Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment and the Trump Era’s Republicans

Ronald Reagan was a complex character, worthy of deeper research, not offhanded calumny. His complexity was so great that even his widely acclaimed biographer, Edmund Morris, chose to depict him with a historical-novel approach incorporating fictional elements. It’s sometimes hard to discern what is real and what is Reagan.  

History has judged that Reagan — the man, not the myth — saved Social Security and helped to end the Cold War. He was the right man at the right time to prepare the United States geopolitically for its peace dividend and unipolar moment. In 2004, Ronald Reagan rode into the sunset but it was still “morning in America,” thanks to him. 

National moods are subject to change. Shifting political tides can bring foul upwellings. The nation is now in a reflective, Afghan-loss, China-challenged, Ukraine war-induced and pandemic-polarized phase. At least one 2024 Republican presidential candidate says Reagan’s morning has turned to darkness. READ MORE

Jimmy Carter’s Last Triumph Could Be to Soothe U.S.-China Relations

Architects of peace leave legacies of honor and admiration. That’s why Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.  

Jimmy Carter meets Xi Jinping

Architects of global order also leave legacies. If there is one U.S. president besides Richard Nixon who remains admired in China today, it is Carter, who has now forsaken any more hospital admissions, preferring to live out the remainder of his days at his home in Plains, Georgia. His noble life, however, can create a new dawn for U.S.-China relations if Beijing prepares to honor Carter’s legacy and emulate the 39th president’s bold approach toward peace.  

Blessed are the peacemakers, the children of God, who eventually calls on us all to leave this earthly paradise. Death is both unavoidable and unwelcome. It is uncomfortable to ponder or predict. The timing of a person’s passing should not forestall planning for death or be considered an affront to a magnificent legacy. Journalists pre-write obituaries. Monarchies prepare succession. States plan options and opportunities. 

China should contemplate options to honor Jimmy Carter when he dies and, in the process, open today’s tightly shut door to dialogue with Washington. READ MORE

The U.S. Should Recognize Belarus’s Government in Exile

Vladimir Putin’s brutal war on Ukraine continues in the nation’s eastern Donbas region, threatening to spread south and west through Moldova into the pro-Russian breakaway state of Transnistria. Moscow’s forces are consolidating their military efforts along the Black Sea, with no credible peace talks on the horizon.

Amid this slog, Kyiv’s friends can do more than supply arms, intelligence, and prayers. America and her allies should open an aggressive diplomatic front on Russia’s isolated flank by recognizing a Belarus government in exile led by the dissident Svetlana Tikhanovskaya.

Challenging the legitimacy of Moscow’s client in Minsk will not only undermine the legitimacy of Russian troops occupying Belarus but will also buoy opponents of Putin’s ally, Alexander Lukashenko, who has allowed his nation to be drawn into the war on Ukraine. READ MORE

For Russia, It’s All About the Benjamins

Most Russians haven’t been affected by Western sanctions, but there’s one thing the U.S. Treasury can do to put real political pressure on Vladimir Putin—immediately stop circulating and honoring $100 bills in Russia.

Rather than investing in a retirement fund, ordinary and wealthy Russians alike protect their life savings by converting their rubles to dollars and stashing them at home. Russian ruble volatility and U.S. dollar security and stability have made American currency a preferred savings mechanism. For years, Russians’ bill of preference has been the $100. As of 2019, more than 661,500 pounds of $100 bills were in Russia—many of them stashed in lumpy mattresses and home-sewn money belts. That’s $31.5 billion. READ MORE

‘Navalny’ is a reminder of San Francisco’s outsized human rights role

Castro Street is the world’s most generous stage for the daily live performance of San Francisco free expression. It is where America’s gay rights movement found fertile ground and where people from across the USA can land and find a community that celebrates brave individuals who may elsewhere be oppressed.

For this reason, it was appropriately symbolic that the San Francisco premiere of the documentary “Navalny” was screened at the Castro Theatre as part of the S.F. International Film Festival. The film is about imprisoned Russian dissident Alexei Navalny and his struggle against the corrupt and criminal regime of Vladimir Putin.

Navalny’s daughter, Dasha, was at the Castro with the film producers to view and discuss the extraordinary and thriller-like documentary. The film follows Navalny’s activities, from his full-throated political opposition to his poisoning, and then, while recovering from the poisoning in Germany, his preparation to return and continue to fight for justice in Putin’s Russia — landing him again in prison. It is now viewable on CNN. Watch it! READ MORE

Putin’s War on Ukraine and the Perversion of the Letter “Z”

The Russian dictator has stripped Ukraine bare and stolen a symbol of freedom and hope.

The filmmaker Costa-Gavras immortalized the symbol Z as a protest cry for freedom and against military dictatorship and violence. His 1969 Oscar-winning movie of that name starkly dramatized the 1963 murder of the Greek opposition leader Grigoris Lambrakis by right-wing extremists.

Protests against both Lambrakis’s murder and the sham trial that followed crystallized in the form of a letter: Z. Athenian buildings were spray-painted with Z graffiti; illegal gatherings throughout Greece were punctuated by loud cries of “Z!” When pronounced as zée, the letter in Greek means “He lives.” “Z!” was a raised fist of rebellion, and it also meant “Hope lives.”

No more.

In Vladimir Putin’s Russia, with its perverse up-is-downism, the letter Z has been appropriated to represent ethnonationalist militarism, death, and destruction. READ MORE

Markos on The Jim Bohannon Show

Belarus is not a passive actor in the War on Ukraine - it is an accomplice.

The country is also a Russian vassal state.

Listen to Markos talk about Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and more during his one hour interview with Jim Bohannon's 4/1/22 show.

From Ukraine to Venezuela, people are fleeing their homes and becoming weaponized refugees

Refugees are daily streaming over borders to neighboring countries and adding to what is already the world’s largest refugee crisis. The country they are fleeing is embattled, violent and experiencing extreme shortages of medicine and food.

This is not Ukraine. It is Venezuela.

While Ukraine is undergoing invasion, Venezuela continues to suffer erosion. In both cases, people seeking survival are fleeing these two countries. In Europe, they are escaping armed invaders and rocket attacks; in Latin America, they are rushing from societal collapse. READ MORE

What Zelensky means for world democracy

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky came to America a few months back to cajole and plead for support — both military and political. He saw the storm coming. It is now a Putin-driven hailstorm of rockets and bullets raining down on cities and civilians. Urban residents have gone from sheltering-in-place against COVID to picking up arms to fight in the streets. Europe is again embroiled in a war that will not end all wars.

San Francisco feels a million miles away from today’s shooting and mayhem. Yet when Zelensky came to visit President Biden in September, he made a pilgrimage to America’s largest Ukrainian community: California. He gave a critical speech warning of Russia’s intentions at Stanford’s FSI center, the academic home of Mike McFaul, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia. READ MORE

Meet Vladimir Putin’s Biggest Accomplice in His War on Ukraine

Belarus’s dictator, Alexander Lukashenko, has turned his country into a Russian vassal state. It didn’t have to be this way.

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is criminal on multiple counts, but some of them should be leveled at one of his main accomplices: Belarus’s dictator, Alexander Lukashenko. 

Image: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko speaks during a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin following their meeting, in Moscow, Russia on February 18, 2022. (Sergey Guneev / Sputnik via AP)

Russia’s military is executing an unprovoked and unprecedented attack on a peaceful neighbor on many fronts, from the air and sea. The land war, however, would not be as effective or lethal were it not for Lukashenko providing a front along Belarus’s southern border, not far from Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. 

Indeed, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky put it bluntly—Belarus is “not neutral,” he said—when weighing potential negotiations in the country’s capital, Minsk. “Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Istanbul, Baku—we proposed all that to the Russian side,” he said. “Any other city would work for us, too, in a country from whose territory rockets are not being fired.” Belarus is, in fact, far from neutral. It is complicit with the Russian attacks, and Zelensky has reckoned that any negotiations on its land would be on enemy territory. 

READ MORE

Ukraine’s fate could renew a race for weapons of mass destruction

Regret is what Ukrainian leaders must be feeling these days, as Russia amasses troops along the border. There’s nothing that says “keep your hands off my territory” like fully armed, nuclear-tipped weaponry — the sort that Kyiv surrendered shortly after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Now officials have no nuclear option to deter an invasion.

The international community should be careful how it lets this play out. Nations that still have access to weapons of mass destruction will draw conclusions about whether to cling to those armaments at all costs. READ MORE

MLB's All-Star Game can save Taiwan

Major League Baseball just missed a great opportunity to seed new markets, build its brand and address growing anti-Asian sentiment in the United States. Instead of moving its all-star game from Georgia to Colorado, it should have taken this summer’s game farther afield to a surprising new venue: Taiwan. READ MORE

Our freedoms come at a cost, one that Americans still are willing to pay

Elections are really complex accounting practices. It’s not just a final vote count that is fraught and difficult. Citizens going to the polls must consciously make multiple personal calculations: Will taxes rise? How much should individuals pay for healthcare? Must we spend heavily on defense?

In America’s democracy, we also reckon — often unconsciously — what we are willing to pay for our fundamental liberties. What is the price of freedom? It seems like a straightforward question. The answer, however, is anything but simple.

The desire for freedom has deep historical roots. Philosophers have forever talked about free will and the nature of liberty. In the modern era, American colonists fought a revolution to be free from oppressive “taxation without representation” levied by the British crown. READ MORE

“A Christmas Carol” — Courtesy of the Chinese Navy

What happens when China decides to dominate the world’s semiconductor chip production by taking over democratic Taiwan? A look at the not-so-distant Christmas-future…

Christmas Eve, 2020—President Trump is still loudly contesting the November election results in courtrooms and the media. The Electoral College chose Biden-Harris after several red-state electors defected, justified by an overwhelming national popular vote for the Democratic ticket.

The newly elected Democratic Senate is days from taking over, and Mitch McConnell is rushing through last-minute judicial appointments. McConnell is also busy finalizing legislation giving the Executive sweeping policing powers in the face of daily national demonstrations protesting the election outcome. Growing street confrontations are cited as the reason the outgoing president deployed the National Guard to major cities nationwide. READ MORE

Where in the world would Trump go if he lost and left the country? He’s got options

Losing an election can be tough. President Trump has publicly mused that being defeated could be so devastating it could cause him to leave the country.

Anyone who was conscious in 2016, however, will know that election predictions and polling numbers are not the same as Electoral College outcomes. Anything can happen. In short, Trump will not be calling a travel agent anytime soon.

If, however, Joe Biden does become the 46th president of the United States and Trump starts seriously thinking about self-imposed exile, where might he go?

The possibilities are endless. But desirable destinations are few and far between. As he looks at the map and tries to find a place to land, he might want to see where other fallen leaders have trod.

Some of his contemporary foreign colleagues struggle to hold onto power, many have planned an emergency exit strategy and keep an eye on the door — just in case they suddenly need to skedaddle. READ MORE