Sunday, April 3, 2022

On Our "Virtual Route 66" In the World This Week



 



A New quarter is before us.   It has been a very challenging week in our World evermore.    Our team chose images of hope from ancient Iran that we found quite beautiful to headline our quarter as spring is in the air and as over 20 countries around the world celebrated the ancient celebration of Nowruz.

As we went to press with this first edition of "Virtual Route 66" for the New quarter, we were assessing the situation in Pakistan as the current Prime Minister, Imran Khan, faces a vote of no confidence after potentially losing the biggest province, Punjab.   We have also been assessing the ongoing negotiations on Iran's Nuclear Deal which seems to have entered a dead zone yet again.   We have also been continuing our daily assessment of the ongoing War in Ukraine as we saw reports attributed to Ukrainian Officials whereby negotiations on a  peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine are at an "Advanced Stage" as Russians apparently are switching focus to the South in Ukraine.    This is as we have also been seeing reports of War Crimes committed by Russian Forces which our team will continue to assess.    India and China seem to be standing by Russia's side.   In addition, as we went to press, We also reviewed reports that the Russians have said they will halt their participation in the International Space Station.   Key elections loom in France (where President Macron noted he might lose) and Hungary over the ensuing weeks.    This is as elections are on tap in Brazil and the Philippines.   Furthermore, as we went to press, Iraq continued its' political paralysis due to Iranian-backed factions refusing to attend the parliamentary session to elect a President who would in turn name the Prime Minister.  One bright spot in our World, though, is the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.   The drawings for teams has been finalized and everyone awaits as the competition begins in earnest. 

Meanwhile Here in the United States, we have been assessing the ongoing probe by the House Committee on the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and what in our view was a coup to overturn the US Election of 2020.   We have also been following the nomination of Judge Jackson and the upcoming vote.  Based on our assessment, so far, we believe that she will be confirmed--albeit by the narrowest of margins.  This is as the US economy continued to create jobs (with an official unemployment rate of 3.6% and the staggering statistic that for every unemployed American, there are 1.6 job openings available).   The Biden Administration has presented its budget for the new fiscal year.       This is as the Primary Election season begins in earnest as we are seeing election signs even in our own community of Orange County.   

 We present a curation of the week that was courtesy of the team at Financial Times, The Washington Examiner, Defense One, The Marshall Project, Politico, and other leading thinkers and Media Players around the World: 


Today, Ukrainian soldiers recaptured the areas around Kyiv that Russian forces had taken early in the invasion. Retaking the territory, they found mined homes, executed civilians, and, in the city of Bucha near Kyiv, a mass grave of nearly 280 civilians. In the town of Trostyanets, the evacuating Russians defecated in the rooms of the police station and on a dead civilian outside.

The reported war crimes and atrocities have made it impossible to separate the Russian troops from Russian president Vladimir Putin. Their shared criminality will have the effect of solidifying Putin’s power by making all the Russians outcasts together as they have deliberately demonstrated they reject the western rules of war. As Russia expert Tom Nichols put it: “If Putin's goal was to cement his grip on power by making Russia hated for decades to come, well, congratulations, I guess.”

That Putin has taken as many as 400,000 Ukrainians to Russia as potential hostages as he tries to bargain his way out of crippling sanctions or into land concessions is cause for concern. Russian troops continue to bombard the valuable deepwater Black Sea port of Odessa.

Refugees fleeing Russia for Finland before the last train service between Russia and Europe ended last week told writer William Doyle of a population in Russia gradually coming to realize they have fallen under the iron hand of a dictator as the government cracks down on dissent.

“The problem is that there are many Russians who cannot admit our mistakes, cannot realize that we are trapped in a nightmare,” an art director told Doyle. “It’s much easier to watch TV and absorb the government propaganda. It’s easier to not think…. You have this vast country with many people who are poor and who have never travelled abroad. They are very isolated, with no communication, only their television. They work hard all day, come home exhausted and the TV is their only source.”

A business manager told Doyle: “It seems to me that a majority of people support [the war], but I am not sure. The government propaganda tries to make it seem that a majority support it, but I don’t know. None of my friends, none of the people I know support it.”

Another man talked of the sanctions squeezing Russia and said: “As a consequence of believing the lies and spreading the lies on a national scale, maybe some Russian people will see that they won’t have any of these nice, good, warm, cozy comfortable things coming from the West anymore…. Maybe,” he said, “they should reconsider their attitude toward the propaganda they are listening to from the TV set.”

At home, CNN has reported more news about the gap of seven and a half hours in the White House diary and phone logs from the crucial hours of the January 6 insurrection. It turns out that about two weeks ago, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol interviewed the person in charge of compiling the president’s diary record.

In order to compile that official record, the White House diarist normally gets information from the Secret Service about the president’s movements, the phone logs from the switchboard, and the records from the Oval Office, including phone calls, visitors, and activities.

That record-keeping system was in place until January 4, 2021, but by then the plot to overturn the election was in high gear. Yesterday, the January 6 committee revealed a text message to Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows dated January 3, saying: “I have details on the call that [trade advisor Peter] Navarro helped convene yesterday with legislators as part of his effort to get Pence to delay certification…including that the president participated….”

That call appears to have been reported at the time as including “nearly 300 state lawmakers” who were provided with resources to use “as they make calls for state legislatures to meet to investigate the election and consider decertifying their state election results.” An article about it stated: “A similar briefing is being scheduled in Washington, D.C., at the request of Members of Congress.”

On January 3, lawyer John Eastman wrote his memo outlining a plan for then–Vice President Pence to overturn the election results.

That night, Trump’s public schedule for the next day, tweeted by CNN’s Daniel Dale, read simply: “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings. The president will depart the White House at 6:10PM for a victory rally in Dalton, GA.” One of those “many meetings,” was with Eastman, Pence, Pence’s counsel Greg Jacob, and Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short to show Pence and his team the memo. Pence (who would have been the fall guy if the plan blew up) said he had no power to do what they were asking him to do.

Trump’s published schedule for January 5 was even shorter. It read: “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings.” On that day, the information for the White House diary stopped abruptly. In a dramatic departure from normal operations, on the 5th the diarist didn’t get any of the normal information.

Trump’s schedule for January 6, published the night of the 5th, read again: “President Trump will work from early in the morning until late in the evening. He will make many calls and have many meetings.” This time, though, it added: “The President will depart for the Ellipse at 10:50AM to deliver remarks at a Save America Rally.”

They were just little things, those silly schedules and the articles about some deluded plan to decertify the state election results, littler than the many other norms Trump had broken. They were easily ignored or explained away by those who supported the president as well as by those just eager to see him gone. And yet, it turns out we should have been paying better attention: they were the signs that we were on the verge of losing our democracy.

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1 APRIL 2022

 


Israel and the UAE complete negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement

Saturday, April 2, 2022

Notations From the Social Grid (W-End Edition): Out & About in Our World This Week


As we gear up for the new quarter of engagements in our World, we begin with a brief snapshot of what happened in our world this week: