Opinion
Trump changed many things.
U.S. media outlets will now point out when a president is lying. If that policy holds consistently, we’ll never have a war again.
Congress will now vote to end a war (Yemen) and a president will veto it. If Congress can repeat that on a monthly basis, and the president not veto, we’ll end a lot of wars.
Top military officials will openly laugh about tricking a president into believing he’d withdrawn more troops than he really had from a war (Syria). If presidents or Congress or the public should develop any outrage over that, we might be in good shape. If not, we could be in trouble.
The world can no longer as easily deny the selfish, destructive motivations behind U.S. imperialistic behavior, even if a new president dresses it up more politely.
Sign + Share - #ReuniteUS!
Issa Sao turned 40 last week. It was a sad day, with his wife and kids back in Ohio. Issa was deported to Mauritania in 2018, and then fled to Senegal to find safety again. But with the incoming Biden-Harris administration, Issa hopes his family will be able to reunite one day soon.
Join us in petitioning the Biden-Harris government to reunite Issa's family and so many others! Sign the petition here, and share it with your networks.
Another friend whose husband was deported to Mexico said: "I got my new President and new Administration. Let's get ready to rumble!" She's ready, and so are we! #ReuniteUS
A terrible anti-protest bill was introduced in Ohio. Text is here: https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/legislation-documents?id=GA133-HB-784
Among other things, HB 784:
· Creates steep new penalties for interfering with or blocking traffic during an unpermitted protest.
A new term has imposed itself on the conversation regarding the impending presidency of US President-elect, Joe Biden: “The Total Reset”. Many headlines have already promised that the Biden Presidency is ready to ‘reset’ US foreign policy across the globe, as if the matter is dependent solely on an American desire and decision.
While a ‘total reset’ is, perhaps, possible in some aspects of US policies - for example, a reversal of the Donald Trump Administration’s decision to abandon the Paris Agreement on climate change - it is highly unlikely that the US can simply reclaim its position in many other geopolitical battles around the globe.
I’ve been a movie fan since childhood and by the time I got to Manhattan’s Hunter College, I’d already seen countless pictures. Majoring in cinema there I devoured copious amounts of cinematic offerings, and then as a professional critic and film historian I’ve gone on to watch an incalculable number of movies. I mention this because there are scenes in writer/ director Sergei Loznitsa’s Donbass – for which he was awarded the Cannes Film Festival’s “Un Certain Regard” accolade – that in all likelihood I’ve never ever seen before on the silver screen.
So here’s an odd, mostly overlooked scrap of recent news: Donald Trump wants to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq before he leaves office, and is expected to announce a drawdown of troops in both countries.
Currently there are approximately 4,500 troops in Afghanistan and 3,000 in Iraq. The drawdown would leave 2,500 troops in each country.
Even Mitch McConnell is aghast!
In a speech from the Senate floor this week, he said: “We’re playing a limited — limited — but important role in defending American national security and American interests against terrorists who would like nothing more than for the most powerful force for good in the world to simply pick up our ball and go home.”
Belgium is furious. On November 6, the Belgian government condemned Israel’s destruction of Belgian-funded homes in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank. Understandably, Brussels wants the Israeli government to pay compensation for the unwarranted destruction. The Israeli response was swift: a resounding ‘no’.
The diplomatic row is likely to fizzle out soon; neither will Israel cease its illegal demolitions of Palestinian homes and structures in the West Bank nor will Belgium, or any other EU country, receive a dime from Tel Aviv.
Welcome to the bizarre world of European foreign policy in Palestine and Israel.
The era of Trump irrelevancy has dawned, and too many people are slow to see the light. No matter what Trump has the nerve to do now, none of it is likely to matter much, since the man has so little real nerve. The presidential election is effectively over, and now we’re going through the formalities. So get Trump out of your head! He had no business being there in the first place.
Two important provisos: (1) Keep an eye on what he and his family steal between now and January. The Biden administration should be prepared to try to recover the millions (or billions) of ill-gotten Trump gains from public pockets. (2) And keep an eye on his destructive appointments and policies. For now, he can do whatever any president could do, but all of it (or most) can be easily reversed soon after January 20. The Biden administration has to have the will and the courage to make the undoing quick and thorough.
November 16, 2020
It is essential to the Biden administration that Democrats control the Senate.
For that to happen Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff must be elected to the U.S. Senate in the run-off in Georgia on January 5, 2021.
Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen (left) and his wife Janet Langhart Cohen (center) meet with King Mohammed VI, of Morocco, at his palace in Marrakech, on Feb. 11, 2000. Cohen and the King agreed to open an expanded security and defense dialogue, and discussed ways that Morocco could expand its leadership role in promoting regional stability in the Mediterranean and on the African continent. DoD photo by R. D. Ward. (Released)