"Leaving aside the rights and wrongs of Brexit, purely in terms of negotiating technique, it is an object lesson in how not to do it. As the bluster and self-congratulation dies down, it is worth standing back and looking at what we can learn from the debacle."
ORDER IN PENDING CASE 155, ORIG. TEXAS V. PENNSYLVANIA, ET AL.
Attached are the conclusions of the of European Council meeting of 10-11 December 2020. The first item concerned the rule of law and the problem of the link between the Budget for the next seven years and violations of the rule of law in memberstates: Poland and Hungary in particular. The Council, correctly in my opinion, found a compromise solution, though complex and difficult to read.
In the United States voting fraud used to be rampant, but now is an anomaly, as one can read in the attached article from the National Geographic, a very reliable and non-partisan source.
"Even if the court challenges to the election fail—as we expect they will—the baseless attacks on the legitimacy of how the election has been conducted will have long-term effects on the health of our democracy,” wrote Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law" as I quote from attached document in Politico.
For those of us who saw the United States as our liberator and democratic example; who felt privileged to work and teach at their best universities; who also experienced what complicity with evil did to our own European continent; these transition days from a Trump to a Biden presidency are extremely painful and shocking to watch. Outgoing President Trump, a dangerous narcissist, showed his character during four years of turbulence, lies, humiliation and misbehavior. There is no longer any doubt that he lost the elections. A Narcissist can't , mentally, be a looser. Trump can only refuse to concede, as long as nobody dares to challenge him.
"If the voting numbers hold, Trump won’t be in office much longer. But his imprint on the Republican Party is permanent. This much has been clear since the day he won the presidency, and it has grown clearer each hour since. The impulsive governing and the disregard for the rule of law, the undermining of allies and the embracing of tyrants, the schoolyard taunts and the vulgar sentiments — all of this will live on. It will be central to his legacy and to the party’s. And yet nothing will prove as enduring as his delegitimizing of the office he holds and the democratic process that elected him to it. Nothing can repair the damage done by a sustained effort to subvert the nation’s bedrock institution and diminish public confidence in it. Nothing that happens to the GOP moving forward can erase the memory of the president telling the American people their votes were stolen — and Republicans, not bothering with evidence, nodding along in agreement."
In President Trump's deeply polarized America, healthy democratic adversaries are degraded to demonized enemies. You can only be an arch-conservative or a left wing anarchist. The nomination of Prof. Amy Coney Barrett as new Supreme Justice is too easily looked at in this state of mind. Justice Barrett in the Senate hearings wisely evaded answering questions on her opinion on issues likely to come before the Supreme Court.
More than a month after the rigged elections, the EU has not as yet managed to do what it ought to do as "democratic" Union: protest, sanction and withdraw recognition from the cruel, inhuman and unacceptable long sitting dictator - the last remnant from communism. The courageous women and men who risk their lives must be supported NOW
Almost worse than the Cold War. The vehement Russian reactions to the international condemnations, fortunately including the United States, can only lead to one conclusion: It must have been at the highest level in the Kremlin that the order was given to eliminate Navalny. Attached therefore is a news item from Radio Free Europe & Radio Liberty, the most reliable source on Russia for many years. The higher the level of a reprehensible act, the louder the lies from the Kremlin.
Attached interview of Anne Applebaum with a former FBI agent on Trump's relations with the Russian Regime of Putin, makes interesting reading at the time of two major crises:
"At some point, after all, the calculus of conformism will begin to shift. It will become awkward and uncomfortable to continue supporting “Trump First,” especially as Americans suffer from the worst recession in living memory and die from the coronavirus in numbers higher than in much of the rest of the world.
On January 27, 1945 - 75 years ago - the German extermination Camp Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Army. This year the place of hell was commemorated in an impressive ceremony to which the Polish President had invited world leaders and the still living survivors. It was an impressive ceremony, broadcasted by many TV networks in Europe.
"This is a road map to despotism, and the more vigorously Republicans defend the president, the closer they come to embracing it." The quote is from a most interesting article on the Infallibility of President Trump. In election month, the United States is sinking deeper in a serious constitutional crisis.
"Political scientists have a term for what the United States is witnessing right now. It’s called “regime cleavage,” a division within the population marked by conflict about the foundations of the governing system itself—in the American case, our constitutional democracy. In societies facing a regime cleavage, a growing number of citizens and officials believe that norms, institutions and laws may be ignored, subverted or replaced."
Attached is the Report written for the 2019 Munich Security Conference, taking place this week and considered to be the security sister of the annual Davos meeting. This time the report is a very long one with a wealth of graphics and figures.
By now, almost everybody knows that Brexit is the name for a process launched without any clear idea what it would entail. President Tusk's remark, may not be appreciated by the British, but is to the point. British politician are blundering through a process of disentanglement without knowing where to go. In the absence of any clear plan, they prefer to blame the EU. Prime Minister Theresa May continues to postpone votes and ask for concessions. She and the whole House of Commons fail to see the only true solution for the problem they created themselves: ACCEPT IRISH RE-UNIFICATION AND END THIS LAST VESTIGE OF BRITISH COLONIALISM;
"STANDING WITH SAUDI ARABIA: America First" were the title and subtitle of a Statement published by U. S. President Donald Trump on November 20, 2018, attached to this item for the baffled reader. Hence my variation on the official title of the presidential statement.
The news gradually leaked and spread by Turkey on the fate of the well-known and respected Saudi journalist JAMAL KASHOGGI, LEAVES leaves little doubt on what happened on 2 October in the Saudi Consulate at Istanbul. He was tortured, assassinated and dismembered within minutes from his arrival: a case of premeditated murder by a hit team sent under the authority of the Saudi Crown Prince.
Through an opinion article in the Dutch Daily NRC (August 3, 2018) written by Ian Burama, editor in Chief of the New York Review of Books, I found the original as it was published on July 9, 2018 in the Review of Books. It is attached to this entry. I quote:
Following upon our entry on disruptive and dangerous Russia, I attach a very revealing entry I found on Wikipedia, It is meant to liberate some observers from their credulity in Russian statements and add an explanation for the loudness of the Russian denials. The very existence of the agent is considered to be top secret and than, you must threaten and hour back.
Attached review published by CNN is telling and shocking. Russian foreign policy under Putin before his re-election as President, is how dictators create foreign enemies to remain in power at home. It is a dangerous game, much more so than the policies of the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin. It is clear that President Putin wants to restore super power status to Russia, not by positive proposals but by disruptive and destructive actions. The use of an extremely lethal nerve gas to eliminate a former Russian spy in an English town is the latest and the worst example of a regime violating every single rule of international law to gain power. The list of violent actions is growing and the world is becoming a much more dangerous place. American power is declining under a chaotic and unreliable Trump Administration. China has just accepted dictatorial rule. Britain is weakened by the time consuming and senseless Brexit process and the Middle East is in uncontrollable turmoil.
Between the Christianity of this land and the Christianity of Christ I recognize the widest possible difference, said Frederick Douglas, born a slave in Maryland 200 years ago this month; who after his escape to Massachusetts became one of the most prominent abolitionists in America. He was a radical Christian, as we can read in the attached article from CT. As he sadly observed, the most practicing Christians were at the same time the most cruel slave-holders.
Attached article on the Emperor with no clothes, is not just a parody on the self-declared "stable genius" currently the President of the United States, Donald Trump. It also issues a few warnings we should not forget: Don't count on the courage of his staff or his republican party to restrain him. Emperors are admired, paid tribute and followed whatever they do; they are very good in destroying those who don't pay lipservice to their greatness: and they know how to divert attention from their failings.
Attached article - excerpts from a book - is a shocking story for a great democracy like the U.S. When money can buy high political office, public duty is bound to be reduced to private profit. To have such a business man in public office is frightening and dangerous to all of us.
"If our current leaders let the arms control regime unravel, the years ahead could all too plausibly be even more perilous than the Cold War itself". The attached article from Brookings concludes with this sentence. The article commemorates the first breakthrough towards nuclear disarmament 30 years ago. Time has come to try again.
On Sunday December 10, 2017 the ICAN (International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons) received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. The double Peace Prize lecture, reprinted in the annex to this entry, was forceful and moving. ICAN is a world wide network of Non Governmental Organizations, campaigning for a treaty outlawing nuclear weapons. The Nuclear Prohibition Treaty, concluded in the framework of the UN was opened for signature in July 2017.
President Trump's decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem was met with much criticism of the so called international community, the European Union included.. in name of a delusion. The delusion, pursued for years, America included, is the one of the two-state solution as the outcome of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians with international support. That solution has always been a delusion even under the best of circumstances. The principal question at present is: Is Trump's statement no more than fulfilling an election promise, or really the beginning of a new American approach to the deeply entrenched situation in the Middle East?
Pursuant to my first entry on Jerusalem, this second one has the U.S. Congress Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 as an attachment. Congress at the time and today overwhelmingly supports moving the Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. As one can read in the act, the presidential waiver was invoked by all four presidents since 1995 not to implement the act, for reason of executive responsibility in foreign policy. It should not be forgotten that the two-state solution, with a special status for Jerusalem has been tried for decades and failed.
Nine months into Donald Trump's presidency, nobody less than the prestigious Chairman of the U. Senate Foreign Relations Committee warned that Trump's recklessness may well risk to move the world closer to a new major war. Read attached article. "America First" ended reliable American world leadership, destroying the heritage of former President Obama, may well increase the threat of war.
As the so-called "international community" condemns the referendum on independence in Iraqi Kurdistan, it may be useful to be reminded of the sad history of repression of the Kurds throughout history, in the Empires and after the First World War by Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran.
Attached article underlines an historic fact, often forgotten in the current and ongoing crisis around North Korea. The post-war division of the Korean peninsula between an American and a Soviet area created much of the same kind of problems as the post war division of Germany. In both cases Stalin hoped to conquer the other part: the blockade of West-Berlin in 1948-1949 and the invasion of South Korea in 1950. Fortunately Germany was peacefully reunited before Vladimir Putin came to power. Attached article also speaks about the growing cooperation between Russia and North Korea. It does not as yet mention the extent to which North Korea depends on Russian technology in its weapons development, including nuclear and missile technology. For America, the Russian-North Korean alliance is a far greater problem than the Chinese-North Korean relationship. Rather than considering a military strike, the United States should develop a new East-Asian version of the post-war policy of containment; that is containing the further growth of Russian destabilizing policies in the East Asian region.
The title of this entry is taken from the attached excerpts of an interview by President Trump in the New York Times. No witch hunt, just the garbled words and thoughts of the U. President himself. Shocking and sickening to follow the news of the latest U.S. President, a man without any political experience, without a moral compass,without any interest beyond himself. And of course, there has been collusion with the Russians. Nothing wrong with it. Winning an election is like making money in business. Everything is allowed to help you win. Just read the interview and its announcement of the next round of fighting in the White House. Everybody must be loyal to the President, not to the US Constitution or the rule of law. The President himself needs not to be loyal to anybody else. As a consequence he publicly attacks his Attorney General and his new communications director publicly attacks the White House Chief of Staff. Sad, sickening and shameful for American democracy.
The G-20, the name for an annual summit conference among the leaders of the leading countries and the European Union, dominated world news a little more than a week ago, largely because of the violent demonstrations in Hamburg organised by the "Black Bloc" and inspired by a number of left wing autonomous groups. The conference itself was little more than a multilateral framework for various bilateral encounters. With President Trump from the U.S. there was no chance for more than a compromise of appearances. Trump did not hide his disdain for the conference, to the point of putting his daughter in his conference chair, while conducting bilateral talks elsewhere.
"The president’s justifications for leaving the agreement are also just plainwrong.
President Donald Trump, first visit abroad was not the great success, the White House claimed, but rather a catastrophic event. According to the very careful German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe can no longer fully rely on others, that is: on Trump's America. A truly shocking conclusion, announcing the end of the American century. Some commentators argue that Trump is surrounded by very wise and experienced counselors, who surely will correct him. Not so as we can read in the attached article from the Atlantic: "The so-called adults in the room are shirking their responsibilities".
With Vladimir Putin in Russia, Donald Trump in America and Recep Erdogan in Turkey. the post war world order is confronted with new forms of autocracy,- in addition to the regimes in China, North Korea and the Middle-East. With populism rampant in several European countries, autocracy may be within easier reach. Just watch how the Brexit tragedy is unfolding in Great Britain, or shall we say in England and Scotland. For those of us, who still believe in democracy as the most viable political system, we must try to learn from the cruel and violent twentieth century how to defend and save democracy. Timothy Snyder's 20 lessons are worth reading and following up. You can find the lessons below under document 63.pdf.
Attached is an interesting summary of the Trump's campaign team contacts with the Russian ambassador. Hacking the Democrats and talking with Donald's close associates at the same time does raise serious national security problems for the United States. Putin's Russia has well learned the lessons from the Soviet era: the best way to weaken your adversaries is to destabilize and confuse them. In today's world it means to hack the democratic forces and support the populists. It happens in the U.S. and in the European countries, especially those having elections, like France, Germany and the Netherlands.
Fake News as we now know is made prmarily in the White House in Washington D.C.or the weekend White House in Florida, tweeted by Donald Trump, the so called President of the United States of America.The more he is challenged on the Russian connections, the more he tries to divert public attention by producing fake news himself - his spokesman sometimes ago called it the alternative reality. The latest example are the completely unfounded accusations of telephone tapping by his predecessor Barack Obama - see annexed article from Politico. Any first year American law student can recognize the fake character of the accusation.Even obviously the fake news is repeated and spread with glee from Moscow. Deeply sad for the Americans to go through such ordeals in the very first weeks of a newly elected President!
Ten days after inauguration day, U.S. President Donald Trump is in the news daily, and mostly for the scenes on which he signs and shows his executive orders, I prefer to call executive disorders. They reflect his policies "of anger and wrath." I urge readers to read the attached document and psalm 37 quoted therein. America has become a deeply, deeply divided country, increasingly marked by the politics of wrath and anger - by Democrats and Republicans. Most regretfully, American Christians - Roman Catholics included - are deeply divided. Many of them voted for Donald Trump. It is time for them to re-unite against the politics of anger and wrath. Trump's order about refugees constitutes a wrong.
Matt Hadro's article as it appeared in CNAnews is worth copying and printing in full, as I do below. For the information of the reader, I attach the Pew|Research finding on abortion world wide. The problem we Christians face, in our effots to build a culture of life is well explained below, in particular in the two alinea's I reprinted Bold. The attitudes towards life are reflected in positive law. The problem lies much deeper. The "deformed vision of the human person" is also the vision of many Christians. We must again proclaim and witness of the biblical vision of the human person and his/her dignity. That vision is not rightwing or obsolescent, but the most forward looking and progressive vision in human history.
A hundred years ago in 1917 U.S. President Woodrow Wilson entered the First World War on the side of the Allied and Associated Powers. In so doing he inaugurated the American Era in world politics. True American leadership in cooperation with Great Britain came with the Atlantic Charter of 14 August 1941 ( text on this website under "Western Cooperation", nr. I. 4. 2.). It will definitely come to an end when the two destroyers of Western-led multilateral cooperation, will meet in Washington D.C. Just read Donald Trump's Inaugural Address, attached to this item, and Theresa May's speech in Davos, attached to the European News Item "End of an Era". Both politicians take the populist approach of depicting the recent past in the blackest colours and promising a bright future based on resurgent nationalism: America First and Global Britain. It is a dangerous illusion to think that a return to bilateralism in trade can promote justice, development and peace.
The contrast between the dignity and honesty of the outgoing American President, Barack Obama in his farewell speech, and the narcistic, self-serving nonsense of the President-elect in his press conference was absolutely shocking. At least it was for me and my generation who were used to respect America in gratitude for what this great country did for us and for Europe - as our liberator in the Second World War, as the leader of the Western world, the guarantor of our freedom and the example for our democracies. All of this appears to be gone. The Americans elected a president unfit for his job, unable to look beyond himself to public duty and the common good and highly vulnerable to blackmail by the Russians. The latter new danger is underlined by the attached article from the Atlantic. Kompromat is an old Russian art, practiced and refined by the Soviets and highly modernized under Putin. The only reason Putin's Russia wanted Trump to be elected was his vulnerability to blackmail. With such a president, America is in very bad shape as will be the West. Europe is bound to enter a difficult and uncertain era in which its very freedom and unity are at stake.
Attached article "Trolling for Trump: How Russia is Trying to Destroy Our Democracy" , makes interesting reading. With FSB in charge in Russia, waging war by other means clearly is back in business. I suggest readers to reread the first two volumes in my series Footprints of the Twentieth Century. In the first volume on Cultural Diplomacy, Chapter 6 deals with "Socialist Diplomacy." From the second volume on the Illusions of Détente, one can learn how easily the EU and the United States have been nurturing similar illusions on Putin's Russia., During the Cold War the US Information Service was well prepared. It has since been disbanded. On the European side, the same. We simply lack the means and the purpose to deal with the Russian contemporary version of "Waging War with Other means.". Russia today may be a more serious threat than was the Soviet Union in the 1980's. The means are the same but one dictator could be more dangerous than was the Politburo of the Soviet Union.
The third debate between the U.S. Presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was the most shocking one so far, especially for those American voters who still profess to be Christians. Hillary Clinton most clearly and openly spoke out in favor of Gender Ideology by her strong support for an unlimited right to abortion and so called marriage equality; while Trump refused to accept one of the most sacrosanct principles of American democracy, that is to respect the outcome of the elections (see attached article from Brookings). The right to life and democratic government both are rooted in the Gospel. Their rejection at the highest level in our oldest democracy is shocking, sad and dangerous for America, the West and the world. American Christians have nobody to vote for.
Attached is an important analysis on the decay of Syria. It should remind many commentators, that President Obama's decision not to bomb Syria in 2013 (cf. Obama Doctrine on this website) was after all the wisest decision. Yes indeed, Russia wants to be recognized as a super power and is bombing its way into that status over the ruins and victims in Aleppo, to end up with a foothole not in Assad's Syria and the Middle East but in mountains of rubble. The other game of breaking communication with the U.S. and even interfering in the U.S. election campaigns, will also be self defeating. One does not earn a lasting reputation as a major power by bombing and supporting the wrong clients.
A new US-Russian effort to impose an armistice in the Syrian Civil war, reached last Saturday is not likely to achieve much. I urge readers to read the attached report of Amnesty International; to realize that the war in Syria has made 500.000 casualties in addition to the victims of torture; and to be aware that more than 5 million people are refugees. The impotence of the so called international community is shocking. Instead of bombing, training, sending weapons and giving other military support to one of the fighting parties, diplomats and politicians should have learnt from history that this is not the way to end a civil war. There are no legitimate parties in this civil war, qualified to receive support. The Assad regime has been and is an illegitimate terror regime.The various opposition militia's are no better. Only an international agreement to stop any kind of support to any of the fighting parties might make an armistice effective.