#Trump First Putin Second America Last

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

By Thomas L. Friedman

Opinion Columnist

Every so often there is a piece of legislation on Capitol Hill that defines America and its values — that shows what kind of country we want to be. I would argue that when it comes to the $118.3 billion bipartisan compromise bill in the Senate to repair our broken immigration system and supply vital aid to Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel, its passage or failure won’t define just America but also the world that we’re going to inhabit.

There are hinges in history, and this is one of them. What Washington does — or does not do — this year to support its allies and secure our border will say so much about our approach to security and stability in this new post-post-Cold War era. Will America carry the red, white and blue flag into the future or just a white flag? Given the pessimistic talk coming out of the Capitol, it is looking more and more like the white flag, autographed by Donald Trump.

Barring some last-minute surprise that saves the compromise bill, a terrible thing is about to happen, thanks largely to a Republican Party that has lost its way as it falls in lock step behind a man whose philosophy is not “America First” but “Donald Trump First.” “Trump First” means that a bill that would strengthen America and its allies must be set aside so that America can continue to boil in polarization, Vladimir Putin can triumph in Ukraine and our southern border can remain an open sore — until and unless Trump becomes president once more. Our allies be damned. Our enemies be emboldened. Our children’s future security be mortgaged.

Today’s G.O.P. bumper sticker: Trump First. Putin Second. America Third.

“The United States has for some time ceased to be a serious country. Our extreme polarization combined with institutional rules that privilege minorities makes it impossible for us to meet our international obligations,” the political theorist Francis Fukuyama remarked on the American Purpose website. “The Republican Party has grown very adept at hostage holding. … The hard-core MAGA wing represents a minority within a minority, yet our institutional rules permit them to veto decisions clearly favored by a majority of Americans.”

Alas, though, while the current dysfunction of the Republican Party can explain why this particular legislation is likely to fail, how we came to this awful moment is a longer, deeper story.

This emerging post-post-Cold War era is a real throwback to the kind of dangerous, traditional great-power competition prevalent in the Cold War and World War II and most of history before that. Unfortunately, we have arrived at this moment with too many elected officials — especially in the senior ranks of the Republican Party — who never experienced such a world and with a defense-industrial base woefully unprepared for this world. Believe it or not, President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has had to spend hours of valuable time each month searching the world for 155-millimeter shells for the Ukrainian Army because we don’t have enough.

That’s crazy. And it is particularly crazy at a time when three revisionist powers (Russia, China and Iran) are each simultaneously probing every day to see if they can push back America and its allies along three different frontiers (Europe, the South China Sea and the Middle East). They probe, individually and through proxies, to see how we react — if we react — and then probe some more. In Putin’s case, when the time seemed right, he launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“Because of generational change, most of America’s political elite today grew up in the relatively benign Pax Americana post-Cold War era, 1989 to 2022” (when Putin invaded Ukraine), “and they have lost the habit and the knack of thinking about global politics in military terms,” the U.S. foreign policy historian Michael Mandelbaum told me. “Very few members of the elite today have served in the military.”

This is “very different from the Cold War era, when most of our policymaking elite were people who experienced World War II,” added Mandelbaum, the author of the forthcoming book “The Titans of the Twentieth Century: How They Made History and the History They Made.” “Now, after 30 years of the post-Cold War era, Joe Biden is one of the few remaining leaders who was a policymaker during the Cold War — and issues of grand strategy and the management of great-power competition are no longer a major part of our public discourse.”

Trump, like Biden, grew up in the Cold War, but he spent a lot of it contemplating his wealth rather than contemplating the world. Trump’s instincts, Mandelbaum noted, are really a throwback to the interwar period between World War I and World War II, when a whole segment of the elite felt World War I was a failure and a mistake — the equivalent today of Iraq and Afghanistan — and then approached the dawn of World War II as isolationists and protectionists, seeing our allies as either hopeless or leeches.

As for House Speaker Mike Johnson, I wonder how often he uses his passport. I wonder if he has a passport. He is one of the most powerful people in America, following in the footsteps of both Republican and Democratic speakers who advanced our interests and made us strong in the world for decades. So far, he seems to care only about serving Trump’s interests, even if that means playing extremely risky games with foreign policy.

Meanwhile, many on the left emerged from this post-Cold War era with the view that the biggest problem in the world is not too little American power but too much — the lessons they drew from Iraq and Afghanistan.

And so who will tell the people? Who will tell the people that America is the tent pole that holds up the world? If we let that pole disintegrate, your kids won’t grow up in just a different America; they’ll grow up in a different world, and a much worse one.

After Ukraine inflicted a terrible defeat on the Russian Army — thanks to U.S. and NATO funding and weapons — without costing a single American soldier’s life, Putin now has to be licking his chops at the thought that we will walk away from Ukraine, leaving him surely counting the days until Kyiv’s missile stocks run out and he will own the skies. Then it’s bombs away.

As the Financial Times columnist Gideon Rachman reported, the ammunition shortage in Ukraine “has already led to an increase in Ukrainian casualties. … The shortage of weaponry is also having an effect on the willingness of Ukrainians to volunteer for military service. The mounting pressure on the Kyiv government is part of the explanation for the public falling-out between President Volodymyr Zelensky and his commander in chief, Valeriy Zaluzhny.”

If this is the future and our friends from Europe to the Middle East to Asia sense that we are going into hibernation, they will all start to cut deals — European allies with Putin, Arab allies with Iran, Asian allies with China. We won’t feel the change overnight, but, unless we pass this bill or something close to it, we will feel it over time.

America’s ability to assemble alliances against the probes of Russia, China and Iran will gradually be diminished. Our ability to sustain sanctions on pariah nations like North Korea will erode. The rules governing trade, banking and the sanctity of borders being violated by force — rules that America set, enforced and benefited from since World War II — will increasingly be set by others and by their interests.

Yes, America still has considerable power, but that power led to influence because allies and enemies knew we were ready to use it to defend ourselves and help our friends defend themselves and our shared values. All of that will now be in doubt if this bill goes down for good.

Remember this week, folks — because historians surely will.

#NYTimes #Tom Friedman #Trump First Putin Second America Last #column #artlcles #immigration #war in ukraine #national security

[mariacallous]

In April 2018, I was invited by the American ambassador to a meeting at the embassy in Tbilisi, Georgia. The ambassador had assembled a group of nongovernmental organization (NGO) leaders in the field of disinformation to meet with a senior Trump administration official from the State Department. He asked us to describe the main narratives of Kremlin disinformation. As the director of a large international democracy organization, I highlighted Russia’s manipulation of gender and LGBTQ issues to sway Georgians away from the perceived “cultural decadence” of the European Union. The official’s frustration was palpable. His response, tinged with irritation, was telling: “Is that all you people can talk about? The gays?”

A year before, several international organizations partnered with Georgian parliamentarians on a gender equality assessment, supported by several government donors. This collaboration led to an internal conflict. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) wanted to scrub the original report, as it covered abortion, notably legal in Georgia, while the Swedish government and other stakeholders wanted the complete assessment. As a result, at the time of its release, two distinct reports had to be printed, one with references to abortion and one without.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump emerged victorious from last week’s New Hampshire primary and is likely to be the Republican Party’s presidential nominee. His closing statement in New Hampshire praised Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, who embraces the oxymoronic term “illiberal democracy” while suppressing independent media, civil society, and courts. He has repeatedly emphasized the glory of strongmen like Orban. His foreign policy has been clear: stopping support for Ukraine, NATO, and our European allies.

But while there has been plenty of analysis of Trump’s America First impact on foreign policy and security, less covered is how it will also completely redefine foreign aid as well as the liberal democracy agenda. My experience with the first Trump administration as a senior leader in democracy organizations receiving funding from USAID provides some insight into the foreign-aid agenda of a second, but likely only scratches the surface of what is to come.

The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, established in 2022, offers a detailed roadmap for revamping USAID under Trump—one that will undermine, eliminate, and censor the critical work of thousands of people and organizations committed to building more just societies. The Heritage Foundation has been staffing and providing a pipeline of ideas to Republican administrations since President Ronald Reagan. Project 2025 is a plan to shape the next Republican administration, and its funders have close ties to Trump. The project’s objective is to replace “deep state” employees with conservative thought leaders to carry out an executive-driven agenda.

In the overview, the project articulates its goal to end what it calls USAID’s “divisive political and cultural agenda that promotes abortion, climate extremism, gender radicalism, and interventions against perceived systemic racism.” A key component of the illiberal playbook is to attack gender and marginalized communities, an early warning sign of democratic backsliding. Illiberal strongmen, such as Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, exploit traditional hierarchies to divide society and create pecking orders of power. Russia refused to sign, and Turkey withdrew from, the Istanbul Convention, a commitment to protect women from domestic violence. The Narendra Modi administration in India filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court against criminalizing marital rape, arguing it would destabilize marriage. Hungary and Poland lobbied to ban the term “gender equality” in international agreements and implemented anti-LGBTQ policies, including local municipalities adopting “LGBT-free” zones as part of a government-supported “Family Charter” in Poland.

As a first step, Trump’s USAID will “dismantle” all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which Project 2025 calls “discriminatory.” This mandate includes firing the chief diversity officer and all advisors and committees. In 2016, the Obama administration issued a DEI presidential memorandum to ensure USAID, among other agencies, had a diverse and representative workforce. Trump scaled back these efforts. On Jan. 20, 2021, Biden’s first day in office, he signed an executive order that demanded that government agencies devise strategies to tackle DEI issues. Pursuant to this, USAID Administrator Samantha Power signed USAID’s DEI strategy on her first day in May 2021. Project 2025 would reverse this strategy, requiring USAID to “cease promotion of the DEI agenda, including the bullying LGBTQ+ agenda,” which entails support for organizations overseas that work on these issues.

According to Project 2025, Trump’s new USAID will also eliminate the word “gender” full stop, arguing that “Democrat Administrations have nearly erased what females are.” This is bizarre, as I have decades of experience receiving USAID funding for numerous programs to advance women in political life and support women’s organizations. Working for democracy organizations across Asia and the former Soviet Union, I saw USAID provide critical support to expand women’s wings of political parties; recruit women election officials, observers, and administrators; train women’s advocacy and rights organizations; and build women’s committees in parliaments.

The Heritage Foundation report also accuses USAID of “outright bias against men,” an equally strange claim; in fact, gender realignment was needed and implemented. A Trump USAID will fire more than 180 gender advisors and points of contact, who work alongside USAID colleagues “to integrate gender and advance gender equality objectives in USAID’s work worldwide,” and scrub the words “gender,” “gender equality,” and “gender equity” from all documents. This would require a massive purge of decades of USAID materials and websites.

USAID has spent years incorporating gender into all aspects of its programming to ensure the agency addresses the needs of women, including unique development obstacles they face. Removing a gender lens would take us back in time to programming that often harmed women, inadvertently, by failing to analyze the varying effects of programming based on gender and power dynamics in different environments. To erase all of USAID’s tools, learning, and research on how to ensure best practice would have dangerous consequences. For example, when I worked for USAID in Cambodia in the 1990s, the agency supported micro-lending for small community projects, in which most of the loans went to women. This resulted in increased domestic violence, as men were angry about the financial imbalance in the home. Today, USAID has gender analysis and research on risk factors to mitigate against such outcomes.

Relatedly, a Trump USAID will make anti-choice “core” to its mission, removing all “references to ‘abortion,’ ‘reproductive health,’ and ‘sexual and reproductive rights.’” Project 2025’s blueprint singles out specific organizations and U.N. agencies to target and defund. Further, the president himself would have the ability to oversee programming directly: “Current law in the Foreign Assistance Act gives the President broad authority to set ‘such terms and conditions as he may determine’ on foreign assistance, which legally empowers the next conservative President to expand this pro-life policy.” Previous administrations have restricted funding to organizations that provide abortions (the “Mexico City Policy”), which resulted in an increase in maternal and child mortality and unsafe abortions—exactly what the policy claimed to want to prevent. In sub-Saharan Africa, data shows the policy increased abortions by defunding clinics that provided family-planning services. The first Trump administration expanded restrictions further, impacting speech and service delivery around the world.

A Trump USAID would not only stop funding local partner organizations that support gender, LGBTQ, and rights agendas but redirect that money to religious organizations. In fact, it would mandate training and indoctrination for all USAID staff on the link between religion and development. USAID would also ensure conservative oversight of all grantmaking to ensure against “progressive policies” and a “radical agenda.” USAID already engages with faith-based partnerships, alongside secular NGOs, but Project 2025 would like to shift the balance, creating a “New Partnership Initiative” that would help prioritize religious groups.

A stated “key outcome of the transformation of USAID” under Trump will be a complete revamp of the Bureau for Democracy, Development, and Innovation, shifting its focus to trade, the private sector, and religious communities, and purging staff. Importantly, all directors of each center—not just the assistant administrator—will have political leadership, not career experts. In addition, Trump’s USAID will rewrite all policy “as soon as possible” to ensure a conservative agenda.

During the first Trump administration, I felt the impact in my work overseas. I worked closely with the LGBTQ community in Georgia, which faced horrific obstacles—ostracization, violence, homelessness—and which was targeted relentlessly by Kremlin information operations. USAID has long been a defender of human rights and funded projects on these issues. There was a shift under Trump, though I applaud individual USAID employees for creatively trying to find workarounds and continue support—like slight renaming of initiatives or cleverly filing them under more favorable, broader categories like “human rights.” They no doubt prevented damaging cuts to our important work.

I am far more worried about the impact of a second administration. Back then, there was no concrete, detailed roadmap like Project 2025 and no massive replacement of foreign aid professionals with conservative political operatives. Under a second administration, under Schedule F, Trump has planned a sweeping political takeover of our civil service, stripping civil servants of protection, forcing them to implement his political policy agenda, and giving the president unilateral power to fire employees at will.

The organization I now work for, the German Marshall Fund, supports hundreds of civil society organizations across the Balkans, Black Sea region, Ukraine, and Central Europe—thanks to more than a decade of USAID support. USAID has encouraged our goals of promoting democracy; bolstering the rights of women, LGBTQ, and other marginalized communities; and deterring illiberalism through independent media, watchdog organizations, and information integrity efforts. We do this through grantmaking, capacity-building and technical assistance, leadership programs, and policy dialogues.

With democracy in global decline and illiberal strongmen on the rise, we need these efforts more than ever. Backsliding elsewhere affects democracy everywhere. America benefits from strong, free, liberal societies—it is in our national interest and key to our global security and order. While few voters go to the polls with foreign aid on their minds, the consequences for millions of people worldwide are on the ballot this November.

[tartlette1968]

So I'm not sure how I feel about the US right now.

I'm sitting here, in South Australia, watching things unfold.

Sometimes I think that Trump should lose, and then, within moments, I'm thinking the Tangerine Coward is going to win.

And then it seems really clear, and I can see the connection between Putin and Trump... they're both shitting themselves.

Putin is shit scared of the Russian people. He's terrified that they'll see what he sees. He's a weak, tired, and angry old man. A long way from the sharp, well trained KGB thug he used to be. And Ukraine proved that.

And Trump?

He's shit scared of the Republican Party, and Republican voters. For a long time he saw himself as a virile, powerful, killer of a deal maker. He deluded himself, but now that delusion is harder to maintain. His sallow loose skin, tiredness, and growing waistline is making it hard to be that uber attractive sex god he thought he was. 2020 proved that.

So I go swimming over at what was Twitter, mostly lurking, and occasionally playfully fencing with the far-right weirdos who believe just about anything... you know... blah blah blah secret Government scam blah blah blah blah they're trying to control us blah blah blah changing our DNA blah blah blah Trump is innocent blah blah blah... and Tucker Carlson didn't change this one bit.

So frankly I honestly don't think that the justice system of America will catch up to Trump before he gets to sit in on the election, and if he gets to be President, it will be batshit stupid fuckery for four years. Now I know things will be hopeless for the world, they were the first time around, but the US will get a double helping of being fucked in all the wrong ways. Basically, we knew it was bad the first time round, and the second time, he will drag everyone down under the surface of the pool of shit he thinks all the "bad" people deserve to be. And when I say "everyone" I'm mean on this entire planet, his supporters and detractors altogether.

They don't care how much they hurt themselves, as long as they hurt the rest of us. It's self-destruction wound up past that last notch.

#us politics #Trump #Putin #fuck trump #fuck putin #fuck tucker carlson #tangerine coward

[vote-democrat-president-congress]

NYTimes: "Barring some last-minute surprise that saves the compromise bill, a terrible thing is about to happen, thanks largely to a Republican Party that has lost its way as it falls in lock step behind a man whose philosophy is not “America First” but “Donald Trump First.” “Trump First” means that a bill that would strengthen America and its allies must be set aside so that America can continue to boil in polarization, Vladimir Putin can triumph in Ukraine and our southern border can remain an open sore — until and unless Trump becomes president once more. Our allies be damned. Our enemies be emboldened. Our children’s future security be mortgaged.

Today’s G.O.P. bumper sticker: Trump First. Putin Second. America Third.

“The United States has for some time ceased to be a serious country. Our extreme polarization combined with institutional rules that privilege minorities makes it impossible for us to meet our international obligations,” the political theorist Francis Fukuyama remarked on the American Purpose website. “The Republican Party has grown very adept at hostage holding. … The hard-core MAGA wing represents a minority within a minority, yet our institutional rules permit them to veto decisions clearly favored by a majority of Americans.”

[billmaher]

Republican Debates

I was taping Club Random last night when the debate was on, but I watched it later, and here are my running thoughts about the #GOPDebate: the striking writers should be worried about AI, because ChatGPT could write the SNL sketch version of this in 2 seconds… Who is that stiff on the end? And Asa Hutchinson?? Yes, that's what we want, the one old white guy in America that looks older than Biden… Vivek cannot stop smiling, and is it my TV, or are his teeth blindingly white?

[[MORE]]

Is that the way to let us know he's the young one?… I hadn't really seen DeSantis speak before, and wow, he is every bit as awful as everyone says - terrible voice, robotic and canned, creepy straight-ahead stare - yikes!…who in real life ever says "thank you for the question"?: 'I'm going out, can I grab anything for you?' 'Thank you for the question: a pack of Luckys'… I need blueblocker glasses for this guy's teeth…the way they all think anyone cares about their cherrypicked brags:

'I'm the only one who lowered taxes with a Democratic senate in a southeastern state' Shut the fuck up…who is this freak Doug Burgum?? He looks like a salesman at a high-end department store. I think he sold me a tuxedo at Neiman Marcus… Thank you, Karen; I'll be sure to tell the manager…Jesus, Pence's hair is whiter than Vivek's teeth!…climate change is a hoax?? Oh Vivek, we all wanna be president but come on man…" We have to tell India and China to stop polluting."

Yeah, nobody ever thought of that…'I had trouble having both my children' TMI!…oh yeah, I think we all know Penny - Around the World Penny, yup"…no, not the Constitution-in-your-pocket thing!…wouldn't it be great if President Burgum foiled an assassination attempt when the bullet hit his pocket Constitution?…THIRTY no-abortion bills you passed, how many ways are there to say 'don't kill it?'…' abortion on demand,' like there's a Drive-Thru out here in Cali: "You want fries with your abortion?…" We need a president from a new generation." - Yes, but who? Who do you have in mind? Are you thinking of anyone in particular? "When a farmer gets sick…" WHAT? What year is this debate taking place? Jesus, he can borrow my cow…Asa is talking about stopping Smash-and-Grabs in the inner city?? "As president I'll stop it!" How? You're gonna go undercover with Richard Greico?…

Christie is brave to call out Trump, but good luck prying this crowd away from him, he is Taylor Swift to these people…I swear they all could switch each other's canned lines and no one would notice…also I don't think anyone would notice or care if Brett Baeir and DeSantis switched bodies, they all look completely interchangeable…" We need someone who fought in the military." But who?? Who do you have in mind, anyone in particular??…

I was wrong, and President Burgum looks like an undertaker… Pence and Vivek are wearing the exact same tie…"I chose the constitution" BOO!!!, oh Republicans, you are scary…I stand by what I told Vivek on Club Random last week: "I find you both disarming and Alarming."…you gotta love how these snakes pretend they don't know how to pronounce Vivek's name. Just in case anyone forgot he's the, um, "foreign-sounding" one - Et Tu Nikki Haley?? Wow, really Nikki, YOU don't know either?…

Vivek wins the battle of 'I'll say the most red meat, fuck the future, get applause and clean up the repercussions later' tactic that works best at Republican debates… this Indian-American on Indian-American violence must end!… What does President Burgum's wife tell him after this is over: 'You won! It wasn't even close'… can we please vote this guy off the island? There is less dignity on this stage than with the most embarrassing first-rounder on American Idol, Sanjaya is Abe Lincoln… I like drugs, but OK, I guess that's a bad one…you guys can call Putin a thug and tell us how he rapes women all night, this is a Republican debate, know your audience: 'Ukraine is far away, we hate Mexicans!'…are we really that convinced that the strands of hair that Asa is pulling from one side of his head to the other side is covering the top?…"I alone got the funding for…" - You did? Awesome! Done! I was gonna vote for Richard Greico's kick-ass partner, but…

President Burgum, if we're just gonna cremate her, why do we need such an expensive coffin?… What is that, wool? It's August, but OK, I get it. They crank the AC in these places… "We don't need a president who's too old or who's too young." Who then?? Who could it be that you mean who's the right age?… "We led the nation in computer science education" - you did?! Well, why didn't you say so at the beginning before Asa joined 21 Jump Street? That's a great accomplishment, maybe President Burgum will make you Secretary of something… I love how in the closing statements, they ordered it from the least likely on up: President Burgum, you're the first, then let's hear from Asa, the other guy with a 0.0% chance… "We need a conservative who has shown he can win in a blue state" - But who? Who do we have like that here today??… "God said to America, I'm not done with you" - really, God says that to people: "I'm done with you? What a little bitch… "I was born in 1985", old WhiteHead next to me has ties older than that, and blah blah 1776, which I think is the year the dude on the end was born… we're so fucked, and Trump wasn't even there.

#bill maher #real time #gop #debates #republicans #2024 election

[cksmart-world]

SMART BOMB

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

By Christopher Smart

April 16, 2024

MUSIC HEARD AT TRUMP RALLIES

1 – God Bless the USA — Lee Greenwood

2 – Don't Worry Be Happy — Bobby McFerrin

3 – Rumors of Glory — Bruce Cockburn

4 – The Pretender — Jackson Browne

5 – Too Much to Hide — Joseph Arthur

6 – America Has a Problem — Beyoncé

7 – Friend Of The Devil — Grateful Dead

8 – I'm a Loser — The Beatles

9 – Guilty Filthy Soul — Awolnation

10 – Phone Call From Leavenworth — Chris Whitley

HOPELESS UTAH JAZZ SHOULD DRAFT CAITLIN CLARK

Hold on to your Air Jordans. The Utah Jazz losing ways could be over. Imagine buying seasons tickets not realizing that the front office would trade away all its good players so the Jazz would lose games. What? True story. At one point this season the Jazz were 26 and 26 — a .500 percentage that could get them into the playoffs. So they traded some players and ended the season with 31 wins and 51 loses. Gone are Simone Fontecchio, Ochai Agbaji and Kelly Olynyk. Last season, they traded Mike Conley, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt. And before that Bojan Bogdanovic, Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert, Royce O’Neale and Joe Ingles were shown the door. It's all part of a strategy to get good draft picks. Really? Let's trade away our good players so we can get some good players. OK, listen to this: A first round draft pick in the NBA will get millions but Caitlin Clark, if she goes first in the WNBA draft, will make less than $76,000. For real. It's not fair. So the braintrust at the Jazz should do this, offer Clark $5 million to come to Salt Lake City. She'd be worth every cent, maybe more. You're right Wilson, it probably won't' happen. But wouldn't it be nice to have a team you could really root for instead of The Replacements. There's always next year.

SUPPORT THE WINTER OLYMPICS — OR ELSE

If you're not excited about Salt Lake City's bid for the 2034 Winter Games, better keep your mouth shut. It's kinda like being a Republican in Congress who thinks Donald Trump is a blow-hard fraud and rapist with a a crush on Putin. You better keep it to yourself if you know what's good for you. Utah's leaders love the Olympics. Salt Lake City's 2002 Winter Games put us on the map. Finally, after all those years of insecurity we got noticed! Props for us! Now people know we're closer to Vegas than to Chicago, although they still can't pick us out on a map. The 2002 Winter Games were televised but viewers couldn't tell Mormons from heathens. People around the globe were watching and asking, where are all the Mormons. Funny how they blend in so well. The folks from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) were here again sizing up the place to see if they should award the 2034 Games to Salt Lake City. Everyone knows that Mitt Romney saved the 2002 Games after Tom Welch was caught wrestling his naked wife in the garage when the cops showed up. It had something to do with his mistress. Not exactly the kind of news coverage Olympic boosters like. This time around, our leaders have been instructed — no naked wrestling.

Post script — That's a wrap for another beautiful spring week here at Smart Bomb where we keep track of O.J. Simpson, so you don't have to. The Juice is dead. It's been three decades since the so-called “trial of the century,” where the football and Hollywood star was on trial for the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. O.J. was acquitted of homicide — a victory for all of black America — but later was found responsible for their deaths in a civil suit. Can't get more American than that. Moving on: Headlines this week included this from The Salt Lake Tribune: “In hunt for ‘white elephants’ in Utah, Olympic commission comes up empty-handed.” No Wilson, we have no idea why they were looking for elephants here. Weird. This headline is from The Washington Post: “Here’s why California is drought-free for a second straight year.” Even the band got that one — rain. Duh. From the Deseret News: “Climate change is forcing ants in Colorado to migrate.” News you can use? Daily Beast: “There’s Never Been Anyone More Relatable Than Bigfoot.” Huh? It'a actually a review of the new movie, “Sasquatch Sunset,” about a family of Bigfoot — or is it Bigfeet. And yes, Wilson, it's one of those flicks that probably would be better if you're stoned.

Well Wilson, history is being made as we speak. The Donald is on trial in New York City on charges he falsified documents to cover up a sex scandal involving a porn star right before an election. It's the first criminal trial of an American former president. The poor guy is on a real bummer. So maybe you and the band can give him a sendoff with a little something to brighten his day — or not:

Brother runnin' powder money Daddy's somewhere on a drunk In the hours, after washing I do my dreaming with a gun Well I come down from the country Find a lesson in the draw There ain't no secrets in the city It's hard living with the law They got machines, mama I can't figure They got a romance made for doing time Send me out child, running outside Out along a world of crime Gonna swing my scythe, got a hand upon the handle Gonna shade my children ways I understand Milk the trigger, kill the hunger Staring down this broken land So fetch on up your greasy apron Spread your lover in the straw Hear me baby, I'm nearly crazy It's hard living with the law

(Living With the Law — Chris Whitley)

[reddancer1]

https://archive.ph/mHSEl

click on the link above to read the article

Barring some last-minute surprise that saves the compromise bill, a terrible thing is about to happen — thanks largely to a Republican Party that has lost its way as it falls in lock step behind a man whose philosophy is not “America First” but “Donald Trump First.” “Trump First” means that a bill that would strengthen America and its allies must be set aside so that America can continue to boil in polarization, Vladimir Putin can triumph in Ukraine and our southern border can remain an open sore — until and unless Trump becomes president once more. Our allies be damned. Our enemies be emboldened. Our children’s future security be mortgaged.

Today’s G.O.P. bumper sticker: Trump First. Putin Second. America Third.

[recentlyheardcom]

Previous United States President George H.W. Bush passed away on Friday night at the age of 94. He died at his house in Houston, Texas, his workplace verified in a declaration. The declaration did not define the reason of fatality, however Shrub had a kind of Parkinson’s condition as well as had actually been hospitalized a number of times for pneumonia as well as various other infections over current years. Simply days ago Shrub had actually supposedly being dealt with for reduced high blood pressure. Previous British Head Of State Tony Blair defined George Shrub Senior citizen as “a phenomenal as well as excellent public slave, a male committed to his nation, the worths it means at its finest as well as to making the globe much better, much more steady as well as much more tranquil”. RT records: The 41 st head of state passed away at 10: 10 pm (neighborhood time) on Friday. Funeral plans will certainly be introduced time later on, the representative for the Shrub household, Jim McGrath, stated in a declaration. Declaration by the Workplace of George H. W. Shrub on the passing away of the 41 st Head of state of the USA of America this night at 10: 10 pm CT at the age of94 pic.twitter.com/XUPgha2aUW — Jim McGrath (@jgm41) December 1, 2018 His wellness degraded in the last few years, as he dealt with lower-body Parkinson’s condition as well as was constrained to a mobility device. In April, Shrub was released from a healthcare facility after getting therapy for reduced high blood pressure. Previous United States leader also, George W. Shrub, called his late papa ” a male of the highest possible personality as well as the most effective daddy a child can request for.” More: Meet World’s Best Jockeys of all Time in Horse Racing Existing Head of state Donald Trump commended Shrub for his ” crucial credibility” as well as ” deactivating wit.” His ” imperturbable management” brought the United States as well as the globe ” to a tranquil as well as triumphant final thought of the Cold Battle,” Trump stated. Declaration from Head Of State Donald J. Trump as well as First Woman Melania Trump on the Passing Away of Former Head Of State George H.W. Shrub pic.twitter.com/qxPsp4Ggs7 — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 1, 2018 Amongst the numerous presidents as well as elderly international political leaders that shared acknowledgments to the Shrub household were French Head of state Emmanuel Macron, German Foreign Priest Heiko Maas, Canadian Head Of State Justin Trudeau, as well as Russian Head Of State Vladimir Putin. Birthed in Milton, Massachusetts, in 1924, George Herbert Pedestrian Shrub originated from a well-connected household. His papa was a famous lender that later on ended up being a United States Legislator. Shrub signed up with the Navy at 18, turning into one of its youngest competitor pilots in The second world war. Throughout the battle, he flew numerous battle objectives as well as was rejected at one factor. Upon his return house, the boy was granted with an Identified Traveling Cross. More: Experts Suggests US Military At Risk Of Losing War With Russia or China A Yale grad, Shrub invested 20 years operating in the oil market prior to ultimately getting in national politics. In 1967, Shrub was chosen to Congress. His job took a detour right into the polite front in 1971 when he was assigned the United States agent to the United Nations. He later on held a polite message in Beijing, as well as also led the CIA for a year. Shrub initially relocated right into the White Residence in 1981 at the elevation of the Cold Battle, acting as vice head of state under Ronald Reagan. After thinking the presidency in 1989, Shrub, in addition to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, assisted to finish the harmful fight in between both superpowers. In 1991, he led the country throughout the Gulf Battle versus Iraq after its leader Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait the year prior to. Shrub additionally released a debatable

intrusion in Panama, referred to as ‘Procedure Simply Reason’, which finished in the ousting as well as apprehension of the nation’s leader, Manuel Noriega. More: Extraordinary Autobiography Turned Feature Film Reveals How, Defying the Odds, a Forgotten Young Boy Turned Unlikely C-Suite Powerhouse Triumphed Over Seemingly Insurmountable Obstacles

[kevindags]

Republican debate 2023

The first thing I want to say I think Nicky Haily won this debate. I didn't like her at first. She definitely gave the right answers and I kinda like her answer on abortions too. She knows what moms deal with. My dad likes her. But I still don't think she can win the nominêe and beat Trump. But I did like her answers.

Why cant republicans say what they mean like democrats? They have to speak in code. That's why I don't like Republicans.

Truly on abortions no Democrat or a mom would kiłl a baby up to full time. If you believe that, that's so wrong. I still believe that moms will never do that to their babies. Republicans only said that to hurt the Democrats.

I truly didn't like Ron DeSantis, he did not answer any of the questions clearly. He twisted the crime/gun question around to focus his policies in Florida. He is bad at politics and he will just turn the USA to Florida politics. All the candidates twisted the crime/gun question around or didn't answer. I still don't know why he's the second runner.

Mike Pence did everything he could to answer the questions and had some good answers but he kept getting interrupted by Ron and Vivek. Everybody but Vivek and Ron accepted that he did the right thing in January.

Chris Christie really tries to defend himself in the debate and I agree with him about Trump. But he couldn't put up with Vivek. Chris had good answers though, still I didnt like him as NJ governor and😝 I voted for him.

Now to Vivek which I thought I liked at first and yes running third in poll. I disagree with a lot of his policy but I think he can beat Trump. I don't think he actually thinks that climate change is a hoax. He says it but the way he said after that climate change bad policies which I think he means that we aren't doing enough to save the climate. I can be completely wrong but that's how I got from it. He says he wouldn't support Ukraine, but I heard his strategy on CNN, I think that strategy could work still Its is extreme to let Ukraine fight themselves and he would get Putin to a deal to stop the war is a little crazy. I still don't like his view on single women and young kids who are gay.

the rest of the candidates did the best they could do.

After Trump's arrest. I can't believe anyone would still vote for him but the Dyehard frumpy’s will which I don't get if you paid me. I wouldn't support Trump.

It was a better debate than last time but still, the moderators couldn't even control the crowds.

If this was a normal election I think Vivek and Haily would win the nomination to fight Biden. But Trump still is in the lead. Then Biden will have to do it all over. Get enough votes to win. I know It's early and anything can happen. Nobody wants either candidate to run again. But Biden is still the right choice for America, but if Haily or Vivek wins against Trump which seems unlikely I would trust either candidate even if vivek has uncanny ideas. I'm still voting for Biden.

Those are my thoughts on the first Republican debate

#republicans #debate #democrats

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

mike luckovich :: [@mluckovichajc]

* * * *

"America last."

February 8, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

On Wednesday, the dysfunction of congressional Republicans plumbed new depths: Senate Republicans blocked a procedural vote to advance funding for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. Supporting each of those nations is in America’s vital interest. Failing to do so undermines global order and brings America closer to active confrontation with Russia, China, and Iran, at least.

The defeat was expected because Donald Trump wants to continue the crisis at America’s southern border to advance his partisan political interest. But the move also advanced the partisan interests of another politician—Vladimir Putin. Like Trump, Putin is temporizing, biding time in the hope that the clock will run out on Ukraine’s resources to resist Russia’s invasion. In Donald Trump's world, the hierarchy of interests is Trump first, Putin second, and America last.

The notion that Trump has re-ordered the national interests to put America last is not mine. It belongs to Thomas L. Friedman, who wrote an op-ed in the NYTimes, The G.O.P. Bumper Sticker: Trump First. Putin Second. America Third. (Accessible to all.)

Friedman writes,

There are hinges in history, and this [aid bill] is one of them. What Washington does — or does not do — this year to support its allies and secure our border will say so much about our approach to security and stability in this new post-post-Cold War era. Will America carry the red, white and blue flag into the future or just a white flag? Given the pessimistic talk coming out of the Capitol, it is looking more and more like the white flag, autographed by Donald Trump. “Trump First” means that a bill that would strengthen America and its allies must be set aside so that America can continue to boil in polarization [and] Vladimir Putin can triumph in Ukraine . . . .

A meme is developing that asserts that the GOP has surrendered to Trump. While that may be true, the deeper truth is that Trump has delivered the GOP into the hands of Vladimir Putin. The GOP is no longer serving the interests of the Americans who elect Republicans to Congress but instead acts as a skulk of useful idiots who unwittingly advance Putin’s interests.

Just ask Tucker Carlson, the poster boy for MAGA’s Putin Caucus. He traveled to Moscow to interview Putin because Carlson believes that major media outlets have not reported the truth about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Tucker Carlson believes that Putin will “tell the truth” about Russia’s invasion.

Remember that time when Putin assured the world he had no intention of invading Ukraine? See CBS News (2/24/22), Putin attacked Ukraine after insisting for months there was no plan to do so. Shortly after issuing those denials, Putin brutally attacked the civilian populations and infrastructure in Ukraine and kidnapped hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children. The International Court of Claims has issued an arrest warrant for Putin for the war crime of unlawful transportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.

It is that Vladimir Putin—the fugitive war criminal and inveterate liar--that Tucker Carlson is preparing to lionize in an interview that will be lapped up by useful idiots who skitter at the mere arching of an eyebrow by Trump. As Trump prolongs a crisis at the US border and delays aid to Ukraine, he is serving Vladimir Putin’s interests first. Commentators are right in asserting that a megalomaniac has engineered a hostile takeover of the GOP—but it is not Trump. It is Putin.

How should we react? Should we despair? Should we shrink from another story that seems to turn the world on its head? No. We need only recognize that the rot in the GOP is beyond repair and that electing Joe Biden is a necessary condition to preserving democracy.

There is no gray area in the 2024 election. A vote for Trump is a vote for Putin. A vote for RFK Jr. is a vote for Putin. A vote for No Labels is a vote for Putin. Staying home is a vote for Putin. A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Democracy. It’s that simple.

Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter

#Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter #Robert B. Hubbell #The Putin Caucus #MAGA extremists #Putin #Tucker Carlson #Tom Friedman #war in ukraine

[phillipcole]

Post-AGT Appearance 1253: Jerry Rogers WBAL fm 101.5 June 11

Last week in Nova Scotia, Canada my second cousin once removed: Byron McAlpine died following a side by side accident.  I would be at my Nevada house because it was the best option for my breathing.  My doctor would tell me not to go to the funeral or anywhere on the east coast because the smoke from the Canadian wildfires might kill me.  His funeral was Saturday.

The Reverend Pat Robertson died Thursday.  He would have started in 24th place, peaked at 19th in 2017 and died 26th.  On Friday I would have exchanged several messages with my agent and he would have agreed that I should delay an announcement and try to build suspense that he was the last name on Phillip’s list.  So I would have prepared a comment and planned to release it on Tuesday.  Then Saturday we would learn of the death of the unabomber Ted kaczynski.  He would have started at his peak position: 85th, dropped out of the top 100 in 2016 then returned to the top 100 in 2021 when bookies learned he was ailing.  (They get the news of such things quickly.)  He would have died in 96th place and my agent would have demanded a quick reply.  So I would have merged them with a message on all websites Sunday morning.  The first to quote me would be Jerry Rogers.  He hosts a talk show on WBAL fm 101.5 in Maryland.  He would quote me after the 9:30 am station break on his 7 to 10 am show.

Rogers: Welcome back to the Jerry Rogers Show, now in the final half hour on this Sunday, June 11, 2023.  I don’t know how many of you are following the career of Phil Cole, former America’s Got Talent contestant who does a one man show called Phillip and Cole’s Variety Team.  Well for years now people have been trying to guess which famous celebrity makes his character Phillip the Boston intellectual sick.  Supposedly this Phillip has been in and out of comas coinciding with good news about President Trump.  I’ve been informed that recently he’s been feeling better and performing on crutches.  So, we lost Pat Robertson Thursday and unabomber Ted Kaczynski yesterday.  Could either of them be the mystery name.  Well, he just released this tweet:

PBC: We don’t know why anyone thought Pat Robertson was the last name on Phillip’s list, maybe because he was on tv too much and said strange things.  Maybe someone thought it was Ted Kaczynski for killing a lot of people.  That we understand.  No and no.

Rogers: So it wasn’t either of them.  Who is it: Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Jane Fonda, maybe Vladimir Putin, maybe some overexposed singer or actor.  Any other good guesses and does anyone out there have a bet on the subject?

#jerry rogers #Pat Robertson #unabomber

[mariacallous]

Allies of Hungary’s far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán will hold a closed-door meeting with Republicans in Washington to push for an end to US military support for Ukraine, the Guardian has learned.

Members of the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs and staff from the Hungarian embassy in Washington will on Monday begin a two-day event hosted by the conservative Heritage Foundation thinktank.

The first day includes panel speeches about the Ukraine war as well as topics such as Transatlantic Culture Wars. It is expected to feature guests including Magor Ernyei, the international director of the Centre for Fundamental Rights, the institute that organized CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) Hungary. Kelley Currie, a former ambassador under then president Donald Trump, said she was invited “but declined”.

According to a Republican source, some of the attendees, including Republican members of Congress, have been invited to join closed-door talks the next day.

The meeting will take place against a backdrop of tense debate in Washington over Ukraine’s future. Last week the White House warned that, without congressional action, money to buy more weapons and equipment for Kyiv will run out by the end of the year. On Wednesday Senate Republicans blocked an emergency spending bill to fund the war in Ukraine.

A diplomatic source close to the Hungarian embassy said: “Orbán is confident that the Ukraine aid will not pass in Congress. That is why he is trying to block assistance from the EU as well.”

Orbán is a frequent critic of aid to help Ukraine against the Russian invasion. Seen as Vladimir Putin’s closest ally inside the EU for the past few years, he was photographed smiling and shaking hands with the Russian president two months ago in Beijing.

Orbán recently demanded that Ukraine’s European Union (EU) membership be taken off the European Council’s agenda in December. The Hungarian leader posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: “It is clear that the proposal of the European Commission on Ukraine’s EU accession is unfounded and poorly prepared.”

The Heritage Foundation is leading Project 2025, a coalition preparing for the next conservative presidential administration, and has in recent months hosted speeches by leading British Conservative party members Liz Truss and Iain Duncan Smith.

The thinktank has also been a vocal opponent of US assistance to Ukraine. Last year Jessica Anderson, the executive director of its lobbying operation, released a statement under the headline: “Ukraine Aid Package Puts America Last.” In August, Victoria Coates, Heritage’s vice-president, posted on social media: “It’s time to end the blank, undated checks for Ukraine.”

When Heritage celebrated its 50th anniversary last April, Orbán’s political director, Balázs Orbán (no relation), was invited as a speaker for the event. Heritage’s president, Kevin Roberts, repeatedly praised the Hungarian leader on X: “One thing is clear from visiting Hungary and from being involved in current policy and cultural debates in America: the world needs a movement that fights for Truth, for tradition, for families, and for the average person.”

In recent years Orbán has championed a transatlantic far-right alliance with a hardline stance against immigration and “gender ideology”, staunch Christian nationalism and scorn for those who warn of a slide into authoritarianism.

Hungary has been portrayed by conservative media as an anti-“woke” paradise and model for the United States. Some far-right Republicans, such as Kari Lake and Paul Gosar, said they would like to see the “Hungarian model” transplanted to the US, especially when it comes to immigration and family policies. CPAC went to Hungary for the second time this year, and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson shot multiple episodes in Hungary touting Orbán policies.

Orbán has returned the favour by lavishing praise on Trump. During this year’s CPAC, where Roberts was also featured as a speaker, he claimed that if Trump were president, “there would be no war in Ukraine and Europe”. The Hungarian prime minister has criticised the multiple federal indictments against the former US president and called the judicial procedure a “very communist methodology” in a recent interview with Carlson.

Dalibor Rohac, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute thinktank in Washington, said: “The Hungarian embassy in DC has been very active lately, trying to repair ties with the Republicans and strengthen them where it’s appropriate.

“It is also not surprising that Heritage is the venue of these talks because they are different from other thinktanks in DC; they are more partisan, and their funding model heavily overlaps with the Trump base.”

But, Rohac said, despite his good relations with some Republicans it was “unlikely” that Orbán would have any leverage over US funding for Ukraine.

Supporters of Ukraine have also been making their case to Republicans in Congress. This week David Cameron, the British foreign secretary, held meetings on Capitol Hill. He told a press conference: “I am sure that goodwill will prevail and the money will be voted through, and it will have a huge effect not just on morale in Ukraine but also making sure that European countries keep asking themselves what more can they do.”

[back-and-totheleft]

On a warm day in October, Oliver Stone leads a visitor into the sun room of his house in Brentwood, where he has been re-reading the daily journals he kept during the production of “JFK,” his kaleidoscopic drama about the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas.

Thirty years after its release in December of 1991, “JFK’s” influence can still be detected, on everything from Washington policy to Hollywood world-building. For baby boomers, it was a film that tapped into still-raw generational loss. For Gen-Xers, it defined all they knew about Kennedy and his death. Its form pushed visual language to visceral new extremes. Its content helped introduce a new generation to America’s long conspiratorial tradition. “JFK” is still with us, in style and substance.

Stone, 75, is recalling his preparations for the first day of filming on April 15, 1991. Peering avuncularly through a pair of reading glasses, he scans pages covered with looping blue scrawls.

“The Iraq War is coming into being, which is a big thing for me, because [‘JFK’ is] about war, and the preparation for war,” notes Stone, a Vietnam veteran. “It was unbelievable to see that happening in my lifetime again — to get geared up to send 500,000 men to Saudi Arabia. It was like doing the same thing we did in Vietnam, so foolishly.”

He flips through another few pages.

“And my 16-year-old dog was dying, too,” he says with a sigh. [...]

People who judge “JFK” for its accuracy — even for its fairness — are not wrong. But they too often ignore the vacuum that created it in the first place: the covert actions and cover-ups that have done far more to sow public mistrust than Hollywood. What’s more, they overlook what might be the most enduring value of Stone’s film. “JFK” is less about John F. Kennedy in 1963 or Jim Garrison in 1969 than Oliver Stone in 1991: a man whose primal wound — being lied to about why he went to war — had never healed, a man whose prodigious gifts as a storyteller naturally fused with the unresolved loss and deep-seated doubts of his contemporaries, a man whose dog just died. By the time Costner’s Garrison delivers his summation in “JFK,” he barely refers to Shaw or Kennedy: He is making a plea on behalf of a generation that had never gotten accountability after the official lies and betrayals that had conditioned most of their lives.

On a crammed shelf in Stone’s second-floor office, not far from where three Oscars share space with the Whole Earth Catalog, sit books about Costa-Gavras, whose taut 1969 political thriller “Z” was an inspiration for “JFK,” and Frank Capra, traces of whose “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” can be heard in Costner’s final speech. “Costa-Gavras meets Frank Capra” might be the best way to describe a director as fluent with polemic as he is with throat-catching emotion. “Yes, you know what side I’m on,” Stone says of his characterizations. “I didn’t say it was an impartial documentary, did I?”

To spend time with Oliver Stone is to enter a different kind of looking glass, where a man often caricatured as a wild-eyed provocateur is thoughtful, easygoing and generous even at his most contrarian; where he’ll go hammer and tongs about Clay Shaw’s role in the CIA or the Kennedys’ relationship with Dulles (“You’re hard core,” he says, shaking his head, after a spirited back-and-forth about the single-bullet theory), and then invite a journalist to peruse his “JFK” archive while he goes upstairs to work. He is not a Trump fan and considers George W. Bush “the worst president we’ve ever had.” He rejects present-day conspiracies like QAnon, but he thinks the Jan. 6 insurrection has been overblown. For the record, Stone has been quadruple-vaxxed against covid-19: “Two Sputniks and two Pfizers,” he says proudly.

Stone’s last narrative feature was 2016’s “Snowden”; since 2001 he’s been making documentaries, including admiring portraits of Fidel Castro and Vladimir Putin. He is currently at work on a film in favor of nuclear energy. Nonfiction, he says, is “more alluring to me as a way to tell the truth, without … having to go through all the BS of disguising.”

Still, he accepts that “JFK” will remain his undisputed masterwork. When asked about the film’s legacy, Stone demurs. “I think it’s one of a kind,” he says simply, adding that it marked a crucial turning point in his career.

“No longer was I judged as a filmmaker,” he says, admitting that his journey through the vagaries of public opinion left him feeling defensive and hurt.

“A lot of filmmakers would say, ‘It’s just a movie.’ It never felt like that to me. A filmmaker should take responsibility for his movie, whether it’s fiction or fact.”

As for the “conspiracy theorist” label he has carried since making “JFK,” he is both philosophical and unapologetic. “I have really not gone in that direction,” he says, before adding: “Conspiracies have happened. Anybody who reads history knows that. But we act so innocent in America, like ‘Who, us?’ ” Stone laughs ruefully. “It just doesn’t work that way.”

-Ann Hornaday, "‘JFK’ at 30: Oliver Stone and the lasting impact of America’s most dangerous movie," The Washington Post, Dec 22 2021 [x]

#oliver stone #ann hornaday #the washington post #jfk #vietnam

[booksandwords]

State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny

Read time: 3 Days Rating: 4.5/5 Stars

The Quote: How she loved this country. This glorious, broken beacon. — Ellen Adams

State of Terror is one of those unputdownable books that I am immensely glad to have read. I stayed up far too late to finish it. Anyone looking at my reviews/ read books knows this one is out of the left field for me. But the premise is fantastic and the idea of Hillary Clinton a former American Secretary of State writing a book that heavily features that role was too much to ignore. Louise Penny is known as a thriller writer and they have a preexisting friendship which means there was less likely to be awkwardness there (because yes it can transition to the writing). It must be said it was art mare than imitating life with the Russian President, Maxim Ivanov and former president Eric Dunn being obvious caricatures of their real-life counterparts (Putin and Trump respectively). This is written in alternating points of view, I appreciate the decision to focus heavily on women for the POV. It feels right. Hillary Clinton is one of America's foremost female politicians of her age. An inspiration to young women for so many years, it makes sense that any novel she writes that involves the political sphere would feature women prominently. While still treating men with fairness. While the POV does focus largely on women it does tend towards men in the last 1/3. The writing for the action sequences towards the end of the book were highly effective. It felt almost cinematic, fast switching between the perspectives during the military engagements.

The main character of State of Terror is Ellen Adams. American Secretary of State, new to the role and trying to mend the bridges left by a chaotic previous presidency. Nearly everyone in the story is on some level connected to her. Importantly to the story, Ellen has two children a son, Gil Bahar with her first husband, and a daughter, Katherine with her second husband Quinn Adams. Gil is something of the family wild child his past is key in a way. Even the major villain of the story is tied in a way to Ellen. Ellen is not based on Hillary Clinton but you can certainly see where the influences are, where Ellen is perhaps the better version of herself. She is a strong, loyal and fearless woman, learning the boundaries of her job and pushing them. All her previous experience is in the media world and she has those networks. It makes her an interesting character to read, she's not a politician she doesn't think like that. When push comes to shove it's not about votes it's about people. She's not afraid to get her hands dirty and take risks to save lives.

From that day forward, Ellen and Betsy were almost inseparable. Ellen taught Betsy that goodness existed, and Betsy taught Ellen how to kick attackers in the nuts. — Ellen Adams

Okay, so Betsy, Betsy. She is keeping Ellen grounded. Something I think the real Betsy, Betsy Johnson, did for Hillary Clinton. Louise Penny admits that that real Betsy was much softer and less sweary than Betsy Jameson, her fictional counterpart. But the fictional Betsy is wonderful I adore her. Strong and confident and not going to let anyone question her presence in Ellen Adams inner circle. She has been there from day dot and she will let you know about it if you question her. One of my favourite parts aspects of her characterisation in a bizarre way is that she is frequently referred to at June Cleaver. A reference to her appearance and her personality. For those like me who weren't certain on the June Cleaver reference, she was the maternal, female lead character in the American sitcom Leave It To Beaver.

The FSO, Foreign Service Officer, of the blurb is Anahita Dahir. Ana is Lebanese-American, whip-smart and young. I like her. She is a character of colour written in a way that gives her some strength while showing that yes she would definitely be treated as a suspect in the relation to anything terrorism related. She has connections to Gil and a story to tell all of her own. The guilt and doubt and determination to help that she carries feels right. I adored the easy friendship she formed with Katherine, I'm unsure of their ages but something there just felt right. It is known that they went to school at the same time. Katherine is not used as well as she possibly could be. But as I said this is left open for a sequel and I can see how she could be used later. Katherine has taken over Ellen's media empire, not as a journalist as something more bureaucratic. there is a lot to respect in the character choices with her.

One other character I want to talk about. Dr Bashir Shah. Bashir Shah is the big villain of the story and he is a brilliant villain. Bashir Shah is an interesting man. I appreciate the line "He'd grown, over the years, almost fond of Ellen Adams. He'd come to know her quite intimately, and that had bred a rather curious bond." I quite like him in a bizarre way. He's intelligent, suave, physically attractive and manipulative. But he's flawed. By that I mean he has a very clear and plain ability to get too close, to not be objective. Yes he's an awful man, yes he's deadly and he's a terrorist. But as a character, he's just fantastic, there are stereotype elements just more. He's not a character you want to succeed in his goals, you want him to get his comeuppance but he's captivating to read and that matters.

Have some quotes and comments because it will stop me spoiling the story.

The head of the Joint Cheifs of Staff looked more like a librarian than a warror. Interestingly, the Librarian of Congress looked like a warrior. — (Ellen) I love this line so so much. I appreciate a warrior librarian. Librarians are warriors, protectors of knowledge and history.

"They've found the perfect vehicle in Eric Dunn." "Their Trojan horse." said Betsy Whitehead smiled. "A good analogy. Hollow/ An empty vessel into which these men and women have poured their ambitions, their outrages, their hatreds and insecurities." — (Bert Whitehead and Betsy Jameson) This is one of the many lines that I read I just thought... Trump, that is Trump. I really like the Trojan Horse analogy.

It kept each from behaving especially badly. That was the teory. What it in that created wasn't a balance of terror but a perpetual state of terror. — (Ellen) How had i never thought of this?

"I mean Hitchcock knew that the closed door is much more frightening than the open. Think of when you were a kid at night. Staring at the closed door. wondering what was really in there. We filled the void with our imaginations. And we almost never thought it was some kind of fairy holding a puppy and some pudding." — (Canadian Eye) The Canadian is a reference to the head of one of the Canadian security agencies during a meeting of Five Eyes. This is quite honestly one of my favourite quotes in the book. I just really like it.

I quite like the inclusion of the quote from The Little Prince "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.". It fits so well in context

They stared at each other. Much the same age, they'd grown up a world apart, but fate bought them together, like brothers. Like kindred spirits. Perhaps for that very reason, for this very moment. — (Gil) This is about Gil's relationship with Hamza. I really like their relationship. I like Gil, I like the way his mind works. Of the male characters, he's the one who has the most depth I think.

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." — Anahita attributes this quote to Einstein. I had to look into it to see if the attribution was accurate. Apparently, it's a paraphrase but it's close. “I don’t know what weapons might be used in World War III. But there isn’t any doubt what weapons will be used in World War IV.” “And what are those?” a guest asked. “Stone spears,” said Einstein.

Louise Penny merges her worlds. Her best-known series appears to be Chief Inspector Armand Gamache (first book Still Life). Characters and the town Three Pines both appear. Also, a book of poetry (that if Penny if publishes I will buy) called I'm F.I.N.E. by Ruth Zardo. "It stood for "Fucked up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Egotistical."

I enjoyed the ending. It has definitely been left open for a sequel if Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny so choose. It could be good to see a less personal story, villain. But that doe raise the question would it work? Or is Shah and his connection to the wider story so important to the writing. That ending the sequence of events we see is rewarding to the reader and suits the tone of the book, keeping the reader engaged and questioning what they thought they knew. There are undoubtedly signposts to indicate where this was headed but I missed them. On a reread chances are what appears a little insignificant in the moment may just click into place as important. This is probably a 4.5-star book for me. It rewarded me for stepping out of my comfort zone. I really liked the characters and the writing style. It was a joy to see so many women together working for the good of others. But with them still being human and occasionally at odds.

#state of terror #hillary rodham clinton #hillary clinton #louise penny #book review #ktreviews #read 2021 #booklr

[thesheel]

The viral images of the Russian genocide in Ukraine have wreaked havoc on the whole global community as the calls for increased Russian scrutiny intensified. American President Joe Biden has already noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin must be held “accountable” for the brutal killings and war crimes. Similarly, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has also mentioned that the United States believes that the Russian attacks on hospitals, buildings, apartments, schools, and other likewise facilities are “war crimes,” adding that America would share information with relevant international bodies to help them bring Putin to justice.  However, the Biden administration has not decided yet whether or not it would help the International Criminal Court (ICC), headquartered in the Hague. The ICC launched investigations into Russian war crimes in March to find out if Russia really committed war crimes. America has limited Authority to Prosecute Russia in ICC for War crimes The US's likely intervention in the investigation can be disturbed by the fact that it is not a direct party to the Rome Statute. Rome Statute is a 1998 international treaty that eventually created the ICC. Since the establishment of the body, both Democratic and Republican administrations have established that the ICC has no jurisdiction over US law and US personnel, which restricts the ability of the US executive authority to help the court. The administration of President Clinton voted against the establishment of the ICC, citing Defense Department objections that the organization could do political prosecution of American military personnel. Later on, George W. Bush endorsed not joining the ICC. In 2002, Congress went one step further and enacted the American Service-Members’ Protection Act (ASPA), which barred the US from providing any intelligence, financial, or other support to the ICC.  The relations between the United States and the ICC hit an all-time low under the Trump administration when the organization tried to prosecute American soldiers for their war crimes in Afghanistan. This encouraged the Trump administration to impose chronic sanctions on the ICC officials, even threatening them to bring criminal charges against those very same officials. Just last year, Joe Biden uplifted these sanctions. The US has to Work on Exceptions to Sue Russia  However, the law still has some exceptions, which the Biden administration can exploit to intervene in the ICC in order to investigate Russian war crimes. There is one provision named Dodd Amendment, which allows the United States to help the organization to bring foreign nationals who commit war crimes to justice. So, this exception is the pathway for the Biden administration to help the ICC in prosecuting Russians for their war crimes in Ukraine.  Thus, the US can still assist the ICC in investigating war crimes, even without letting the ICC investigate its own war crimes.  However, disabling the ICC for its own affairs dilutes the US moral authority to help the organization in prosecuting other countries. This is due to the fact that the very purpose of the making of ICC was to settle international disputes which countries are unable to settle bilaterally. If the United States is willing to help other nations, it should be able to present itself for scrutiny in the first place. Without this, the US international image is bound to hit severely. Final Thoughts The ICC is heavily influenced by the countries of the western world, and there is no second thought that Russia would be convicted of war crimes in Ukraine if the US decides to pursue the case fully. But there is yet another problem here. The decisions of the ICC are not binding on any state, and countries only accept them for the sake of goodwill. However, Russia, which went to war by going against the world, will have no second thought before renouncing the decisions of the ICC. And Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute either, and the same is the case with Ukraine.

 So, the ICC is facing a challenge of unprecedented nature where both the violator and the subject of violations is not the party to the statute, and the country trying to prosecute them has limited authority to do so.

[tablelong]

Later on we ll conspire

It does not have a heart, only an eye for efficient returns. It needs to keep growing or will take all of us down. Mostly well intentioned actions by honest individuals – to protect jobs and revive industries – both contribute to and reflect this fact. Lobbyists money, the money earned from the large Chinese markets, QE money that protects the financial system and banker’s bonuses while defying the laws of economics because the USD remains the world’s reserve currency. We don’t need a small set of conspiring people (pedophiles or otherwise) to control politicians / media / hollywood. It’s the only hope for democracy to survive. It needs to be shared far and wide before Tuesday’s election. The military will fracture and guerrilla armies will form. “Take back the country!” will rise as the rallying cry simultaneously from all corners of the United States. We’ll read about Trump voters turned away from the polling places in Pennsylvania. Twitter and Facebook posts will claim that someone saw a guy in a Biden shirt stuffing a ballot box in Florida. “The Democrats STOLE the election!” they will say. Counter-intuitive, right? What could be better for Russia than another four years of Trump destroying democracy?Īs soon as Biden wins-and I do think he’ll win-those same bots will be reprogrammed to fire up Trump’s second amendment base. Which brings me to my latest conspiracy theory: In this election, Putin and his droves of Russian bots aren’t trying to elect Trump, they’re working for Biden. What could be a better story than heroic Americans taking their fate into their own hands? The Bush administration quickly and correctly realized that America needed at least one win on that day. Since September 12, 2001, I’ve believed that Flight 93 crashed into a field outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania not because the passengers revolted against the hijackers, but because the United States military shot the plane down. Man, we didn’t have cool places like that to walk to when I lived there.Ĭonspiracy theories, here’s one I buy. It wasn’t the absurdity of the story that caught my eye, but the location of Comet Ping Pong. Apparently, Comet Ping Pong was ground-zero for an international child sex-trafficking ring. In 2016, alt-right internet chatter convinced Edgar Welch to burst into Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria in Washington, DC with guns a-blazing, planning to rescue the children that Hillary Clinton and her cronies locked in the restaurant’s basement. Q now posts on 8chan, and continues to reveal details about this massive conspiracy, and the coming “Storm”-a mass arrest of the thousands of Democrats, world leaders and film-industry professionals that comprise this cabal.Īctually, I followed this story closely when it first broke. The world would be ignorant of this behind-the-scenes battle were it not for “Q.” Q is the poster who broke the story on the now defunct right-wing web platform 4chan. They would have continued ruling the world, were it not for the election of Donald Trump. QAnon, summarized from Wikipedia: There is a worldwide cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles who rule the world and control everything. Those QAnon links, I ignored them for months. The only news I read is what I click on from the Washington Post and CNN websites. And my commute takes about five minutes, so I don’t really listen to the news on the radio either. Are you following the news story? I just started last month. Now it’s my turn.ĭo you follow Q? Not follow like an adherent, not one of those people at a Trump rally holding up a QAnon placard above their bright, red MAGA hat. But her blog became a steady stream of posts espousing various conspiracy theories. I counted her as one of my favorite blogging friends. She wrote inventive poetry and gut-wrenching prose about her childhood spent with her physically abusive father. A couple of months ago I unfollowed a blogger. I hope our relationship survives, yours and mine. Russian bots swarming the internet, intent on disrupting our election

#Later on we ll conspire