Can the US Ever Recover from the Trump Era?

by Nomad

There's no question that Trump has left his mark on America. Nobody could argue with that.
As we steel ourselves for horror show election of 2020, it is not too early to reflect on what Trump has already done to America.

The Symptom and the Cause

In terms of US foreign policy alone, this administration has been an utter disaster. Take foreign policy, as Professor of Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins University, Eliot A. Cohen, observes:

[The] surface-level calm of the last two years should not distract from a building crisis of U.S. foreign policy, of which Trump is both a symptom and a cause. The president has outlined a deeply misguided foreign policy vision that is distrustful of U.S. allies, scornful of international institutions, and indifferent, if not downright hostile, to the liberal international order that the United States has sustained for nearly eight decades.

It goes deeper than upending the world order.

Diversion: The Observations of Daniel Koren

by Nomad

Time for a distraction from politics.

Daniel Koren is an Israeli musician, comedian and director, now living in Brooklyn. 

With his quirky point of view, 35-year-old Koren has not abandoned the wonder we once felt as children. His Youtube videos have received hundreds of thousands of views. 

I have chosen five videos from his online collection. There's the euphoric "Enjoying Stuff" - a guide to finding your snatch of happiness, and "Benches" - where Koren finds the greatest show on Earth. His video called "The Thing about Dogs" is heart-breaking and "Cactus"- a treatise about what emotional pain can do starts out ok but then completely falls apart because of a detail.
Hope you enjoy Daniel's ideas as much as I did. 

Sanity Sunday - Laid-Back Lounge Music

by Nomad

In the wake of yesterday's demoralizing and tragic news, I thought we needed a bit of a diversion. In this case, I selected lounge music, songs from another era. A time when people didn't have to worry about being shot while Saturday shopping or a night out at a local bar.   

Highlights from the Second Democratic Debate

by Nomad

Highlights from the First Half

Highlights from the Second Half

LIVE: Mueller Testimony Before Congress

by Nomad

This Livestream kicks off at 7:40 a.m. EDT with a breakdown of the major findings and moments from Mueller's report.

PBS coverage of Mueller's testimony begins at 8:30 a.m. in a House Judiciary Committee hearing, and continues at noon with a House Intelligence Committee hearing.

Update:  The PBS livestream doesn't appear to be active. I will be switching to ABC News instead.

America Circa 2019

by Nomad

Obsolete Ideals: The Truth Behind Putin's Eulogy for Western Liberalism

by Nomad

In Conflict with the Majority

Quite a few eyebrows were raised recently when President Vladimir Putin, in an interview with the Financial Times, declared that Western liberalism and its values were "obsolete" and have been rejected by the majority of the people in Western nations.

Much like Trump during his campaign, Putin talked about migrants running amok who are allowed to "kill, plunder and rape with impunity." Every crime, he declared, must have its punishment.
(Unless, of course, you happen to be an oligarch with lots of bigly connections.)

Good News Round-up for July 2019

by Nomad

Thought you might like a break from the Trump News.
The theme of this collection of good news stories is not scientific developments or large scale efforts to right some man-made wrong.

Rather, these are stories on a smaller (but no less significant) calibration: personal acts of charity and courage that have made or are making a difference in the lives of strangers.

Four Political Cartoonists Weigh In on the Migrant Children Fiasco

by Nomad

This month, the editors of the New York Times' decided to close down all political cartoons from its newspaper. That decision came as a result of a controversial cartoon critical of Benjamin Netanyahu and which some considered anti-Semitic. Here's the item in question. Judge for yourself.

The elimination of this feature sparked widespread protests with one cartoonist calling it “chickenshit and cowardly.”

This move by the NYT actually follows a long term trend. As one source notes:

A 2012 report by The Herb Block Foundation found that there were fewer than 40 editorial cartoonists with newspaper-staff jobs in America, a steep decline from more than 2,000 such positions in the beginning of the 20th century. 

Sanity Sunday - Soul Mix

by Nomad

Thought I would drop a Sanity Sunday on you today. The theme is soul groups from the early 70s. The period linking soul and the disco era produced some fantastic music.

Populus vult decipi: How Another Trump Supporter Finally Sees the Light

by Nomad

During the 2016 election campaign, Kraig Moss followed Donald Trump all across the United States singing his praises- literally. Following the candidate from rally to rally, Moss strummed his guitar and belted out his pro-Trump ballads. He even recorded a CD with hits that included Save Our Nation, Build the Wall and Trump Train.

Images from the Hong Kong Protests

by Nomad

Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents took to the streets in mass demonstrations against a proposed extradition law that would allow residents to be tried in mainland China.

Empathy on Trial: Trump Admin Targets Those Who Help the Undocumented Stay Alive

by Nomad

A controversial case in Arizona illustrates the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy on humanitarian assistance for undocumented migrants.

Humanitarians on Trial?

A jury in Tucson Arizona went to deliberations on Friday in the criminal trial of Scott Warren. Warren, a volunteer for the humanitarian aid organization No More Deaths, is charged with two felony counts of harboring illegal immigrants and one count of conspiracy to transport the two men. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

Lunatic President: Donald Trump, the Moon and Fox News

by Nomad

Trump's Gibberish about NASA

Last Friday,  President Trump sent a tweet about NASA that had a lot of people screaming into their pillows.  

For all of the money we are spending, NASA should NOT be talking about going to the Moon - We did that 50 years ago. They should be focused on the much bigger things we are doing, including Mars (of which the Moon is a part), Defense and Science!

Almost every news outlet focused on the Mars /Moon confusion- which was probably more of a problem with Trump hackneyed phrasing than anything else. Trump (probably) does not believe Mars is a part of the Moon but part of the "bigger things we are doing."
But that very generous interpretation opens a new can of worms for Trump.

Backlash from the Past: One Angry Ex-Reagan Supporter Turns Her Back on the GOP

by Nomad

Sanity Sunday - In Memory of Leon Redbone

by Nomad

On Thursday of this week, news came that singer-songwriter Leon Redbone had passed away at the age of 69. He has been called "perpetually anachronistic," "mysterious" and "a man out of time, a vaudevillian who tottered along in a television age."

Will Deepfake Technology Become the Ultimate Weapon in the Disinformation War?

by Nomad

Last week, there was a lot of agitation made about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's faked video. If you missed it, a viral video emerged on social media which- through digital manipulation- appeared to show Pelosi three sheets to the wind.
As a method of digital deception, the video was, in fact, extremely crude but apparently sophisticated enough for most Trump supporters.
And if Trump tweeted it, it had to be true, right?

Sanity Sunday: Middle Eastern Gypsy Jazz of Mohammed Rashid

by Nomad

Video: When Abortion was Illegal- The Untold Stories

by Nomad

Three Surprisingly Good News Stories on Tackling Climate Change

by Nomad

For good reason, climate change has been called “challenge of our generation.” Experts have been warning us that the possibility that a runaway warming of the planet will make vast areas of the planet uninhabitable is real. And the window of opportunity is slowly closing. The world needs US leadership on the issue. Unfortunately, the only thing America seems to have to offer is Donald Trump.
In the midst of this glum forecast, we can still find some positive signs.

Paying the Price: Why American Farmers Have Become Trump's Trade War Casualties

by Nomad

There are always casualties in war, even in trade wars. As tit-for-tat tariff hikes between Trump and China begin to spin out of control, US farmers are already starting to feel the pinch. And it is likely to get much much worse.

Looking back at Alistair Cooke's "Letters from America"

by Nomad

A Letter from Home

Many many years ago, when I first came to Turkey, I lived in a small and very conservative town. Those first two years were not easy ones and I often felt as isolated and lonely as a space explorer. I was very likely not only the sole American in town, but the only foreigner.

Even though I never mentioned it to my kind hosts, I often craved the sound of a speaker without a Turkish accent. I had to travel two hours by train to Istanbul just to purchase an English book or a cassette of American music. Letters from my parent took two weeks - or more- to arrive.
As far as official news from home, a civil war could have broken out in the states and I would have been none the wiser.

Why Trump's Evocation of Executive Privilege is a Doomed Act of Desperation

by Nomad

Trump's decision to use executive privilege to defy Congress is a last ditch effort to escape accountability. If history is any guide, it is unlikely to succeed.

Contempt

This week, Attorney General William Barr joined the list of Trump administration officials who have thumbed their noses at Congress by threatening to stonewall House committee oversight.

After a disastrous testimony before Congress, the House Judiciary Committee threatened to hold Barr in contempt for refusing to comply with a subpoena for special counsel Robert Mueller’s unredacted report. Said Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), the chairman of the committee.

“Yes, we will continue to negotiate for access to the full report. And yes, we will have no choice but to move quickly to hold the attorney general in contempt if he stalls or fails to negotiate in good faith."

Good faith was clearly in short supply.

Where 2020 Candidates Stand on a Possible Trump Impeachment

by Nomad

Sanity Sunday - Nomad's Chill Mix No. 2

by Nomad

No doubt about it: for anybody following US politics, this has been an exhausting and demoralizing week. We have had front row seats to the dismantling of institutions that we once believed were the safeguards to the American Republic.
And next week is not likely to be any better.

Why the Trump Administration Threatened to Veto a UN Resolution on Wartime Rape

by Nomad

Ever since the human species climbed out of the jungle trees and began throwing rocks at one another, one of the recognized spoils of war was pillaging of the villages, the looting of the valuables and the raping of the women.
For those who subscribed to the adage that might makes right, it was only logical that the weakest should pay the price of the barbarian conquest. 

Throughout our history, women were always at particular risk of sexual victimization during conflict. "To the victor go the spoils" has long been a war cry, and female bodies generally have been classified as part of those spoils of war.

Sanity Sunday - The Music of Schubert and Brahms

by Nomad

For this Sanity Sunday, I want to go back to the Romantic period which is always good for a little mental palate cleansing.

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Dying at the age of 31, his musical career was short and yet he left the world with quite a legacy. That included "more than 600 secular vocal works (mainly Lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large body of piano and chamber music."