Today, meetings began to take place before the Munich Security Conference begins in Berlin, Germany, on February 17. This conference is the world’s leading forum for talking about international security policy. Begun in 1963, it was designed to be an independent venue for experts and policymakers to discuss the most pressing security issues around the globe.
Lev Parnas, who had been part of the attempt to smear Hunter Biden in Ukraine, said that his “real job was to help undermine and destabilize the Ukrainian government.”
For sure, Parnas does not and did not care one bit if Russia invaded an unarmed Ukraine. As Parnas points out, he was working actively to effect that outcome and, unlike his comment might indicate, he was aware of that goal from the get go.
The real question is what DOES he care about so much now that he made up that sentence quoted by Dr. Richardson?
I would guess money. But, I am not sure where it is hidden in his story.
I always thought that was his job, along with helping tfg get re-elected…. Tfg and his oligarch supporters (yes, Putin too) are the reason democracy is teetering on the brink. Anybody remember Helsinki…. I even remember the rigged election of 2016. Wake up America
Mike. I saw that too, and it floored me. It has been many years since I could identify any redeeming qualities at all in the GOP, and the last positive and significant action of any GOP pol was John McCain voting against the repeal of the ACA. And even he voted to lower taxes for the rich... I might add Mitt Romney to my list of one, but simply dissing Santos is such low hanging fruit it hardly counts. He will need to do much better to make the cut.
Romney voted to convict Trump on one of the two charges during the first impeachment. He was the only Republican to do so and the first senator ever to vote for convicting a member of their own party. He also voted to convict during the second impeachment, along with six of his R colleagues.
Okay, I guess Mitt Romney is the best of today's better known GOP politicians. He has a bit of.... substance. He invented Obamacare for the state of Massachusetts. But spine? Really? I guess he knows his voters in Utah, figures a lot of them are just conservative Mormons, but not exactly maga-moron Mormons. Politics requires calculation. He's not as dumb as Trump, that's for sure.
"Ms. Haley, for all her talents, embodies the moral failure of the party in its drive to win at any cost, a drive so ruthless and insistent that it has transformed the G.O.P. into an autocratic movement."
"Transactional Politics" . . . .This is very possibly the single most pointed remark I have seen in a very long time. This was a revealing view of the worst side of human behavior. Thanks for your post and for the informative link.
And dear Nikki has now officially announced her run for POTUS. Will she be the Michelle Bachman of our time, a flash in the pan? Or is the southern charm just a mask for a cunning, say-anything-to-win, corruptible politician? Either way, this election cycle is going to be a doozy.
Helsinki Accord circa July 1975? I associate that conference with the reunification of Germany & a sea change in the powerful tides in Europe. In 1982 I was able to ferry, bus & hike across Europe starting in the UK & to connect with a few folks still living whose lives changed dramatically in 1939 & made it all the way to Libyan Sea side of Crete before returning to CA on a different path into a different life. The tides are shifting again.
Bryan In fact the Helsinki Accord in 1975 provided, at that time, a scantly appreciated shibboleth about internal human rights that, over time, increasingly weakened the authoritarianism of the Soviet Union.
In re-watching CNN’s marvelous Cold War documentary, several Soviet senior officials, including KGB, lamented this Helsinki ‘camel’s nose under the Soviet authoritarian tent.’ Kudos to President Ford!
Thank you Keith; I often let distinct words in comments such as "Helsinki" just trigger decades old memories & pay attention to what bubbles up.🕯 I will check out the CNN documentary. Thanks again!
Virginia What a profound difference between President Ford’s 1975 Helsinki and Trump’s disgraceful 1998 Helsinki bromance with Putin in which he accepted Putin’s disclaimer about Russian interference over US intelligence assessments. Democratic vs. autocratic!
Abashed I interject that "A guy who knows about these things told me that those mysterious objects are trial balloons for failed Republican announcements of a run for President." Just sharing. 😉😅😁
Actually, I thought his original goal in working with Rudy was to get the bag. He seemed to have an awakening about what was really happening long before Trump ran for reelection.
That's what a lot of these people are about, cashing in. Some of them wake up to the fact that they went to bat for the wrong team (see Jan. 6 hearings). That's also why we stopped aiding and abetting China: powers and corporations started reading the writing on the wall. Decades of IP theft will do that to some, among other things. Our western business elites got cheap labor, tax breaks and inflated stock options (the bag), the American worker got pink slips, cheap shirts and oxy. Don't forget the debt! And now Ol' Joe is trying to fix it. Will the American people (magabase) wake up in time? Check back next week, same bat time, same bat ...
In a way, in addition to thanking the Ukrainians for standing up we could thank Vlad and Xi for doing the same. They showed their true colors bright enough so enough could see, Vlad before he got much weaker, Xi before he got much stronger. Guess Xi had a different future in mind than Tom Friedman. I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!
Now if we can just keep a low-life like Desantis out of the oval office we might have a chance. Desantis cares about as much for the global liberal order as he does for the rights of blacks and gays in Florida.
Parallels! We got 'em coming out of our ears! What a time. Crux of history! Where's my hash tag?
Thanks for the reference to Friedman. I read The World is Flat when it was first published, and it gave me such a vision of interdependency and cooperation. In light of the happenings of the past (almost) 20 years I find my naïveté embarrassing. The causes of failure are varied, and I mourn what could have been. Here’s to hoping the champions of liberal democracy can bring us back from the brink.
Gail, I think you and I were both the victims of the tendency to assume others see things the way we do. I assumed everyone wanted others to thrive, be happy, do well. I worked hard to persuade the doubters in my life, mostly men, that they were wrong to see things “so negatively.” Sadly, they saw things more realistically, I’ve learned. I started my slow climb out of naïveté in 1980 during the Reagan campaign. But that was about money and well-being. I still fell for the gaslighting about systemic racism until less than 10 years ago.
Allenby, “Some of them wake up to the fact…” Now there’s a great use of the word “woke,” a word I still don”t quite get even after reading many attempts to define it.
Same here. I also find the word annoying, as a former English teacher. (Some days I think the entire language is devolving into kindergarten babbling. Please, people, learn the proper usage of "lying" and "laying.")
Per grammarly.com blog, "you lie down but, you lay something down" ... "lay has a direct object". Thank you Shundalyn Allen, "[t]he past tense of lay is laid." Yup. [Note, digital slang for YES is YUP.]
It's one of my biggest grammatical peeves because almost no one seems to know the proper usage. I always try to use "lay" for inanimate objects and "lie" for living things, people, or myself. And then there's "lead" and its past tense "led", NOT "lead" the element! There are just some things these days I come across, sigh, and move on...
Marycat, you've completely missed the point. You are annoyed, but it has nothing to do with you, and you seem more inclined to dismiss the word than to seek out the underlying dynamics behind it.
This article was written in the NYT in 1962 by William Melvin Kelley. The Title is: "If You're Woke You Dig it." The subheading is "No mickey mouse can be expected to follow today's Negro idiom without a hip assist. If you're woke you dig it." This is a pdf copy, so I hope those without a NYT subscription will be able to access it.
"Woke" is not quite the same thing as "waking up to". It was never really meant for non-black/brown people. As I understand it, it was/is about black and brown people recognizing their worth in their own eyes, and learning how to lean into it, and not letting institutionalized racism (whether intended or not) define who they are. I'm sure that someone can explain it better than my attempt, but my point here is that the term became distorted when white people decided to use it to describe their (sometimes shallow) awareness that their privilege was acquired by dismissing the events and circumstances that removed the same choices from other people. Euro-americans who figure it out are not "woke" in the same sense. They are just finally recognizing and acknowledging the truth as best they can. Not the same as having lived it and passing it on to one's children and community.
It is so used by some Euro- Americans who think they are "woke' without having the slightest idea what that actually means and where it originated (and why). I've read several articles recently from within the BIPOC community which express a sense of loss from its meaning in their lives because of that co-option. In addition, "woke" has been weaponized by the right wing: the ultimate co-option.
There are other terms that can be used by non-BIPOC people to describe their growing "attitudes of inclusivity and a desire for a more egalitarian society". I think perhaps more respect for the actual living experience of BIPOC people and the ways they describe it might be appropriate.
Parnas got 20 months in jail for campaign finance fraud. He probably sees another hammer about to fall coming out of the Jack Smith investigations and wants to cut a deal for testimony.
He was working for D. Firtash, another Russian backed Ukrainian Oligarch. The Russian backed Ukrainian Oligarchs like Firtash, have either flipped sides or fled to Russia. Firtash’s stolen billions should be used for humanitarian aid and weapons to fight Putin.
And the money Firtash and other Russian oligarchs paid Rudy should be seized and sent back to Ukraine. Rudy didn’t really do ‘terrorism consulting’. He took a bribe to lobby and carry water on Putin’s behalf.
By destabilizing Ukraine, he is also destabilizing the West, and the US. Putin’s domestic support relies on the Western democracies appearing ‘messy’ and ineffective at governance. In this way, Russian State media can reframe an alternate reality narrative, that western Democracy is bad, and Russia is not so bad. So, if/when the Russian people can be forced to belive that Western Democracy is bad, then Putin's regime is "not so bad", so why should we be upset with Vladimir power over us? The war in Ukraine will only end when the Russian people begin to see the reality of the war, Putin’s kleptocracy, and break free of the authoritarian spell. Too many Russians are under this zombie like spell that they have no power to change Russia for the better. Too many Americans are falling for the same techniques here, being my led by the ‘Putinesque playbook’, creating zombie followers with no hope, no compassion, no critical thinking, no reflection... this bends towards authoritarianism.
From Time Magazine his comment in context as well as the paragraph following it.
“ My connection to Trump came through Giuliani, with whom I had done business, and through the large campaign donations I had made to Trump’s campaign. Giuliani, who desperately wanted to be Secretary of State, recruited me to help him further Trump’s interests overseas. I had no official position, but my primary task was to be their go-between with Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs and government officials. In retrospect, I concluded that my real job was to help undermine and destabilize the Ukrainian government.”
“Trump and Giuliani argued that Ukraine’s leaders were corrupt and anti-American, but I believe there were other reasons Trump had it in for them. He viewed them as political enemies who had supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, hurting his feelings and engaging his unquenchable thirst for revenge. Trump also hated the Ukrainian government because Putin did. Some have said that Putin has compromising information on Trump, regarding money laundering or prostitutes, but those theories are promoted by people who did not know Trump well. I never saw evidence of that kind. Rather, I think the Russian leader had a lot in common with Trump’s father, Fred. Both men were authoritarian leaders who valued ruthlessness and considered it the only way to succeed. I first met Fred when I was selling condos in Brooklyn as a kid and he and Putin struck me the same way. Both men had immense effects on Donald Trump.“
They key to Rudy and Parnus is understanding who Parnus really works for- D.Firtash and proably other Oligarchs doing Putin's bidding with several angles. 1. Disrupt arms shipments to Ukraine ahead of 2022 invasion 2. Disrupt political stablity by accusing Hunter Biden of corruption ( implies President Biden is also corrupt)....Hillary Clinton must be corrupting Ukarinian young people who want to aling with Europe, the EU, and democarcy. The young people voting and fighiting Russians are a generation that did not grow up behind the Iron Curtain. They only know the west. This Ukrainian generation knows Putin's game and they refuse to liver under his yoke.
The Russian Intel Services know how to create a web for plausibly denyability, cast doubt and make explaining "shawdowy", but they always accomplish their goals in active measures with the west. The $ or sex is too much to resist for the western businessman or political hack....the 'mark" in this case was Rudy. Parnus had a purpose that he may or may not been fully aware of in the grand scheme. Active Measures are very "CON Game" esgue in how they are arranged, take form, and build. Remember Rudy and Parnus saught to discredit our Ambasador to Ukraine becuase she was helping fight corruption. And remember Rudy in the Sasha Baren Cohen film? The man is an utter discrace. Do you think the Russians set Rudy up with Prostitutes and videotapped him when he was 'consulting' in Kharkiv? I'd wager they did just that!
I had exactly the same reaction, Joseph. Just what did Parnas understand his function to be while he had been doing it--making weather balloons? All of these kool ade drinkers who finally awaken to the reality of their cultist behavior make statements that baffle those of us who never fell under the spell. Imagine buying a used car from Marjorie Taylor Greene.
From the link Heather gave us to Parnas’s confessions: “Trump and Giuliani argued that Ukraine’s leaders were corrupt and anti-American, but I believe there were other reasons Trump had it in for them. He viewed them as political enemies who had supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, hurting his feelings and engaging his unquenchable thirst for revenge.”
Whatever his own motivation, Parnas certainly has some good insight into djt.
So, it's up the Europeans and Americans who have formerly "just talked to each other" to convince many other nations that those noted forms of inequity tolerated or practiced by participants in the liberal, rules-based international order are really not going to continue? That more will happen to improve the world than reams of appealing and hope-inducing rhetoric? I dearly hope so, but am sadly skeptical about how hard how many "Haves" are going to work to make sure Have-Not Lives Matter.
In one quote a senior Indian government official points out a truth that disables them from trusting the United States:
It went something like:
"In the US it is OK to bomb and kill innocent brown people for no reason, but, when Ukraine is invaded, and white people get bombed, suddenly that is a big problem. "
Herein lies the big problem with the USA talking out one side of the mouth about Democracy while simultaneously:
1) installing dictators in some countries (with brown people) with force and the CIA (Iran, Latin America).
2) invading some countries (with brown/different people) with force for no reason other than profit. (Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam).
3) ignoring Africa while Europeans pillage the African landscape for minerals.
Yep, our hypocrisy is highly visible to the intelligent, non-white population of the world.
And? That hypocrisy matters. Although the white people here who sponsored all that mayhem did not think so.
Certainly, the US and the West have a lot to be ashamed of. But my argument to any small nation would be that our behavior over the last 50 years is not as egregious as it was 100 or 200 years ago, while Russia is behaving exactly like the West did 200 years ago. China is a bit more nuanced, but they clearly play hardball when it suits them.
Nations don’t have friends, on.y interests. But at this point in history, a US interest is to maintain the rules that have restricted wars of national conquest since after WWII. For most counties, that is better than what the world was like in the 19th Century.
Why should other countries believe the US behaviors are better in the last 50 years? The US has declining life expectancies; deadly outcomes for Black mothers and their children (wealthy Black women have worse outcomes than poor white women); mass shootings practically daily; exorbitant healthcare costs with poor outcomes; culture wars every other month; government-sanctioned killing of citizens, usually for being Black; book bans; limited education and educational opportunities; corrupt government officials… and on.
Bill, I agree but I think first you must admit (to the small countries) that Yes, indeed, the U.S. has its own problems too but we are trying to fix them; we don't condone the violence or inequality. We have to acknowledge our sins and shortcomings.
Rose, I and my father often had a confrontaional relationship. He would often tell me to "do what he said and not wahat he did." You can easily see the start of our poor relationship by my retort . . . Then You should set a better example. I Ilearned early that some people speak "to" others, while other people chose to speak "with" leading to conversion as opposed to confrontaion. I learned this distinction early in life and have It has served me well ever since.
Rebekha, your father’s example is an excellent illustration of Mike’s observation. We are a wonderful nation, but we are not perfect and often do not practice what we preach. Our historical practice of “interventionism” throughout the darker-skinned world, often driven by the financial interests of US mega corporations and their investors, will long haunt us. The United Fruit Company in Guatemala, for one example, led to a CIA-staged coup in 1954 that toppled a democratically elected president who had successfully restored that nation’s democracy. After the coup, the US backed a series of heavy-handed military autocrats who instigated repression and a civil war that took 40 years to end. Guatemalans still have a love-hate relationship with us, and we can’t blame them. Guatemala is only one of the dozens of nations where the US self-interestedly intervened in the 20th century.
The truth is painful, but must be recognised in order to affect changes necessary to raise humanity from the realms of brutish animals to a benign evolved species.
I can’t accept the vision that the current US doctrines encourage bombing of any peoples.
India portrays quite a sanctimonious stance if they include all the histories of the current world leaders. Good lord there isn’t a nation or a people free of some sort of pillaging, Genocide or illegal seizures of indigenous people.
Let’s stay with current knowledge and intentions rather than dwell on past sins.
The basis of the Modern World began with the horror of the Axis Powers chewing up territories to satisfy Arrogant Empire building and wanton slaughter of the people identified as enemies and lesser humans to be disposed. Current Russian Tactics target people not the military.
Our greatest threats are China and Russia asserting hegemony without restraint. Civilization not national philosophy hangs in the balance.
Mike You record some horrendous aspects of the actions of ‘democratic Western governments.’ I could also produce a similar, perhaps even more horrendous, list on the Soviet Union, Russia, China, Africans dealing with Africans, Indians dealing with Moslems…
Certainly a lot of bad history to be overcome there. But I'm not sure the alternative looks any better. It could look a lot worse.
I'm not sure we'll ever get the globe where we need it to be if we can't get our nation where we need it to be, and we presently have our hands full here. Too bad supremacy is such a tough nut to crack.
Yes,I totally agree.It is really white supremacy that is the threat to global order and peace.Has been for centuries and continues to still be a deadly whammy.
We need to get PEOPLE where they need to be. Humans are evolutionarily wired to distrust and exploit the other while elevating the self and tribe no matter the skin color or religion or culture. Until humanity can own this we will continue to be vulnerable to the autocrats who exploit it.
Neoliberal economists like Larry Summers have argued that the market should be the domain of self-interest, leaving altruism to non-market activities. Why? Because altruism is limited and needs to be rationed. But this gets it backward. As Aristotle taught, virtue is like a muscle that gets stronger with practice. To put it bluntly, Summers doesn’t know what he’s talking about."
Until this issue is dealt with nothing will change and 'liberal rules based democracies' will continue to be on the knifes edge.
Great summary as usual. I am glad the freedom, loving countries of the world are gathering in Munich. I'm sorry China will be there. But I really think it is time and past time that the United States of America cleaned up its own house. We need to establish beyond any doubt that we are and intend to remain a unified Democracy. To begin this journey we need to prevent the evil conservative wing of the formerly American Party know as the Republicans. The FCC is a government owned agency, they need to make it clear to all broadcasters using the airwaves of this Country will no longer be permitted to broadcast outright lies in the name of "both sidesism" There is only a choice between supporting a Representative (democratic) Republic or supporting Authoritarianism, If they wish to support authoritarians they must move their business to another country, or cease and desist from broadcasting false news reports. Freedom of the Press and Freedom of speech does not now and never has included he right to treason, false information, or advocacy of either.
Yes. That was a disastrous decision giving rise to more destruction than anyone other than the most devious and nefarious thought possible.
We absolutely need the fairness doctrine back. Would be damned near impossible to do so, but a means of tracking funding to podcasters would be a good thing, too.
Exactly, but time is a wasting. Our media has let us down, Rupert style. Will our “free press” be our undoing. Rupert has thought so since Ronnie invited him in…
The “Freedom” to broadcast lies is the foundational element to Faux News Propaganda
If only the Originalists could recognize that while the Constitution guarantees Freedom of Speech, “broadcasting” was not included in that “historically grounded” language. Come on, Judge Alito, work your magic
But free speech. But the filibuster. But, but, but, ...
Gotta face it, they've got us boxed in. Somehow, now, we not only have to reach deep within their bubbles but we have to get them to wake up from their matrix. Must be why I'm seeing so many pieces lately on Pocket about fighting stupidity. Who was harder, Goebbels or Rupert?
As for visiting France, Italy, Hungary and Russia, who's he visiting in France, Le Pen? Maybe he's handing off thumb drives of Bitcoin and account numbers. I didn't hear whether he was visiting the RNC and Mar a Lago. Ahh, he probably just uploaded them to that Trump aide's laptop. The one that had the classified docs on it.
I agree with you Fay but it appears that this "method" of reporting "news" has so deeply infiltrated the media, I doubt there will be any change. And who knows, the infiltration has run so deep that it's probably in the FCC as well. Yes, money is the root of all evil. Just give them what they want, regardless of the outcome. As long as the money keeps coming in. It's disgusting.!
I'm in total agreement, Jeanne. As to the FCC, if it is government owned, it belongs to us. I am all for the first amendment, I just do not believe it was intended to spread lies, hatred, treason, or to promote authoritarianism. I think if Biden gets his second term he could instruct them to control the content only on that basis, It's not the Democratic Party that needs protection - it's us - the listening public.
Please correct me , but my limited understanding of African Nations is that China has invested heavily in Africa. It would make sense that leaders who count on support from China would not confront China’s policy to stand with Russia. And what would be their benefit if they were to oppose China and Russia? We can oppose Russia and stand with UKraine without risking economic support. Poorer nations do not have that luxury. It seems like for many generations we saw Africa as a place to take from, not caring to notice the damage to their people, to the environment and to their social structures we did in the process. It is not surprising they find it hard to get behind American & European ideals of democracy.
China is doing the same thing to African countries as the Europeans did with colonialism. They build infrastructure with their own engineers and workers, and get back natural resources cheap. The African people get pollution and destruction of the environment and their leaders get bribes. Russia through Wagner gets natural resources in return for providing military "security" for the African autocrats.
It takes a long and winding path to establish democratic values in densely populated countries with ethnic and tribal rivalries and now massive population migrations due to climate change and violence and resource scarcity. People are moving to cities at an enormous rate where there is no infrastructure or jobs to support them. It is why kidnapping has become so common in these stressed states.
Not just Africa, the entire brown and Asian world.
Whereas US foreign policy is universally: Invade, kill, bomb, kill some more.....
China's foreign policy is: Educate intelligent people and learn the local language of a country, go there, develop and build real, peaceful infrastructure investment in that country, build trust and become part of the governing coalition of that country IN PARTNERSHIP with the country.
Now, of course, one can take an evil spin on China's approach.
But, FOR SURE, one can only see evil in US foreign policy for the last 80 years.
Having lived in South Africa....and China...your words,Mike, very sadly resonate with me. China’s goals on the African continent may be suspect...maybe, but in meantime, they are providing a path that, to my knowledge, no other “colonizing” nation has offered. So while I suspect China’s intent, I also know they are providing hope. In this case, I reserve my definition of “hope”, but hope it is, nevertheless.
Not seeing a lot of examples of Chinese benefits to the citizens in Africa in this article on China's infrastructure building there. Giving away presidential palaces and new foreign ministry buildings doesn't help your average African. And those roads and railroads and harbors are being built to transport the natural resources they are getting as payment.
But is China "standing with Russia"? At the moment they're multiplying trade and diplomatic meetings with everyone, notably in the Pacific region whose previous governments had adopted a Trumpian belligerence. I see China being very careful about Russia.
It is safe to say that there is nothing selfless in China's investment in Africa, just as most democracies in Africa are not terribly democratic. Leaders try to get what they want while normal folks do their best to survive. Follow the money, but remember who screwed up Africa, and how profitable that was.
Blessed (Happy) are the peacemakers. for they shall be called children of God. Matthew 5:9 NIV Happy is in the CEB version. The message has been with us throughout history. We must open our ears and hearts and follow it.
'The report goes on to identify a growing conflict around the globe between intensifying authoritarian regimes and a liberal, rules-based international order. It calls for shoring up that liberal order and for strengthening it by addressing the legitimate claims of countries and regions that have been excluded from that order or have even been victims of it. That many governments in Africa, Latin America, and Asia have refused to speak up against Russian aggression shows that there is deep dissatisfaction there with existing international patterns, and that dissatisfaction threatens the survival of democracy. The people of all countries must have a say in how the global future plays out.'
In other words, Black Lives Matter goes global.....
Everything w Trump goes back to the three defining events that disqualify him from the presidency: his collusion w Russia to win the 2016 election, his withholding of federal funding from Ukraine in a quid-pro -quo scheme, and he is resistance to leave the white house after he lost the 2020 election. All three of the events are a violation of the US Constitution, and all three have shaken the institution of American democracy. The big picture is coming into focus and it is a world of empires with wars that decide how to colonize what’s left to take. It won’t be about serving citizens but amassing wealth through greed and theft at their expense.
Watershed: a crucial dividing point, line, or factor, a TURNING POINT. The United States and other Democracies and countries transitioning to Democracies must continue to work together to stand with the Ukrainian people and NATO and against Putin and his brutal and continuing invasion. The history of Eastern Europe and authoritarian governments goes back centuries. Only recently is Ukraine joining forces with Democratic governments and against the fascism and aggression of autocracies. But Russia, as aggressor, is joined by other rising autocratic governments. Dictatorships. HCR’s letter warns us to pay attention as republican forces here in our country threaten our Democracy, including the Trump family’s connections with Saudis and attempts to destabilize the Ukrainian government, as well as steal the 2020 election with a full cast of corrupt characters including family and repubs. What happens here in our own government with the repubs controlling the House Oversight Committee and more may determine the future of our Democracy. Think repub scandals and wasted time investigating laptops. We must continue to support President Biden’s agenda to preserve and expand social safety programs including medical, family, children and education, gun safety, voter’s rights, equality, racial Justice, abortion rights. And tax laws that insure wealthy and corporations pay their fair share. And remember the separation of church and state. We must recognize the reality of the needs of our diverse population. That’s it for now!
The greatest threat to the "post WWII order" is the GQP.
As to Comer's investigations into the Bidens. Good luck. The issue of our politicians enriching themselves is an important one. The Saudis have shown us that. I think we will look back and call his committee "Comer's Corruption Can of Worms". Jared belongs in jail.
Yes, Yes, Yes! And let’s hope Americans start to call out the crassness and greed that have become acceptable public behavior since TFG stole his first election. Today’s Robert Reich on Shame: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-death-of-shame#details
I expect this “meeting” to be an echo-chamber, ultimately, but a nice stage to allow the media to highlight the problems most acknowledge exist.
As most realize, the issue with these regimes is that they throttle, if not completely restrict, facts. Authoritarianism is, at its best, when it has control of the media, at least as it relates to the media it’s populace has access to. And these regimes do.
I don’t “hate” Russians, Syrians, Iranians, or North Viets. Or (fill in your favorite oppressed populace) any other populace. These people likely are part of our pastiche of culture in America and are suffering after all. They undoubtably have relatives suffering.
But America has a poor history (in the 20th Century) of supporting oppressed people, despite its hortatory rhetoric.
But I digress.
The folks at this “summit” have a chance to stiff-arm aggression from a weak has-been regime and emphasize that this aggression will not stand (man) and hopefully the support is broad and resolute.
I understand that China needs the petroleum that Russia has, and needs our insatiable desire for “dollar-store” trinkets, but if we can let that go, and China can put its full-faith-and-credit on the line by not supporting weak autocrats with outdated nukes, IF IT WANTS TO, then we can ALL talk about true global trade… terribly hopeful, but I’m ever-the-optimist.
Destroy all, or get-along. (I’ll leave the issue of global warming on the table for now, thanks)…🤷♂️
The USA used to fly Chinese-made flags over the Capitol. Can we buy from democracies or not buy at all? Not all the time, but it’s hopefully coming. I understand Apple will be producing in India. Mostly everything else, I simply put it back on the shelf. I notice people are asking Amazon where products are made. Money talks!
I think it is time for the Senate to set up a Select Committee to investigate Saudi deals with Trump and Kushner. The House won't go there. Can a case be made that Kushner's "delayed compensation" makes him an unregistered lobbyist or can it be considered an outright bribe? Same for payments to Trump for the golf courses and hotel usage. Kushner clearly was about 1000X better at negotiating than his father-in-law--He got billions from the real estate bailout and the hedge fund. TFG got a paltry few million.
Putin's invasion of Ukraine and the other crimes being committed (assassinations in other countries, interfering with democratic elections) are gross violations of the UN mission.
The UN is making itself look irrelevant or worse by allowing their representatives sit in the General Assembly.
All we get is silence!
At a minimum, Get Russia out of the Security Council.
Right now it feels like there is a turning point for Russia in the war on Ukraine, which is quite concerning. Putin is as dirty as they come and apparently there is no end of Putin types in the world to join in with him. I am so admiring of Maia Sandu in Moldavia as she tries to fight off the enormous bully that Russia is being to her little country. The situation with China is unclear to me. I am not sure what the significance of these flying spying machines is, since they have been using them for a long time. I have noticed when I am in Germany and Austria that Huawei is largely featured and last spring when I was in Vienna I was not sure that I wanted to be giving up certain privacy when using the internet where I was staying. I could not help but notice the huge Huawei sign on the Mariahilfer Street, announcing its presence. I was glad to read the Giorgia Meloni, however repugnant she is to me, is staying firmly behind Ukraine. The modern autocrat versus the old timer Berlusconi. This seems to be true in Sweden too. They are standing with Ukraine. it seems that Finland may lose their liberal female leader as well in the next elections. Berlin just voted their more Conservative CDU into the top seat locally, which means they are a coalition partner either with Social Democrats or with the Green party, or with both. Immigration, a right wing, White Supremacist rallying cry seems to be taking over the USA and Europe, and maybe even the global North just as the global south is suffering from our wealth and policies the most severely. There are so many pieces at play right now. I cannot imagine what would be going on in the world if Trump were in power. What I do realize is that each time that the Republicans shine the light on something that Biden is supposedly doing it shines a light on a corruption of Trumps. I wonder if this is intentional. Trying to kill two birds with one stone. It seems to end up making Trump look bad and Biden look good in comparison. It shines a light on how Biden is not Trump.
I wouldn't get too excited about a big Huawei display on Mariahilferstrasse, one of the most commercial streets imaginable - is it bigger than the Swarovski display on Kärntnerstrasse?
I think it stands out more because where it is, near Westbahn, it is just more glaring since it is on top of the building. As I remember the Swarovski display it was lower down and surrounded by so many other commercial buildings. It also does not represent the domination of China over Europe however since Swarovski is an Austrian company.
The rise of autocrats in large part is the reaction to the opposition to immigrants. The sense of threat that immigrants presents to the native population is enough for them to give autocratic power to a strongman to protect against 'those others'. We see this phenomenon here, where voters vote against their own interests for a politician who they think will protect them against 'those others'.
It seems that most poor undeveloped countries that have any product to export be it agricultural, or natural resources the heads of state horde all the profits leaving the poor to struggle. Those banana republics, if they have a "democracy" keep power by making sure that the vote count is done by their cronies. Those heads of state are not going to give up their golden egg goose easily. Do they care how many struggling poor become refugee? Not hardly.
I suppose HCR penned this morning's letter before the gun violence at Michigan State last night. Very simply, if we require a license to drive a car, we should require one to own a gun. Both are weapons of death, one accidentally, and the other specifically intended for that purpose. More blood on the hands of the Supreme Court Justices who went along with the late Justice Scalia in 2008.
There will be a herd of elephants in the room at the Munich Security Conference all stamped: can the US be trusted not to slide down the authoritarian path at the next election? I can only hope we get out the vote again.
Whoa!
Lev Parnas, who had been part of the attempt to smear Hunter Biden in Ukraine, said that his “real job was to help undermine and destabilize the Ukrainian government.”
He SAID that? Out loud?
Joseph,
For sure, Parnas does not and did not care one bit if Russia invaded an unarmed Ukraine. As Parnas points out, he was working actively to effect that outcome and, unlike his comment might indicate, he was aware of that goal from the get go.
The real question is what DOES he care about so much now that he made up that sentence quoted by Dr. Richardson?
I would guess money. But, I am not sure where it is hidden in his story.
I always thought that was his job, along with helping tfg get re-elected…. Tfg and his oligarch supporters (yes, Putin too) are the reason democracy is teetering on the brink. Anybody remember Helsinki…. I even remember the rigged election of 2016. Wake up America
Great article below in gift link in NY Times about Nicky Haley and the Republican Party.
Also, a great quote in the #1 comment:
“Mr. Trump didn’t change the Republican Party, he revealed it."
Rarely does one find political truth so masterfully and succinctly captured in ten words."
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/opinion/nikki-haley-republican-party.html?unlocked_article_code=TfTjjLT12ncNho63ZWMXIxlOzpe1N5uG8kh5HtEz99tDMu9A8zFfE8kHCkN0y4F6nktaC18aiwIa5gfML111HCtRsxpRDIh-TrnTYKwAepSs_8yf9uZfyaxUFU-rLRzz-Q3gz9yQ6KujuBPFBVIOAHoSzBbcp_gaGLknV6VnvvXGQAu2IiVG6fZzS_mrKbFuQbdu1G7l_84crW5c4pxQk_ZKtwz8Bb6LnDopK_dalaNF-3CuZ5f6yyHoxhgUTixh2AUQR2-k8ccvIeK4KiAIPox-75jCCnzBgcDJ1jd-D46ol13NCWws6kpSBR1yEGlbRJKKFRU7a6mb-NWszmb5lBqf2VHTJQ&smid=share-url
Mike. I saw that too, and it floored me. It has been many years since I could identify any redeeming qualities at all in the GOP, and the last positive and significant action of any GOP pol was John McCain voting against the repeal of the ACA. And even he voted to lower taxes for the rich... I might add Mitt Romney to my list of one, but simply dissing Santos is such low hanging fruit it hardly counts. He will need to do much better to make the cut.
Didn't Mitt vote to impeach Trump the second time around? Along with Collins? Not defending him, just for the record.
Trying to have their cake and eat it too. Yes, they voted to convict, but just for the record.
Romney voted to convict Trump on one of the two charges during the first impeachment. He was the only Republican to do so and the first senator ever to vote for convicting a member of their own party. He also voted to convict during the second impeachment, along with six of his R colleagues.
Mitt also only Republican to vote against Trump on first impeachment.
Yes, they did.
Okay, I guess Mitt Romney is the best of today's better known GOP politicians. He has a bit of.... substance. He invented Obamacare for the state of Massachusetts. But spine? Really? I guess he knows his voters in Utah, figures a lot of them are just conservative Mormons, but not exactly maga-moron Mormons. Politics requires calculation. He's not as dumb as Trump, that's for sure.
"Ms. Haley, for all her talents, embodies the moral failure of the party in its drive to win at any cost, a drive so ruthless and insistent that it has transformed the G.O.P. into an autocratic movement."
Yep, that's Nikki!
Great read - thanks for posting.
I like Stuart Stevens' sentence: "There is a great future behind Nikki Haley."
"Transactional Politics" . . . .This is very possibly the single most pointed remark I have seen in a very long time. This was a revealing view of the worst side of human behavior. Thanks for your post and for the informative link.
And dear Nikki has now officially announced her run for POTUS. Will she be the Michelle Bachman of our time, a flash in the pan? Or is the southern charm just a mask for a cunning, say-anything-to-win, corruptible politician? Either way, this election cycle is going to be a doozy.
Yes, quite the R lineup starting to take shape. All awful.
No, not Bachman. Nikki is too smart and yet currently purely transactional. I am a Minnesotan and know Michelle as not smart and purely ideological.
Mike S., great NYT piece. Thanks for citing it.
Thanks Mike
That was “revealing”
Thank you - this is a gift.
Both succinct and true. All the worms came out of the woodwork.
Mike thank you for this very interesting read. Me thinks the MAGA Republican’s should read Faust!
Thank You for this Mike S. Wish it would convince my S.C. relatives.
Helsinki Accord circa July 1975? I associate that conference with the reunification of Germany & a sea change in the powerful tides in Europe. In 1982 I was able to ferry, bus & hike across Europe starting in the UK & to connect with a few folks still living whose lives changed dramatically in 1939 & made it all the way to Libyan Sea side of Crete before returning to CA on a different path into a different life. The tides are shifting again.
Bryan In fact the Helsinki Accord in 1975 provided, at that time, a scantly appreciated shibboleth about internal human rights that, over time, increasingly weakened the authoritarianism of the Soviet Union.
In re-watching CNN’s marvelous Cold War documentary, several Soviet senior officials, including KGB, lamented this Helsinki ‘camel’s nose under the Soviet authoritarian tent.’ Kudos to President Ford!
Thank you Keith; I often let distinct words in comments such as "Helsinki" just trigger decades old memories & pay attention to what bubbles up.🕯 I will check out the CNN documentary. Thanks again!
Not that Helsinki. DT dissing American Intelligence to Putin, onstage.
Virginia What a profound difference between President Ford’s 1975 Helsinki and Trump’s disgraceful 1998 Helsinki bromance with Putin in which he accepted Putin’s disclaimer about Russian interference over US intelligence assessments. Democratic vs. autocratic!
There are a number of "Helsinki's" just that 1975 bubbled up because it resonated for me ... :)
Abashed I interject that "A guy who knows about these things told me that those mysterious objects are trial balloons for failed Republican announcements of a run for President." Just sharing. 😉😅😁
Jeri Might this be related to the Trump/Putin bromance? Trump’s simpering relationship with Putin makes me puke.
Trump owes Putin much for financial favors and assistance in getting elected.
Actually, I thought his original goal in working with Rudy was to get the bag. He seemed to have an awakening about what was really happening long before Trump ran for reelection.
That's what a lot of these people are about, cashing in. Some of them wake up to the fact that they went to bat for the wrong team (see Jan. 6 hearings). That's also why we stopped aiding and abetting China: powers and corporations started reading the writing on the wall. Decades of IP theft will do that to some, among other things. Our western business elites got cheap labor, tax breaks and inflated stock options (the bag), the American worker got pink slips, cheap shirts and oxy. Don't forget the debt! And now Ol' Joe is trying to fix it. Will the American people (magabase) wake up in time? Check back next week, same bat time, same bat ...
In a way, in addition to thanking the Ukrainians for standing up we could thank Vlad and Xi for doing the same. They showed their true colors bright enough so enough could see, Vlad before he got much weaker, Xi before he got much stronger. Guess Xi had a different future in mind than Tom Friedman. I'm shocked, shocked I tell you!
Now if we can just keep a low-life like Desantis out of the oval office we might have a chance. Desantis cares about as much for the global liberal order as he does for the rights of blacks and gays in Florida.
Parallels! We got 'em coming out of our ears! What a time. Crux of history! Where's my hash tag?
Thanks for the reference to Friedman. I read The World is Flat when it was first published, and it gave me such a vision of interdependency and cooperation. In light of the happenings of the past (almost) 20 years I find my naïveté embarrassing. The causes of failure are varied, and I mourn what could have been. Here’s to hoping the champions of liberal democracy can bring us back from the brink.
Gail, I think you and I were both the victims of the tendency to assume others see things the way we do. I assumed everyone wanted others to thrive, be happy, do well. I worked hard to persuade the doubters in my life, mostly men, that they were wrong to see things “so negatively.” Sadly, they saw things more realistically, I’ve learned. I started my slow climb out of naïveté in 1980 during the Reagan campaign. But that was about money and well-being. I still fell for the gaslighting about systemic racism until less than 10 years ago.
May we ever keep learning. ❤️
Allenby, “Some of them wake up to the fact…” Now there’s a great use of the word “woke,” a word I still don”t quite get even after reading many attempts to define it.
Same here. I also find the word annoying, as a former English teacher. (Some days I think the entire language is devolving into kindergarten babbling. Please, people, learn the proper usage of "lying" and "laying.")
Per grammarly.com blog, "you lie down but, you lay something down" ... "lay has a direct object". Thank you Shundalyn Allen, "[t]he past tense of lay is laid." Yup. [Note, digital slang for YES is YUP.]
It's one of my biggest grammatical peeves because almost no one seems to know the proper usage. I always try to use "lay" for inanimate objects and "lie" for living things, people, or myself. And then there's "lead" and its past tense "led", NOT "lead" the element! There are just some things these days I come across, sigh, and move on...
I get that Bruce but, I love the LFAA English Majors & writers 👀🖋
Marycat, you've completely missed the point. You are annoyed, but it has nothing to do with you, and you seem more inclined to dismiss the word than to seek out the underlying dynamics behind it.
"Woke" is code for Black. Just replace it in your mind every time you hear a R use it and you'll see.
This article was written in the NYT in 1962 by William Melvin Kelley. The Title is: "If You're Woke You Dig it." The subheading is "No mickey mouse can be expected to follow today's Negro idiom without a hip assist. If you're woke you dig it." This is a pdf copy, so I hope those without a NYT subscription will be able to access it.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/05/20/140720532.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
Huh? Sorry, but no.
"Woke" is not quite the same thing as "waking up to". It was never really meant for non-black/brown people. As I understand it, it was/is about black and brown people recognizing their worth in their own eyes, and learning how to lean into it, and not letting institutionalized racism (whether intended or not) define who they are. I'm sure that someone can explain it better than my attempt, but my point here is that the term became distorted when white people decided to use it to describe their (sometimes shallow) awareness that their privilege was acquired by dismissing the events and circumstances that removed the same choices from other people. Euro-americans who figure it out are not "woke" in the same sense. They are just finally recognizing and acknowledging the truth as best they can. Not the same as having lived it and passing it on to one's children and community.
OK but I don't think it's exclusively racial anymore, but is a term describing attitudes of inclusivity and a desire for a more egalitarian society.
It is so used by some Euro- Americans who think they are "woke' without having the slightest idea what that actually means and where it originated (and why). I've read several articles recently from within the BIPOC community which express a sense of loss from its meaning in their lives because of that co-option. In addition, "woke" has been weaponized by the right wing: the ultimate co-option.
There are other terms that can be used by non-BIPOC people to describe their growing "attitudes of inclusivity and a desire for a more egalitarian society". I think perhaps more respect for the actual living experience of BIPOC people and the ways they describe it might be appropriate.
....same dingbats....
Parnas is Ukrainian by birth.
Money or a lighter sentence if he's ever charged with anything.
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/29/1108635408/lev-parnas-sentenced-20-months
He served 4 months and is now on home confinement. How does that prevent continued white collar criming?
Clearly it doesn't.
And here we have another barnburner of a closing of an LFAA from Professor Richardson.
Wow.
Salud, Joseph.
🗽
I am so skeptical. He has to have a nefarious reason.
Parnas got 20 months in jail for campaign finance fraud. He probably sees another hammer about to fall coming out of the Jack Smith investigations and wants to cut a deal for testimony.
He was working for D. Firtash, another Russian backed Ukrainian Oligarch. The Russian backed Ukrainian Oligarchs like Firtash, have either flipped sides or fled to Russia. Firtash’s stolen billions should be used for humanitarian aid and weapons to fight Putin.
And the money Firtash and other Russian oligarchs paid Rudy should be seized and sent back to Ukraine. Rudy didn’t really do ‘terrorism consulting’. He took a bribe to lobby and carry water on Putin’s behalf.
Rudy in Kharkiv taking $ from Russian Backed Oligarchs
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/oct/30/unravelling-rudolph-giulianis-labyrinthine-ties-to-ukraine
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/impeachment-inquiry-puts-new-focus-on-giulianis-work-for-prominent-figures-in-ukraine/2019/10/01/b3c6d08c-e089-11e9-be96-6adb81821e90_story.html
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/09/rudy-giuliani-has-a-long-shady-history-with-ukraine/
By destabilizing Ukraine, he is also destabilizing the West, and the US. Putin’s domestic support relies on the Western democracies appearing ‘messy’ and ineffective at governance. In this way, Russian State media can reframe an alternate reality narrative, that western Democracy is bad, and Russia is not so bad. So, if/when the Russian people can be forced to belive that Western Democracy is bad, then Putin's regime is "not so bad", so why should we be upset with Vladimir power over us? The war in Ukraine will only end when the Russian people begin to see the reality of the war, Putin’s kleptocracy, and break free of the authoritarian spell. Too many Russians are under this zombie like spell that they have no power to change Russia for the better. Too many Americans are falling for the same techniques here, being my led by the ‘Putinesque playbook’, creating zombie followers with no hope, no compassion, no critical thinking, no reflection... this bends towards authoritarianism.
From Time Magazine his comment in context as well as the paragraph following it.
“ My connection to Trump came through Giuliani, with whom I had done business, and through the large campaign donations I had made to Trump’s campaign. Giuliani, who desperately wanted to be Secretary of State, recruited me to help him further Trump’s interests overseas. I had no official position, but my primary task was to be their go-between with Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs and government officials. In retrospect, I concluded that my real job was to help undermine and destabilize the Ukrainian government.”
“Trump and Giuliani argued that Ukraine’s leaders were corrupt and anti-American, but I believe there were other reasons Trump had it in for them. He viewed them as political enemies who had supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, hurting his feelings and engaging his unquenchable thirst for revenge. Trump also hated the Ukrainian government because Putin did. Some have said that Putin has compromising information on Trump, regarding money laundering or prostitutes, but those theories are promoted by people who did not know Trump well. I never saw evidence of that kind. Rather, I think the Russian leader had a lot in common with Trump’s father, Fred. Both men were authoritarian leaders who valued ruthlessness and considered it the only way to succeed. I first met Fred when I was selling condos in Brooklyn as a kid and he and Putin struck me the same way. Both men had immense effects on Donald Trump.“
They key to Rudy and Parnus is understanding who Parnus really works for- D.Firtash and proably other Oligarchs doing Putin's bidding with several angles. 1. Disrupt arms shipments to Ukraine ahead of 2022 invasion 2. Disrupt political stablity by accusing Hunter Biden of corruption ( implies President Biden is also corrupt)....Hillary Clinton must be corrupting Ukarinian young people who want to aling with Europe, the EU, and democarcy. The young people voting and fighiting Russians are a generation that did not grow up behind the Iron Curtain. They only know the west. This Ukrainian generation knows Putin's game and they refuse to liver under his yoke.
The Russian Intel Services know how to create a web for plausibly denyability, cast doubt and make explaining "shawdowy", but they always accomplish their goals in active measures with the west. The $ or sex is too much to resist for the western businessman or political hack....the 'mark" in this case was Rudy. Parnus had a purpose that he may or may not been fully aware of in the grand scheme. Active Measures are very "CON Game" esgue in how they are arranged, take form, and build. Remember Rudy and Parnus saught to discredit our Ambasador to Ukraine becuase she was helping fight corruption. And remember Rudy in the Sasha Baren Cohen film? The man is an utter discrace. Do you think the Russians set Rudy up with Prostitutes and videotapped him when he was 'consulting' in Kharkiv? I'd wager they did just that!
I had exactly the same reaction, Joseph. Just what did Parnas understand his function to be while he had been doing it--making weather balloons? All of these kool ade drinkers who finally awaken to the reality of their cultist behavior make statements that baffle those of us who never fell under the spell. Imagine buying a used car from Marjorie Taylor Greene.
From the link Heather gave us to Parnas’s confessions: “Trump and Giuliani argued that Ukraine’s leaders were corrupt and anti-American, but I believe there were other reasons Trump had it in for them. He viewed them as political enemies who had supported Hillary Clinton in 2016, hurting his feelings and engaging his unquenchable thirst for revenge.”
Whatever his own motivation, Parnas certainly has some good insight into djt.
Rudy is also partly responsible for this war and the suffering of millions of Ukrainians. The man is a disgrace!
So, it's up the Europeans and Americans who have formerly "just talked to each other" to convince many other nations that those noted forms of inequity tolerated or practiced by participants in the liberal, rules-based international order are really not going to continue? That more will happen to improve the world than reams of appealing and hope-inducing rhetoric? I dearly hope so, but am sadly skeptical about how hard how many "Haves" are going to work to make sure Have-Not Lives Matter.
I recently read an article analyzing the state of India' response to the Russian invasion.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/31/world/africa/wagner-group-africa.html
In one quote a senior Indian government official points out a truth that disables them from trusting the United States:
It went something like:
"In the US it is OK to bomb and kill innocent brown people for no reason, but, when Ukraine is invaded, and white people get bombed, suddenly that is a big problem. "
Herein lies the big problem with the USA talking out one side of the mouth about Democracy while simultaneously:
1) installing dictators in some countries (with brown people) with force and the CIA (Iran, Latin America).
2) invading some countries (with brown/different people) with force for no reason other than profit. (Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam).
3) ignoring Africa while Europeans pillage the African landscape for minerals.
Yep, our hypocrisy is highly visible to the intelligent, non-white population of the world.
And? That hypocrisy matters. Although the white people here who sponsored all that mayhem did not think so.
Certainly, the US and the West have a lot to be ashamed of. But my argument to any small nation would be that our behavior over the last 50 years is not as egregious as it was 100 or 200 years ago, while Russia is behaving exactly like the West did 200 years ago. China is a bit more nuanced, but they clearly play hardball when it suits them.
Nations don’t have friends, on.y interests. But at this point in history, a US interest is to maintain the rules that have restricted wars of national conquest since after WWII. For most counties, that is better than what the world was like in the 19th Century.
Why should other countries believe the US behaviors are better in the last 50 years? The US has declining life expectancies; deadly outcomes for Black mothers and their children (wealthy Black women have worse outcomes than poor white women); mass shootings practically daily; exorbitant healthcare costs with poor outcomes; culture wars every other month; government-sanctioned killing of citizens, usually for being Black; book bans; limited education and educational opportunities; corrupt government officials… and on.
Hey bill. Did you go with to UT Austin?
Bill, I agree but I think first you must admit (to the small countries) that Yes, indeed, the U.S. has its own problems too but we are trying to fix them; we don't condone the violence or inequality. We have to acknowledge our sins and shortcomings.
Thanks, Mike, for consistently reminding us of our double-standards. We reap what we have sowed.
Rose, I and my father often had a confrontaional relationship. He would often tell me to "do what he said and not wahat he did." You can easily see the start of our poor relationship by my retort . . . Then You should set a better example. I Ilearned early that some people speak "to" others, while other people chose to speak "with" leading to conversion as opposed to confrontaion. I learned this distinction early in life and have It has served me well ever since.
Rebekha, your father’s example is an excellent illustration of Mike’s observation. We are a wonderful nation, but we are not perfect and often do not practice what we preach. Our historical practice of “interventionism” throughout the darker-skinned world, often driven by the financial interests of US mega corporations and their investors, will long haunt us. The United Fruit Company in Guatemala, for one example, led to a CIA-staged coup in 1954 that toppled a democratically elected president who had successfully restored that nation’s democracy. After the coup, the US backed a series of heavy-handed military autocrats who instigated repression and a civil war that took 40 years to end. Guatemalans still have a love-hate relationship with us, and we can’t blame them. Guatemala is only one of the dozens of nations where the US self-interestedly intervened in the 20th century.
We? We who? And what are "we" reaping?
The "we" is white men, and they should be praying that when people of color have the power, they will forgive instead of seeking revenge.
The truth is painful, but must be recognised in order to affect changes necessary to raise humanity from the realms of brutish animals to a benign evolved species.
It matters - indeed.
I can’t accept the vision that the current US doctrines encourage bombing of any peoples.
India portrays quite a sanctimonious stance if they include all the histories of the current world leaders. Good lord there isn’t a nation or a people free of some sort of pillaging, Genocide or illegal seizures of indigenous people.
Let’s stay with current knowledge and intentions rather than dwell on past sins.
The basis of the Modern World began with the horror of the Axis Powers chewing up territories to satisfy Arrogant Empire building and wanton slaughter of the people identified as enemies and lesser humans to be disposed. Current Russian Tactics target people not the military.
Our greatest threats are China and Russia asserting hegemony without restraint. Civilization not national philosophy hangs in the balance.
Mike You record some horrendous aspects of the actions of ‘democratic Western governments.’ I could also produce a similar, perhaps even more horrendous, list on the Soviet Union, Russia, China, Africans dealing with Africans, Indians dealing with Moslems…
“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
Certainly a lot of bad history to be overcome there. But I'm not sure the alternative looks any better. It could look a lot worse.
I'm not sure we'll ever get the globe where we need it to be if we can't get our nation where we need it to be, and we presently have our hands full here. Too bad supremacy is such a tough nut to crack.
Yes,I totally agree.It is really white supremacy that is the threat to global order and peace.Has been for centuries and continues to still be a deadly whammy.
Trump gullibles are still a threat to democracy in the US. Our legal system must penalize the bad actors now.
Above all.. white supremacy is to be feared.. wherever it is found. And it is found “plenty” right here in the US.
We need to get PEOPLE where they need to be. Humans are evolutionarily wired to distrust and exploit the other while elevating the self and tribe no matter the skin color or religion or culture. Until humanity can own this we will continue to be vulnerable to the autocrats who exploit it.
I welcome any step forward to include those who have been left out so long.
" If you don't have a seat at the table, you're probably on the menu."
JJ Drinkwater, the only have that readily comes to mind for helping the have-nots is Mother Teresa and her work in India.
Agreed,
"Tony Annett @tonyannett
Neoliberal economists like Larry Summers have argued that the market should be the domain of self-interest, leaving altruism to non-market activities. Why? Because altruism is limited and needs to be rationed. But this gets it backward. As Aristotle taught, virtue is like a muscle that gets stronger with practice. To put it bluntly, Summers doesn’t know what he’s talking about."
Until this issue is dealt with nothing will change and 'liberal rules based democracies' will continue to be on the knifes edge.
Yup. Quite simply not gonna happen w the likes of Musk and Sinema, et al holding world wealth.
Great summary as usual. I am glad the freedom, loving countries of the world are gathering in Munich. I'm sorry China will be there. But I really think it is time and past time that the United States of America cleaned up its own house. We need to establish beyond any doubt that we are and intend to remain a unified Democracy. To begin this journey we need to prevent the evil conservative wing of the formerly American Party know as the Republicans. The FCC is a government owned agency, they need to make it clear to all broadcasters using the airwaves of this Country will no longer be permitted to broadcast outright lies in the name of "both sidesism" There is only a choice between supporting a Representative (democratic) Republic or supporting Authoritarianism, If they wish to support authoritarians they must move their business to another country, or cease and desist from broadcasting false news reports. Freedom of the Press and Freedom of speech does not now and never has included he right to treason, false information, or advocacy of either.
More commentators really have to call out conservative media outlets for promoting fascism. Say it out loud, and see how many people still support it.
We need the fairness doctrine for broadcasting back.
Yes. That was a disastrous decision giving rise to more destruction than anyone other than the most devious and nefarious thought possible.
We absolutely need the fairness doctrine back. Would be damned near impossible to do so, but a means of tracking funding to podcasters would be a good thing, too.
Exactly, but time is a wasting. Our media has let us down, Rupert style. Will our “free press” be our undoing. Rupert has thought so since Ronnie invited him in…
It was interesting to see Rupert and Elon sharing a box at the Super Bowl. The way of Fox, so goes the way of Twitter.
The “Freedom” to broadcast lies is the foundational element to Faux News Propaganda
If only the Originalists could recognize that while the Constitution guarantees Freedom of Speech, “broadcasting” was not included in that “historically grounded” language. Come on, Judge Alito, work your magic
💯💯💯💯💯
ooohhhh... treading very dangerous waters there ... sounding like... Russia... yikes
But free speech. But the filibuster. But, but, but, ...
Gotta face it, they've got us boxed in. Somehow, now, we not only have to reach deep within their bubbles but we have to get them to wake up from their matrix. Must be why I'm seeing so many pieces lately on Pocket about fighting stupidity. Who was harder, Goebbels or Rupert?
As for visiting France, Italy, Hungary and Russia, who's he visiting in France, Le Pen? Maybe he's handing off thumb drives of Bitcoin and account numbers. I didn't hear whether he was visiting the RNC and Mar a Lago. Ahh, he probably just uploaded them to that Trump aide's laptop. The one that had the classified docs on it.
I agree with you Fay but it appears that this "method" of reporting "news" has so deeply infiltrated the media, I doubt there will be any change. And who knows, the infiltration has run so deep that it's probably in the FCC as well. Yes, money is the root of all evil. Just give them what they want, regardless of the outcome. As long as the money keeps coming in. It's disgusting.!
I'm in total agreement, Jeanne. As to the FCC, if it is government owned, it belongs to us. I am all for the first amendment, I just do not believe it was intended to spread lies, hatred, treason, or to promote authoritarianism. I think if Biden gets his second term he could instruct them to control the content only on that basis, It's not the Democratic Party that needs protection - it's us - the listening public.
Please correct me , but my limited understanding of African Nations is that China has invested heavily in Africa. It would make sense that leaders who count on support from China would not confront China’s policy to stand with Russia. And what would be their benefit if they were to oppose China and Russia? We can oppose Russia and stand with UKraine without risking economic support. Poorer nations do not have that luxury. It seems like for many generations we saw Africa as a place to take from, not caring to notice the damage to their people, to the environment and to their social structures we did in the process. It is not surprising they find it hard to get behind American & European ideals of democracy.
China is doing the same thing to African countries as the Europeans did with colonialism. They build infrastructure with their own engineers and workers, and get back natural resources cheap. The African people get pollution and destruction of the environment and their leaders get bribes. Russia through Wagner gets natural resources in return for providing military "security" for the African autocrats.
It takes a long and winding path to establish democratic values in densely populated countries with ethnic and tribal rivalries and now massive population migrations due to climate change and violence and resource scarcity. People are moving to cities at an enormous rate where there is no infrastructure or jobs to support them. It is why kidnapping has become so common in these stressed states.
"China has invested heavily in Africa"
Not just Africa, the entire brown and Asian world.
Whereas US foreign policy is universally: Invade, kill, bomb, kill some more.....
China's foreign policy is: Educate intelligent people and learn the local language of a country, go there, develop and build real, peaceful infrastructure investment in that country, build trust and become part of the governing coalition of that country IN PARTNERSHIP with the country.
Now, of course, one can take an evil spin on China's approach.
But, FOR SURE, one can only see evil in US foreign policy for the last 80 years.
That evil has made it into our government and policing.
Having lived in South Africa....and China...your words,Mike, very sadly resonate with me. China’s goals on the African continent may be suspect...maybe, but in meantime, they are providing a path that, to my knowledge, no other “colonizing” nation has offered. So while I suspect China’s intent, I also know they are providing hope. In this case, I reserve my definition of “hope”, but hope it is, nevertheless.
Not seeing a lot of examples of Chinese benefits to the citizens in Africa in this article on China's infrastructure building there. Giving away presidential palaces and new foreign ministry buildings doesn't help your average African. And those roads and railroads and harbors are being built to transport the natural resources they are getting as payment.
https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/how-chinese-firms-have-dominated-african-infrastructure/21807721?utm_medium=cpc.adword.pd&utm_source=google&ppccampaignID=17210591673&ppcadID=&utm_campaign=a.22brand_pmax&utm_content=conversion.direct-response.anonymous&gclid=CjwKCAiA_6yfBhBNEiwAkmXy5z1tmzEkrXUutekGiYmRNbpv2EWZbOVXfXKuvlLqYRFuZGDthrvIuBoC7lsQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
But is China "standing with Russia"? At the moment they're multiplying trade and diplomatic meetings with everyone, notably in the Pacific region whose previous governments had adopted a Trumpian belligerence. I see China being very careful about Russia.
It is the top national leaders in Africa who get the bribe money; the people get nothing.
It is safe to say that there is nothing selfless in China's investment in Africa, just as most democracies in Africa are not terribly democratic. Leaders try to get what they want while normal folks do their best to survive. Follow the money, but remember who screwed up Africa, and how profitable that was.
Blessed (Happy) are the peacemakers. for they shall be called children of God. Matthew 5:9 NIV Happy is in the CEB version. The message has been with us throughout history. We must open our ears and hearts and follow it.
'The report goes on to identify a growing conflict around the globe between intensifying authoritarian regimes and a liberal, rules-based international order. It calls for shoring up that liberal order and for strengthening it by addressing the legitimate claims of countries and regions that have been excluded from that order or have even been victims of it. That many governments in Africa, Latin America, and Asia have refused to speak up against Russian aggression shows that there is deep dissatisfaction there with existing international patterns, and that dissatisfaction threatens the survival of democracy. The people of all countries must have a say in how the global future plays out.'
In other words, Black Lives Matter goes global.....
Everything w Trump goes back to the three defining events that disqualify him from the presidency: his collusion w Russia to win the 2016 election, his withholding of federal funding from Ukraine in a quid-pro -quo scheme, and he is resistance to leave the white house after he lost the 2020 election. All three of the events are a violation of the US Constitution, and all three have shaken the institution of American democracy. The big picture is coming into focus and it is a world of empires with wars that decide how to colonize what’s left to take. It won’t be about serving citizens but amassing wealth through greed and theft at their expense.
Boomerang there…
Exactly Jane. That pretty much sums it up.
Spot On.
Watershed: a crucial dividing point, line, or factor, a TURNING POINT. The United States and other Democracies and countries transitioning to Democracies must continue to work together to stand with the Ukrainian people and NATO and against Putin and his brutal and continuing invasion. The history of Eastern Europe and authoritarian governments goes back centuries. Only recently is Ukraine joining forces with Democratic governments and against the fascism and aggression of autocracies. But Russia, as aggressor, is joined by other rising autocratic governments. Dictatorships. HCR’s letter warns us to pay attention as republican forces here in our country threaten our Democracy, including the Trump family’s connections with Saudis and attempts to destabilize the Ukrainian government, as well as steal the 2020 election with a full cast of corrupt characters including family and repubs. What happens here in our own government with the repubs controlling the House Oversight Committee and more may determine the future of our Democracy. Think repub scandals and wasted time investigating laptops. We must continue to support President Biden’s agenda to preserve and expand social safety programs including medical, family, children and education, gun safety, voter’s rights, equality, racial Justice, abortion rights. And tax laws that insure wealthy and corporations pay their fair share. And remember the separation of church and state. We must recognize the reality of the needs of our diverse population. That’s it for now!
Yes, yes and yes.
The greatest threat to the "post WWII order" is the GQP.
As to Comer's investigations into the Bidens. Good luck. The issue of our politicians enriching themselves is an important one. The Saudis have shown us that. I think we will look back and call his committee "Comer's Corruption Can of Worms". Jared belongs in jail.
Yes, Yes, Yes! And let’s hope Americans start to call out the crassness and greed that have become acceptable public behavior since TFG stole his first election. Today’s Robert Reich on Shame: https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-death-of-shame#details
Agreed.
I expect this “meeting” to be an echo-chamber, ultimately, but a nice stage to allow the media to highlight the problems most acknowledge exist.
As most realize, the issue with these regimes is that they throttle, if not completely restrict, facts. Authoritarianism is, at its best, when it has control of the media, at least as it relates to the media it’s populace has access to. And these regimes do.
I don’t “hate” Russians, Syrians, Iranians, or North Viets. Or (fill in your favorite oppressed populace) any other populace. These people likely are part of our pastiche of culture in America and are suffering after all. They undoubtably have relatives suffering.
But America has a poor history (in the 20th Century) of supporting oppressed people, despite its hortatory rhetoric.
But I digress.
The folks at this “summit” have a chance to stiff-arm aggression from a weak has-been regime and emphasize that this aggression will not stand (man) and hopefully the support is broad and resolute.
I understand that China needs the petroleum that Russia has, and needs our insatiable desire for “dollar-store” trinkets, but if we can let that go, and China can put its full-faith-and-credit on the line by not supporting weak autocrats with outdated nukes, IF IT WANTS TO, then we can ALL talk about true global trade… terribly hopeful, but I’m ever-the-optimist.
Destroy all, or get-along. (I’ll leave the issue of global warming on the table for now, thanks)…🤷♂️
The USA used to fly Chinese-made flags over the Capitol. Can we buy from democracies or not buy at all? Not all the time, but it’s hopefully coming. I understand Apple will be producing in India. Mostly everything else, I simply put it back on the shelf. I notice people are asking Amazon where products are made. Money talks!
Bravo. Great thoughts; thx
H. Alan, Great thoughts, but confess I'm still laughing over the Great Lebowsky flashback, (man). Thank you. Needed that :-)
I think it is time for the Senate to set up a Select Committee to investigate Saudi deals with Trump and Kushner. The House won't go there. Can a case be made that Kushner's "delayed compensation" makes him an unregistered lobbyist or can it be considered an outright bribe? Same for payments to Trump for the golf courses and hotel usage. Kushner clearly was about 1000X better at negotiating than his father-in-law--He got billions from the real estate bailout and the hedge fund. TFG got a paltry few million.
And a new hotel deal that changes the “m” to “b”.
Why hasn't the United Nations expelled Russia?!
Putin's invasion of Ukraine and the other crimes being committed (assassinations in other countries, interfering with democratic elections) are gross violations of the UN mission.
The UN is making itself look irrelevant or worse by allowing their representatives sit in the General Assembly.
All we get is silence!
At a minimum, Get Russia out of the Security Council.
I'm mystified by the silence on this subject.
It's spelt "nuclear".
And the “nuclear” is not “unclear.”
Hahaha
I thought Spelt was a grain product.
That last paragraph is a great ending. But he is a few years late!
Right now it feels like there is a turning point for Russia in the war on Ukraine, which is quite concerning. Putin is as dirty as they come and apparently there is no end of Putin types in the world to join in with him. I am so admiring of Maia Sandu in Moldavia as she tries to fight off the enormous bully that Russia is being to her little country. The situation with China is unclear to me. I am not sure what the significance of these flying spying machines is, since they have been using them for a long time. I have noticed when I am in Germany and Austria that Huawei is largely featured and last spring when I was in Vienna I was not sure that I wanted to be giving up certain privacy when using the internet where I was staying. I could not help but notice the huge Huawei sign on the Mariahilfer Street, announcing its presence. I was glad to read the Giorgia Meloni, however repugnant she is to me, is staying firmly behind Ukraine. The modern autocrat versus the old timer Berlusconi. This seems to be true in Sweden too. They are standing with Ukraine. it seems that Finland may lose their liberal female leader as well in the next elections. Berlin just voted their more Conservative CDU into the top seat locally, which means they are a coalition partner either with Social Democrats or with the Green party, or with both. Immigration, a right wing, White Supremacist rallying cry seems to be taking over the USA and Europe, and maybe even the global North just as the global south is suffering from our wealth and policies the most severely. There are so many pieces at play right now. I cannot imagine what would be going on in the world if Trump were in power. What I do realize is that each time that the Republicans shine the light on something that Biden is supposedly doing it shines a light on a corruption of Trumps. I wonder if this is intentional. Trying to kill two birds with one stone. It seems to end up making Trump look bad and Biden look good in comparison. It shines a light on how Biden is not Trump.
I wouldn't get too excited about a big Huawei display on Mariahilferstrasse, one of the most commercial streets imaginable - is it bigger than the Swarovski display on Kärntnerstrasse?
I think it stands out more because where it is, near Westbahn, it is just more glaring since it is on top of the building. As I remember the Swarovski display it was lower down and surrounded by so many other commercial buildings. It also does not represent the domination of China over Europe however since Swarovski is an Austrian company.
What's the exchange rate with MBS in Saudi i.e. how many boxes of classified documents from Jared and DJT = $2 billion.
The rise of autocrats in large part is the reaction to the opposition to immigrants. The sense of threat that immigrants presents to the native population is enough for them to give autocratic power to a strongman to protect against 'those others'. We see this phenomenon here, where voters vote against their own interests for a politician who they think will protect them against 'those others'.
It seems that most poor undeveloped countries that have any product to export be it agricultural, or natural resources the heads of state horde all the profits leaving the poor to struggle. Those banana republics, if they have a "democracy" keep power by making sure that the vote count is done by their cronies. Those heads of state are not going to give up their golden egg goose easily. Do they care how many struggling poor become refugee? Not hardly.
I suppose HCR penned this morning's letter before the gun violence at Michigan State last night. Very simply, if we require a license to drive a car, we should require one to own a gun. Both are weapons of death, one accidentally, and the other specifically intended for that purpose. More blood on the hands of the Supreme Court Justices who went along with the late Justice Scalia in 2008.
There will be a herd of elephants in the room at the Munich Security Conference all stamped: can the US be trusted not to slide down the authoritarian path at the next election? I can only hope we get out the vote again.
Truth be told