requires a two-thirds majority of the Senate to support conviction in order to remove the president from office.

Given the slim likelihood of that, it’s no surprise to Democrats outside the nation’s capital that impeachment isn’t gaining steam among the candidates.

“The people I talk seem to be more interested in what the next president is going to do to make their lives better rather than what they think about impeachment,” New Hampshire state Rep. David Morrill said in an interview.

___

Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont contributed from Newton, Iowa.

Would Overturning Abortion Rights Turn Back Clock to 1973?

A wave of state abortion bans has set off speculation: What would happen if Roe v. Wade, the ruling establishing abortion rights nationwide, were overturned?

Although far from a certainty, even with increased conservative clout on the Supreme Court, a reversal of Roe would mean abortion policy would revert to the states, and many would be eager to impose bans.

Related Articles









Abortion Bans Are Backfiring Spectacularly Across the U.S.



by















Illegal Abortions Exact a High Toll Among African Women



by Mamofuta Kale

What would not happen is a full-fledged turning back of the clock to 1973.

Women now have far more methods to avoid unwanted pregnancies, as well as safer, easier options for abortion. Many abortions are induced at home with a two-drug combination, and advocacy groups are spreading the word about home abortions using one of the drugs that can be done without a medical professional’s involvement.

“I don’t think you can put all those different genies back in the bottle,” said medical historian Andrea Tone at McGill University in Montreal. “Women are in charge of their procreative destiny. I don’t think women will put up with the absence of privacy and discretion that birth control and abortion provide.”

Here’s a look at some of the abortion-related changes that have unfolded since 1973:

__

At the time of Roe, abortion was broadly legal in four states, allowed under limited circumstances in 16 others, and outlawed under nearly all circumstances in the rest. A reversal of Roe would produce a patchwork map where perhaps 15 or so states would continue to make abortion easily accessible, a dozen or more would ban virtually all abortions unless the mother’s life is at stake, and the rest would thrash out their response in the public arena and the legislatures.

In 1974, a year after Roe, there were about 899,000 abortions in the U.S., according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.

The number of abortions rose steadily, peaking at 1.61 million in 1990, before starting a steady decline — falling to 926,200 in Guttmacher’s latest national survey, covering 2014. Close to 90 percent of the abortions occur in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

The decline is attributed to increased availability of effective contraception and a sharp decrease in unintended pregnancies, notably among teens. In 1974, teens accounted for 32.5% of abortions in the U.S.; in 2014 that dropped to 12%.

___

Technology and science have given women unprecedented options and control over fertility since 1973. Back then, single women had only recently gained nationwide access to birth control, thanks to a 1972 Supreme Court ruling, said Dr. Sarah Prager, who directs the University of Washington School of Medicine’s family planning fellowship.

“This is recent history,” Prager said. “Now we have these incredibly effective contraceptive methods available.”

A woman can get the morning-after pill without a prescription and keep some in her medicine cabinet for emergencies. Her smartphone sends birth control reminders. Or, if she prefers, a matchstick-size implant gives her no-hassle contraception for years at a time.

Surgical abortion has become safer, employing tools that use vacuum pressure rather than scraping. There’s increasing use of the medication alternative: Ending a pregnancy with mifepristone and misoprostol now accounts for about 30% of U.S. abortions.

“It’s safe and comfortable,” said Missouri resident Lexi Moore, 30, who ended a pregnancy in September with a prescription from Planned Parenthood. “You get to sit in the comfort of your home instead of doing it in a clinic or in a back alley. … You will have cramps, like a heavy period. But it’s worth it in the end, and you have control over that.”

Moore had to drive 70 miles to pick up her prescription and, lacking insurance, paid $800 out of pocket. But she welcomed the outcome, and wrote thank-you cards to the clinic.

Her experience contrasts with that of Vikki Wachtel, who as an 18-year-old attending school in Connecticut had an abortion in New York City’s Bellevue Hospital in October 1970. That was just a few months after New York became a pioneer in broadly legalizing abortion.

“The staff made us feel like we were about to commit a crime,” Wachtel said, recalling how she and other young women were treated callously.

That ordeal was followed by post-abortion complications, yet Wachtel has steadfastly supported abortion rights.

“It was MY CHOICE to not have a child in 1970 and it must remain a woman’s choice to do so on a national level,” she said in an email. “These overreaching and restrictive laws will only make abortions more dangerous, not eliminate them.”

___

For women today, there’s even abortion by mail.

It’s still under study, but early results show women can manage their medical abortions safely at home. A doctor first confirms the woman’s pregnancy is less than 10 weeks, then mails the pills. About 300 U.S. women have ended pregnancies in the TelAbortion study. “Women are really grateful not to have to travel three or four hours to a clinic,” said researcher Dr. Beverly Winikoff of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. “But there are also people within walking distance from a clinic who prefer to do it this way because it’s more private.”

Abortion-rights activists, at rallies supporting Roe v. Wade, often display images of coat hangers that were sometimes used in illegal abortions many decades ago.

However, warnings that large numbers of women would die from unsafe abortions if Roe were overturned don’t reflect the fact that abortion-related deaths — which numbered as high as 2,700 in 1930 — fell to under 200 a year by the mid-1960s thanks to the development of antibiotics and other medical advances.

To the extent that women can get and use misoprostol to end pregnancies at home, women even in states with bans would have a relatively safe option. It’s available only by prescription in the U.S. but is available online from some countries where it is sold over the counter.

Among the leading advocates of this do-it-yourself option is attorney Jill E. Adams, executive director of If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice. Amid the wave of abortion bans, she said her group’s hotline has received a surge of calls from worried women.

“If the recent events have shown us anything, it’s that self-managed abortion is vital to current and future reproductive rights in the United States,” Adams said.

___

One crucial change since 1973 is the development of ultrasound technology. For many Americans, the first image they now see of a son, daughter or grandchild is often a sound wave scan of the fetus.

The images change minds about abortion, said Dr. Donna Harrison, executive director of the American Association of Prolife Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

“Ultrasound opens the window on the womb,” Harrison said. “That has changed since 1973. We couldn’t see who was in there. Now we can.”

But seeing an ultrasound image doesn’t change the biology of fetal development, said Dr. Anne Davis, consulting medical director for Physicians for Reproductive Health. She disputed the idea that the threshold of viability for a fetus, a concept important in Roe v. Wade, is pushing ever closer to the moment of conception.

“If someone is six weeks pregnant, that’s not a viable pregnancy,” Davis said. “And some fetuses will never be viable because they have a lethal abnormality and will die after birth.”

___

In the aftermath of Roe, it took years for supporters and opponents of abortion rights to entrench themselves in the polarized camps of today.

Anti-abortion violence didn’t erupt immediately after the decision, but it has been a constant since the 1990s, when three abortion providers and three clinic employees were killed in attacks. More recently, Dr. George Tiller, an abortion provider in Wichita, Kansas, was shot to death by an anti-abortion activist in 2009, and a gunman killed three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado in 2015.

There have been major shifts in anti-abortion tactics. Compared with the 1990s, there are fewer mass demonstrations and clinic blockades, and there is far more success passing anti-abortion laws in Republican-controlled state legislatures. In the five years preceding this year’s sweeping bans, scores of other laws have been passed to restrict abortion access.

Julie Burkhart, a former colleague of Tiller’s who now runs an abortion clinic in Wichita, said Kansas — like many GOP-controlled states — now has an array of restrictions that make obtaining abortions more expensive, time-consuming and stressful.

The anti-abortion movement’s clout in many state legislatures has now been amplified by Donald Trump’s election as president after he promised to support the movement’s key goals.

“They don’t need to go to the streets anymore, because they really do have a lot of power,” Burkhart said.

Professor Michael New, an abortion opponent who teaches social research at Catholic University of America, said the debate is far more polarized now than in 1973, with fewer Republicans favoring abortion rights and fewer Democrats opposing them.

“Pro-lifers are having an easier time enacting pro-life laws in conservative parts of the country, but for the first time in a long time they have to play defense in blue states,” said New, citing bills passed in New York and Vermont this year expanding access to abortion.

Trump Asks Citizenship and Immigration Services Head to Quit

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump asked the head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to resign, leaving yet another vacancy within the Department of Homeland Security.

Lee Francis Cissna told staff on Friday that his last day would be June 1, according to a copy of the email obtained by The Associated Press.

Cissna leads the agency responsible for legal immigration, including benefits and visas. With his departure, there are more than a dozen vacancies of top leadership positions at the sprawling, 240,000-employee department. Some are being temporarily filled, including secretary and inspector general. Cissna’s position, like others, requires Senate confirmation.

Related Articles









Citizenship Agency Deletes 'Nation of Immigrants' From Mission Statement

Cissna had been on the chopping block last month amid a White House-orchestrated bloodbath that led to the resignation of Secretary Kirstjen (KEER’-sten) Nielsen, in part because aides felt he wasn’t moving quickly enough to tighten immigration rules and push through complicated regulation changes.

But his job was saved, temporarily, after high-ranking Republicans spoke out about his record, particularly Sen. Chuck Grassley , who worked with Cissna for years. And it appeared he was back to business.

He told The Associated Press just two weeks ago that his agency was training dozens of U.S. border patrol agents to start screening immigrants arriving on the southwest border for asylum amid a surge in the number of families seeking the protection.

Asylum officers conduct initial interviews of immigrants arriving on the border to determine whether they have a credible fear of returning to their countries or should be sent back. Those who pass the interviews are allowed to seek asylum before an immigration judge, but their cases may take years to wind through the backlogged immigration courts.

But Trump is dealing with a growing crisis as tens of thousands of Central American migrants cross the border each month, overwhelming the system, and he has been unable to deliver on his signature issue of reduced immigration and tighter border security.

Cissna told his staff in the email that he was grateful for their support and service, but offered no information on what was ahead.

“During the past 20 months, every day, I have passionately worked to carry out USCIS’ mission to faithfully administer the nation’s lawful immigration system,” Cissna wrote to staff.

Earlier this week, administration officials said Ken Cuccinelli, the former attorney general of Virginia, would be taking a job at the department, but it wasn’t clear what his role would be. A person familiar with the matter said Cuccinelli was being considered for Cissna’s job, but it was unclear how that would work because the position requires Senate confirmation. The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters within the administration.

Cuccinelli’s name has been tossed around for months. He had also been considered for a position as an immigration czar, a job possibly housed within the White House, but officials said this week he would not be taking on that role.

Cuccinelli has in the past advocated for denying citizenship to the American-born children of parents living in the U.S. illegally, and limiting in-state tuition at public universities only to those who are citizens or legal residents.

A message sent to Cuccinelli wasn’t immediately returned Friday.

Europe’s Voters Elect New Parliament as Nationalism Mounts

BRUSSELS — Pivotal elections for the European Union parliament reached their climax Sunday as the last 21 nations went to the polls, with results to be announced in the evening in a vote that boils down to a continent-wide battle between euroskeptic populists and proponents of closer EU unity.

Right-wing nationalists who want to slash immigration into Europe and return power to national governments are expected to make gains, though mainstream parties are tipped to hold onto power in the 751-seat legislature that sits in both Brussels and Strasbourg.

Leading the challenge to the established order is Italy’s hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, head of the League party, who is assembling a group of like-minded parties from across Europe.

“We need to do everything that is right to free this country, this continent, from the illegal occupation organized by Brussels,” Salvini told a rally in Milan last weekend that was attended by the leaders of 11 nationalist parties.

As he voted in Budapest on Sunday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he hopes the election will bring a shift toward political parties that want to stop migration.

The migration issue “will reorganize the political spectrum in the European Union,” said Orban, who recently met with Salvini but has not yet committed to joining the Italian’s group.

Projections released by the European Parliament last month show the center-right European People’s Party bloc losing 37 of its 217 seats and the center-left S&D group dropping from 186 seats to 149. On the far right flank, the Europe of Nations and Freedom group is predicted to increase its bloc from 37 to 62 seats.

Proponents of stronger EU integration, led by French President Emmanuel Macron, argue that issues like climate change and reining in immigration are simply too big for any one country to tackle alone.

Macron, whose country has been rocked in recent months by the populist yellow vest movement, has called the elections “the most important since 1979 because the (European) Union is facing an existential risk” from nationalists seeking to divide the bloc.

In Austria, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Sunday that he hopes the elections will strengthen the center rather than parties on the far right and left.

Austria is one of the countries where the vote has increasing importance to national politics, serving as a first test of support ahead of a national election in September following the collapse of Kurz’s governing coalition a week ago.

Spanish caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who is currently trying to form a government at home, said as he voted in Madrid that he hopes the outcome of the vote will lead to stability in his country.

He added that the elections are “to decide the future of progress and wellbeing for the entirety of our country and Europe.”

In Belgium, a general election is taking place alongside the European vote, while Lithuanians will vote in the second round of their presidential election.

Sunday promises to be a long day and night for election watchers — the last polls close at 11 p.m. (2100 GMT) in Italy but the European Parliament plans to begin issuing estimates and projections hours earlier with the first official projection of the makeup of the new parliament at 11:15 p.m. (2115 GMT).

As the dust settles on four days of elections, European leaders will begin the task of selecting candidates for the top jobs in the EU’s headquarters in Brussels. The leaders meet for a summit over dinner Tuesday night.

Current European lawmakers’ terms end July 1 and the new parliament will take their seats in Strasbourg the following day.

___

Associated Press writers Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, Joseph Wilson in Barcelona, Spain, Pablo Gorondi in Budapest and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.

Magnitude 8 Earthquake Strikes Amazon Jungle in Peru

LIMA, Peru — A large earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 8.0 struck the Amazon jungle in north-central Peru early Sunday, the U.S. Geological survey reported.

The quake, at a moderate depth of 110 kilometers (68 miles) struck at 2:41 a.m., 80 kilometers (50 miles) southeast of the village of Lagunas and 158 kilometers (98 miles) east-northeast of the larger town of Yurimaguas.

There were no immediate reports of casualties, although some buildings collapsed and power cuts were reported in a number of cities. Earthquakes that are close to the surface generally cause more destruction.

In a tweet, President Martín Vizcarra called for calm and said that authorities were checking the affected areas.

The mayor of Lagunas, Arri Pezo, told local radio station RPP that the quake was felt very strongly there, but it was not possible to move around the town because of the darkness.

In Yurimaguas, a number of old houses collapsed, and the electricity was cut, according to the National Emergency Operations Center, which gave the magnitude of the quake as 7.2.

In the capital, Lima, people ran out of their homes in fear.

Earthquakes are frequent in Peru, which lies on the Pacific’s so-called Ring of Fire.

Trump Is Mocking the Plight of American Workers

What’s the matter with Donald and The Trumpeteers? Why won’t they stand up for the American workers and business owners who make their products right here in the United States?

Oh, yeah, I know they talk a good game. Trump himself even issued a bold, star-spangled executive order promoting the purchase of “American-made goods” produced by American labor.

We consumers respond positively to that pitch, generally preferring to buy everything from mattresses to hockey pucks that are manufactured here at home.

For example, take Patriot Puck. What’s not to like about this corporation, which literally wraps its hockey pucks in American flag packaging and proudly advertises that they are “the only American-made hockey puck”?

Well, sadly, one thing not to like is that the puck-seller’s pitch was a lie. Its product actually turned out to be made in China. Such a deceptive sales scam is not just unethical — it’s a federal crime.

Saddest of all, though, is that when honest competitors and defrauded consumers protested the firm’s blatant deceit, Trump’s Federal Trade Commission appointees proved to be Made-in-America wimps.

Far from standing up for U.S. workers, they coddled the job-stealing culprit. They assessed no fines, required no admission of the obvious corporate crime, and let it keep all the profits it pocketed from the fraud. They didn’t even make “Patriot” Puck notify customers of its false marketing scam.

Instead, Trump’s regulatory “toughies” insisted that the threat of future fines would keep such outlaws in check.

Seriously? The real crime here is our that our nation’s president is mocking the plight of America’s manufacturing workers by making a spectacle of standing up for them — then kowtowing to corporations that flagrantly violate Made-in-America laws. It’s a shameful political fraud.